The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-12
MONDAY. DECEMBER 19, 1870.
PENNSY vi VANTA RAILROAD SrOCR


peated in an unusually emphatic form, and it
derives certain air of plausibility from the
fact that eight thousand shares, formerly
owned by the city of Philadelphia, we're re-
Gently sold in one lot to Gothamite pur-
ohasers That such sales should occur is not
at all extraordinary. New York is a great
railway share market, and when her specula-
tors are tired of buying and selling worthless
or overpriced stocks, it is not surprising
that they should invest in the shares of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which, if We
consider the vast amount of its property and
the brilliancy of its prospects, are much
through lines. 1t is alleged, however, that q
deeper motive than that of finding a profit
able investment or a promising speculation
has prompted some of the late purchases,
and that scheme is on foot to gobble up
controlling interest in the Pennsylvania Rail
road, to revolutionize its management, and to
run it hereafter exclusively in the interests of
the city of New York. We fancy that this danger
is somewhat remote, and that it has not yet
become necessary to sound very loudly the
tocsin of alarm. 1t is possible, in an age
when Asa Packer owns half of the Lehigh
Valley, when a controlling interest in the
Reading Railroad is held by very small
number of persons, when Vanderbilt is
credited with the virtual ownership of the
New York Central when Fisk and Gould have
bagged the New York and Erie, that a small
knet of spectators may aspire to the control
of the Pennsylvania Central; but we
opine that they will have quite
good time in securing POS
session of majority of its stock. If,
however, by any combination of accidents,
such transfer should be effected, it is con-
jectured by some alarmists that Pniladel-
phia will speedily and inevitably be ruined.
We must confess, however, that we scarcely
understand why our merchants should tremble
in their boots over the transactions of the
stock market. All railways are run now,
like most other modern institutions,
to make money; and the chief differ
enoe between them is that while
one GLASS is managed for the benefit
of the stockholders, another class is
managed mainly for the pecuniary benefit of
the officers or managers, aud another class in
part for the enrichment of the officers and in
part for the enrichment of the stockholders.
If the Pennsylvania Railroad should fall into
the possession of spectators of the Fisk
and Gould stamp, stockholders might sigh in
vain for dividends; while if Vanderbilt bought
a controlling interest, ,shis fellow-stockholder
might have their interests as we'll protected
as at present But so far as the business
community of this city is concerned,
the day seems to have gone
forever when their special interests
could be paramount objects of solicitude
either with the present managers of the Penn
sylvania Railroad or their possible successors.
The railroad company has in time past, and
will probably in time to come, do what it
thinks best for itself, accommodating Phila-
delphia merchants as far as the business de-
rived from them can be made a source of
profit, but manifesting equal, or, if possible,
even greater, readiness to accommodate the
merchants of Baltimore and New York. The
great substratum of the pros
perity of the Pennsylvania Railroad
is the local trade and travel between Phila-
delphia and Pittsburg. This of itself affords
a sure and magnificent income; and the
numerous through-trade projects which ex-
tend beyond the confines of this Common
wealth derive their greatest vitality from the
act that they make the Pennsylvania Rail-
road formidable competitor for the through
business of New York and Baltimore as we'll
as that of Philadelphia. In this sense the
Pennsylvania Railroad has been for years
managed in a metropolitan spirit; and if
a change in its management occurs, we pre-
sumo that this portion of its policy would not
be materially modified. The merchants of
Philadelphia have mlde many complaints of
the indisposition of the existing management
of the Pennsylvania Railroad to exhibit spe-
cial regard for their interests, and they are
even now anxious to secure a reform in seve-
raj matters connected with freight charges,
so that, if their special wants cannot be
better served, they will care comparatively
little how soon our giant railways become,
like all other smaller corporations, the prize
of the highest and best bidder in the open
stock market. The present management
will scarcely be sustained through thick aud
thin as an indispensable adjunct of Phiadel-
phia interests unless it shows a deeper aud
more exclusive devotion to the special inte-
rests of this city than it has hitherto dis
played. Where the welfare of the road
and the interests of Philadel-
pbia ire identical, we do not
doubt that the present management does its
best for both parties; but in the various
questions where the interests of the road
prompt one policy, and the interests of this
city could be best promoted by another, the
welfare of Philadelphia becomes secondary
c, ,nsideration-and this is nearly the worst
that can happen under any coniectural man
fgtment which proved honest aud efficient.