Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-11-02
Prom the London Railway News, sept. a.
Atlantic and Great Western--- Com
plete Success OF the Plan Of ReOr-
ganiZatiOn.

EMMlEAlAuua
We are glad to be in a position to
announce the complete success of the
preliminary steps which have been Ia
ken for the foreclosure and reOrgani-
ZatiOn of the Atlantic and Great West
ern Company. On Saturday last,
when the time fixed for receiving the
bonds and debentures expired, Messrs
BischOGsheim had in their actual pos
session about e7,0O0,000 of the secu-
rites of the company, and assents to
the scheme on the part OF persons who
had not deposited of upwards of El,-
600, sterling. The whole amount
of securities of the company out
standing, including the overdue cOu-
pOns, according to the official scheme
for the reorganization of the cOmpa-
ny, is 5S,3T2, $40 dolls, or ef1 ,674, $50.
Messrs. BischOfisheim and Gold
schmidt, possessed therefore about
fOur-fifths of the whole of the securi-
ties of the company. A small section
holding a majority of the first Ohio
bonds, about 1000, 900 dolls, and held
almost exclusively in Holland, have
hitherto opposed the plan, and pro-
posed a counter scheme by which the
consolidated hondhOlders were to be
cut down by 80 per cent. instead of
receiving payment in full as cOntem-
plated by the plan which has now re-
ceived the sanction of the majority Of
holders of other securities. The rep
resentatives of this party in America,
finding that holders Of bonds prefer
red payment in full to reputation,
and that all their attempts, aided by
the Erie directors, failed to secure as
cent to the principle Of confiscatiOn
which they propOunded, have now
withdrawn their opposition, and a
large portion of the certificates issued
by the Dutch committee, as well as Of
the first Ohio bonds, have already
been sent in for conversion. For the
purpose Of atfOrding time to these and
other holders who have not yet sent
in their securities, the books are to be
reOpened next week, when it is eX-
pected the whole of these bonds will
be deposited. AIessrs. BischOffsheim
and the trustees will therefore have
obtained practically in the assents and
deposits the unanimous approval Of
the creditors to the plan Of cOnver-
sion and reorganization.
We may now, therefore, fairly con-
gratulate the bond and debenture.
holders upon the prospects Of a speedy
resumption of those coupon payments
of which for nearly four years they
have been unduly and veXatiOusly de-
prived. It is unnecessary now to re-
count all the various struggles through
which the company has passed, or the
many uuprincipled attempts which
have been made by various parties to
secure the control and possession Of a
railway which properly conducted
should occupy a position second to
none in the United States. Suffice il
t. say, that all the deep-laid schemes
of the Erie and adjoining railways to
bring discredit upon the undertaking,
to annoy and disgust the bOndhOld-
ers, and induce them to throw away
their property have been frustrated,
and the railway will now in a few
months pass into the absolute pOsses-
sion and control of those who have
provided the means for its cOnstruc-
tiOn and maintenance. When reOr-
ganized, as it will be before the close
Of the present year, it will have at its
head one of the best and most expert
enced railway men of America-viZ.,
General MacClellan, and he viii be
ably assisted by a board in whom the
most implicit confidence may be
placed.
Assuming that the company obtain
Of the road, as anticipated
and there is now no reason to doubt
that the plan of foreclosure and reOr-
will be carried Quit may
be useful to point to a few facts show
ing the value of the Atlantic and
Great Western property. At the
present time the line is worked by the
Erie under temporary arrangements
until the foreclosure is obtained and
they pay to the receiver of the line the
paltry sum of 100, 900 dolls. per month,
is palpably incorrect
that this sum represents the net
of 507 miles of railway run
ming through the best portions Of the
three prosperous States Of New York,
Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and forming
a most important link in the cOmmu-
with the west. This ridieu-
lously small sum is still, however,
sufficient to pay the per cent. inter-
est on the whole of the first and sec
ond mortgage bonds of the company.
No returns deserving of the slightest
have been received from
the Erie Company during the three
years that they have usurped the con-
troll of the undertaking. From all the
accounts which reach US the road Is
now in excellent condition, and the
traffic which is now and has for some
time past been offering far exceed the
crooked and unsatisfactory returns
made by the Erie Company. There
is one fact which, even upon the show
ing of the Erie Company itself, affords
evidence that the earnings are greatly
understood. The Atlantic and Great
Western, for instance own 1881 cars,
and according to the figures given in
the last return they earned on an
average only ], ,4S7 dolls, while on the
Ohio and Mississippi, which is con-
tinuatiOn of this road neyOnd Cincin-
natl, the average earnings per car
were 1902 dolls; on the Cincinnati,
Hamilton and Dayton, which is a
of the Atlantic & Great
Western from Dayton to the Ohio, the
average earnings were 2,759 dollars.
The character Of the traffic is abso-
lutely the same upon these three
roads, the rates and fares are the same
upon the three roads, and yet we are
asked to believe that the cars OF the
and Great Western earn
200 dollars to I 800 respectively less
than upon their neighbOr's roads
the earnings per car to be
the same rs the average or these two
lines, the gross earnings Of the ATTAIN
tic and Great Western would exceed
the amount now actually paid over BY
the Erie by more than 1000, 600 dolls,
which amount would alone enable the
to pay within a fraction Of :
per cent. upon all the first, second and
third mortgages, as well as upon the
whole of the share capital of the COM
pany. These figures are Of so start
ling a character that they may well
excite incredulity, but at the same
time they afford the strongest posi-
bic evidence of the value attached to
the possession and control of the rail-
way by the Erie and other parties
with its merits, and
they also account for the desperate
and persistent efferts made to wrest
the property from the hands of the
present bond and debenture holders.
We stated last week that an official
connected with the Erie
COmuany had supplied US with some
returns showing the enormous value
Of the traffic upon the road and thai
his estimates were founded upon very
careful and extensive observation over
every part Of the system, but which,