Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1871-12-19
A Tighter Rein Over soaile,s Ger
poratiOns.
rFrom tho 8. F. Alta Of Sunday.l

hAS ~
The telegram from Sacramento states
| that 1.-THE San Francisco delegation
have in prospect and propose to frame
a bill for the protection of stockhold-
ers from designing Trustees. The
| bill, as now mapped out, will provide
| that one-third of the stockholders may
| petition to the County Judge for n
| meeting. and II, at the meeting to be
| so called, over one-half of the capital
Is represented, they may proceed to
business. They may Dust q Board OF
Trustees and appoint a new one, and
tho County Judge Is empowered to
issue to them certificates OF election
| and authority" All the details Of the
proposed biiF are not given, and the
full effect of It. If it should become a
law, cannot be estimated. It Is a sub
iect, however, which requires the
| greatest caution and elaboration In
It's treatment. The amount OF money
Invested In corporate associations Is
very large, and there are few persons
who are not interested directly or In
directly In the. manner In which they
are managed. The corporations are
| tho instruments by which capital Is
associated for the furtheranee Of im-
| portant enterprises which could not be
| effected by the exertions Of individuals.
Insurance companies, banks, savings
institutions, gas companies, factories,
| railways, roads, canals, mines, ETC.,
without which little progress in the
pursuit of prosperity could be made,
are all dependent on the encourage
ment given to capital to associate for
these purposes. The law seeks to con-
fine the action OF companies to the
objects for the prosecution OF which
they are formed. It endows the sub
scribers, or stockholders, with certain
privileges in their corporate capacity,
and imposes upon the trustees obliga-
tloas and responsibilities for the pro-
lection Of the stockholders. The trus-
tees, or directors, are usually chosen
by the stockholders, to serve for a
year, and are the free choice OF the
proprletors Of the undertaking to man
age for them. Any disssntient stock
holder can always sell out aud invest
elsewhere. 1t Is Of great Importance
that the trustees and officers should
not only be mcu of responsibility and
integrity, but that they should be IA
miliar with the Offices they undertake.
to manage. As a rule they do, and 1t
Is not often the case that changes are
made In the direction from year to
9 Nevertheless, there are cases
where great abuses creep into the
management, particularly OF mines, or
speculative properties; but these are
the exceptions.
1t il undoubtedly the case that some
times the interests Of stockholders are
sacrificed to the speculations Of trus-
tees In the stocks Of the companies
they ~mlsmanage, and 1t Is very deslra-
BILE that those evils should DO corrected.
But It Is of far greater Importance to
guard against opening the door 70
greater and more widespread evils
while seeking to close 1t against minor
ones. The project of law mentioned,
it appears to us, would have this effect,
not only in mining stocks, but In all
Others. It would make every joint
stock company liable to become the
prey, ut any moment, OF a ring"
who could control stock and proxies
enough to represent half the capital
at a stockholders meeting. The strife
and struggle for proxies IS quite active
enough now at the annual meetings;
but II those spectators who are now
SO conspicuous in the market could, by
a sudden and secret combination OF
stock and proxies, throw out a merlto-
rsous board and get possession Of any
company at short notice, there would
be no end to disastrous speculatlons.
No prudent man would invest his
money where, no matter what might
be the intrinsic value of the prop
erty, its very valne would tempt I'M
'serupulous spectators to combine to.
ssize II. It Is now known that no
mine whatsoever developes value but
counter-claims and law suits spring up
around it in the hands Of spectators
who either seek possession or black
mail. II tho law permitted a change
OF trustees the programme would only
be altered, and every discovery Of ore
would be a signal to fight for the trus-
teeship. The true projection to stock
holders Is to SEQ at the annual elections
that no man Is put In office who has
the faint Of speculation upon him.