Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-07-28
THE LI7TLE ROCK STOCK.

III
We think the Audldnehe is in error
in its statement of the difference be-
tween the loan offered the city on
stock collateral by the First National
Bank and that offered by Mr.. r. G.
BRINKLEY. The Bank does not pro-
pose to lend S112,0OO as stated by our
contemporary. On the contrary it
proposes to lend but SIS, 900 in two in
stallments, for which, and to guaran-
tee the payment of certain scrip and
ledger balances, amounting to $S7 600,
now held by the Bank and purchased
at perhaps forty cents on the dollar,
it requires that Memphis shall deposit
as collateral her Little Rock Railroad
stock, thereby forcing the city to treat
it as a preferred creditor and making
sure of having the notes which it
holds for interest, already compound
ed, paid in full. Mr.. BRINKLEY, on
the other hand, proposes to make a
loan of s25, 600 payable in November
and January, holding the stock
named as collateral security. AS
$25, 600 can be more easily paid than
S1I2,OOO, and as the city only needs
the former amount, and in her present
embarrassed condition cannot assume
so much as the payment of $97, 900
claimed rs due by the bank, We pre-
sumo the City Finance Committee
will either accept the offer of Mr..
BRINKLEY, or, as was rumored yes
terday, a similar one made by the
bank. The original offer of the First
National amounts, in our mind, to a
virtual cOnfiscation of the railroad
stock. 1t would be simply impossible
for the city to raise $4,000 be-
tween the first of November and first
of January to redeem it. What
ever of money is collected in
payment of taxes in that time
will be needed for the eur
rent expenses and pressing liabilities
of the city, so that nothing IA be ex-
pected from the treasury; and as, with
this collateral in soak, it would be i'm
possible to re-hypOthecate it for a sum
sufficient to redeem it, it would have
to fall beneath the auctioneer's ham
mer, and with it all control by Mem
phis of what it is proposed will be the
principal railroad of all that does now
or may hereafter center in this
locality. We say nothing about.
the question Of responsibility
which we Internationally raised
in a hurriedly written paragraph in
Sundays issue. So far as we know,
the First National Bank is as respon-
sible as any institution of the kind in
the country; we know that Mr..
BRINKLEY is as responsible as any
man in the State, and knowing his
interest in the city and the Little
Rock Railroad, are prepared to be-
lieve that he would not knowingly
lend himself to anything that would
advantage him or anybody else at so
heavy a cost to the city as the
sacrifice Of her stock in his
road. And while the same may
be true of the Bank, we are con-
strained to repeat that the original Of
fer made by it, if carried out in ever
so good faith, will inevitably lead to
the loss Of the stock to the city. Mind
full of the city's interests we protest
against any other hypothecation of
this stock than such as can readily be
liquidated on demand.
As to the question of Mr.. BRINK
LEY's Indebtedness for taxation we
have onlytO suggest that if the Tax
Collector will deal with him and all
delinquent taxpayers s has long been
threatened, by promptly enforcing the
rigors of a severe law, in perhaps a
months time it will not be in the
power of u contemporary to adj
vance such a plea as a reason for its
preference of the offer of the First Ma
tiOnal Bank. And this we hope will
be done.