New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-11-22
THE EEIR BILL-A LETTER TO TIE HON.
HORACE GREELEY.

THE ETJE BJLL-A LETTER TO TIE HON.
HORACE GREELEY
Mr.. GREELEY: | submit that you have
| continued your assaults upon Gov. Hoffman and
| tho Democratic party, In connection with the
| socalled Eric bill, quito as long rs Is consls-
| tent with either good taste or your reputation
for dealing fairly and honorably with your poht
zeal opponents Evidently, you are nsinformed, Doth
as to tho character Of the bill and the circumstances
under which 1t became law for 1t Is uncomfortable
that Won should persist in sgmatzing the act one
intended TO promote fraud and rapDe and the Cover
nor IA the tool OF knaves and robbers In signing II,
You had given the matter sufficient attention 10 possess
yourself OF the facts in the case. And then to hold the
| Democratic party responsible for tho measure Is u
shabby thing altogether Worse than that-you assert
cd that the law without precedent In tho Jurls-
prudence this any other country besides being ON
enormous affront to public morality.
Hero are three distinct specifications, every ono OF
| which | propose to show Is without foundation the
| coinage OF your BRAIN
First in regard to the character Of tho BILL 1t simply
provided that the Erie, the Central and the Hudson
River Railroads. might classify their Directors 80 that
the whole Board could not be changed Mt every elections
thus giving greater degree OF stability and perma-
nence the management Of the roads, The experience
Of trust companies and life insurance companies, and
others where large pecuniary interests are involved,
applied to their operations, and there IS no reason why
| it should not be equally beneficial when adopted by
railway corporations. And In these speculative times IL
might DC specially important to protect shareholders
against stock iobbing surprise, by the purchase or
proxies and other sinister designs OF scheming capi-
| As TO the party influence under which the bill was
carried through the Legislature, your assertion that IL
| know Tho Legislature decidedly Republican,
| branches. II was introduced in the Senate by Mr.
Chapman, Republican, upon unanimous consent consent OF
which Mr.. Campbell OF Oneida, Republican, of high
ehaIaGe was Chairman %o repSs scn afH yoted
against it on the third reading aud 1t passed the
Assembly by unusually large majority. . 49,
80 lar from being without precedent. either in this
country or In England, similar law existed ~ the nne
in Pensy yana, ONO Indiana. Illinois, and Wisconsin,
and the stautc-books of Great Britain contain an
enactment identical in principle with the socalieu
That it was proper that bill of this description.
paSeG nmuer suf Ia mrb gad Ice signed 5y Gov
Holman it to no candid man Will deny. Jk.
Comments by The Tribune.
The Sun gives place to the foregoing, but i'll
such n shame-faced way rs indicates desire
not to be held responsible for it. a few days
since, it copied from The Albany Argus gross
Impeachment of the honesty Of Mr. Greeley
"from an Old Whig" and wholly suppressed
Mr.. G.'s explicit contradiction of every charge
it contained, closing with challenge to sold
"Whign to unmask-with which that skulking
libeler has not chosen to comply. We must, there
fore, request The Sun to print the following
answer to its arraignment:
1. The devisers and real authors of "the
| so-called Erie billy were Messrs. Could Fisk,
| Tweed, and Lane, who, as Executive Com
"mittee" Of tho Board of Directors of the
Erie Railroad, arc practically the uncontrolled
managers Of that road.
2. Mr.. Tweed was ut the time leading
member OF the Legislature, and engineered the
passage of the bill.
3. The Object--the sole Object--Of this bill was
to enable the cabal aforesaid to retain posses
sion of the road, in defiance Of any effort of a
majority of the stockholders to turn them out.
H. This object, not being obvious from the
terms of the BILL was not apprehended by
many honest members of tho Legislature, who
voted for the bill or failed to vote against it
in ignorance of its purpose. Hence, it went
through the Senate without discussion, and
with but one vote (Alr. Folgers) recorded in
the negative.
8. But John T. Hoffman has no excuse. He
retained the bill after the Legislature had adj
journed, and signed it notwithstanding its
character had been fully exposed and its object
Indignantly reprobated. He not only signed
it, but accompanied the act with manifesto,
wherein it is expressly and emphatically COM
mended.
8. Though this act is in terms applicable to
several railroads, none but the managers of
the Erie have taken advantage of it. They
have organized under it, and so classed
themselves that Gould, Fisk, lane, and Tweed
aforesaid, win continue Directors (and of
course constitute the Executive Committed
for several years yet. In other words they
will possess and control the road, and the
stockholders cannot help themselves.
T. This road was paying dividends down to the
time that these parties bought the proxies which
enabled them to seize it, and its Common stock
was worth from GO to 10 per cent. It's Preferred
stock, on which dividends had been regularly
paid for years, was worth more than par.
Since the Fisk-GOuld combination got hold of
it, it has paid no dividends, not even on the
Preferred stock, while they have issued and
sold (or divided) some Twenty Millions of adj
ditional stock, and have run down the price of
the old from rs to less than 2j cents on the
dollar. And they do not even hold out a pros
pect of ever resuming dividends. We pre-
sumo they are purposely depressing the stock
to the utmost, with intent to buy in enough
OF 1t to enable them to reflect themselves.
g. Meantime, the annual elections of four or
five Directors IRE a moekery. The defrauded
stockholders are aware that to choose these
Directors would give them no real power,
that being monopolzed by the Executive
COMMITTEE" aforesaid, who are beyond their
reach and the closing of the books before