New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-25
THE ROBBERS or ERIE COMING TO CREE

the notable Erie war, lul account VI "hion
is printed on our second page. The struggle
of the creditors, stockholders and others con-
cerned with the Erie Company and its vast
qualifications, reaching over other roads and
bestriding the country like cOl0ssus-a strug-
gle that now aims at no less an object than
the dispossesson of tho adventures who have
seized the road and are squandering its reve-
nues-has been going on for long time but
up to this day Fisk and Gould have found
means to evad0 that full and fair OK
position of their management when Is
due not only to every one pecu-
niarily interested in the road, but to the
public at large, for whose COMMUNICABLE
theory, at least-such monster corporations are
authorized. So long as legal operations were
undertaken in this city, the railway kings
found little difficulty in eyading or defying
inquiry into their actions. Judges and other
influential officers were at their beck and CALL
and no manner of process was permitted to
reach them But courts are not confined to
the Hobbies of the Grand Opera-House, nor
the granting and dssolving of injunctions to
brace of Tanmany Judges. The wheel has
taken another turn, and the often-baifled
supplcants for justice have changed the
venue from Twenty-third-st and Eighth-ave'
70 Delaware County--from Barnard to Judge
Murray.
In going over complaint covering ninety
pages, we find the main allegations OF ex-Sen-
ator James III. Ramsay-whO prays for the
suspension of Gould, Fisk. and others, and the
appointment of Receiver-to be theses De-
fault in paying the rent OF tho Buffalo branch,
to the peril of the Erie Company; that Mr.
Lane forced himself into the Board of Direc-
tors by purchase of proxies; that he and Mr.
Eldridge. who desired to change the manage
ment of the Company, for purposes of specu-
lation, "found 'one Jay Gould, who had had
some small railroad experience on little
"road near Lake Champlain, and one James
"Fisk, jr., then lately from Boston, where he
chad been carrying on some sort OF dry goods
business and then took them into their
" secrets IA being qualified for the attempt in
"hand; that the four conspired together
"to obtain and did obtain, by proxies,
for their own interests and those OF
" tho Boston, Hartford and Erie Road con-
"trol OF the election Of directors, and elected
"themseves, Mr. Eldrdge's brother-in-law, Mr.
"Eldridge's counsel. James s. Whitney, inter
"ested in the Boston road William Evans,
PRESIDENT in England, and others, directors, Six
:" of the old directors being left out; that
"thereupon Drew took UnderwoOds place as
Treasurer, and the bonds of the Boston road
"to the extent of five millions were guaran-
" teed that Eldridge and Gould were got into
1.-THE Executive Committee Referring TO the
rules and bylaws of the Company, the plain
tilr AYERS that nearly all Of them have been
systematically ignored or violated by Fisk and
a. k,, ha nj DrpalIpnt
Treasurer in Gould, and uniting the duties
of Auditor and Committee on Accounts
in Fisk; rendering the Vice-Presidents posi-
ton nominal; emitting reports from Treasurer
and Auditors usurping the powers OF Execu-
tive Committee and Directors; creating float
ing debt of S5,000,O0O; keeping directors and
stockholders in ignorance of the condition of
the Company, and by unauthorized issues of
bonds and stock That Gould and Fisk. in
spite of an Injunction forbidding such issue,
did secretly issue five millions of stock, which
they sold for four millions, and of this, $4,000
they never paid to the Company; that this
issue was decided TO be illegal, but they es-
capped with a nominal fine. The plaintiff fur
Their charges that Erie money was used
to bride q bill through the Legisla-
ture that vast sums of money of the Com
pany have been spent to protect Gould and
Fisk, to pay legal fees, and secure the influence
of the pIess, for all which only a general
voucher was filed; that Could Fisk and Lane
conspired to secure entire control Of the Com
pany, getting Eldridge out and putting Gould
in as President, Fisk as Controller and Lane as
| sole Counsel; that Lane was unequal to the
| position, and Gould paid large sums for other
lawyers; that no meetings of Directors were
held, and two members of the Executive
Committee were kept in ignorance
of its doings; that they have
paid Vanderbilt for his stock and sold it at
loss; "have devised plan for strengthening
:" their position and influence by arranging for
"the election Of Peter b. Sweeny and William
an. Tweed as Directors" and causing them
to be elected In 1865, Mr.. Tweed being elected
in 1869 that they prepared many millions of
convertible bonds for the purpose of issuing
stock to control the election of 1853, and made
sale, through Could without the knowledge
Of any member of the Committee that all the
! Directors were kept in the dark, and could not
tell within millions how many bonds or how
much stock was afoat; that Fisk, Gould, and
Lane have by fraud and vast expenditure de-
feated every effort to get at the facts, &c.
But we cannot go over the whole saddening
and shameful catalogue. 1t is charged that the
outstanding common stock Of the Company has
been increased, since Gould and Fisk obtained
| full power, from s34,265,0OO to the enormous
SUM of $4,000, 900, and that this startling
increase has not been attended with any ma
terial additions to the earnings with any con-
considerable extension of the line or Its equip