The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-04-22

| to be as necessary 10 the prosperity Of the
Erie Railway Company as the most successful
adaptation of improvements in the equipment
OF the road or an unusual and unexpected run
OF business from end to end of the line. But
litigation is expensive, especially when
INDUCED In to bolster up wrongs and to
screen from public odium and condemnation
the acts OF large monopolies whose service to
the public can only be compensated for by
virtual control and mastery of all rights, indi-
vidually and collectively, that said public
under any other circumstances would
possess or might assert The cost
to Erie Of the litigations in which
the company has been continuously en-
gagged for the last few years has more than
once, as an astounding item of news, been
published in the HERALD. Counsel who have
had the good luck to have been engaged
on either one side or the other of the contro-
versy have met with such windfall Of green
backs that retirement, even before the end is
reached, would be good thing for them, and
thus leave the field, if not to honester and
ADLER, at all events to younger and more needy
disciples Of Coke and Blackstone. But it
would seem as If a retainer given in an Erie
suit is retainer for life, if violence is not re-
sorted to for the purpose of getting rid Of an
advocate who would manipulate two strings to
his bow, or who should be suspected of such,
as illustrated in recent case charged to this
account
The phase given to one branch of this
contest in which Erie is put upon the defen-
sive, and Heath and Raphael, two English
holders of Erie stock, are the complainants in
the United States Circuit CoSrt. differs very
materially from any preceding course in Erie
suits. Heath and Raphael are non-residents,
being Englishmen, and thus the trial of the
cause in which they are concerned is brought
from the Supreme Court of the State to the
federal courts. Originally these plaintiffs
were defendants in an action instituted by the
Erie directors in the State courts, in which
Fisk s,Gould & Co. succeeded in retain
ing In their possession, or in that
of receiver appointed by the Court, sixty
thousand shares of stock of the Erie Com
pany held by English shareholders. Heath
and Raphael were not originally the holders
of all this stock, though subsequently, with
the consent of the other English shareholders,
they made an effort here to have it regi stered
in their joint name. Here comes the
hitch. Erie became alarmed at the con-
troll the registration in their name of so
large an amount of stock would give to these
two men, and some means must be at once
taken to neutralize it, or to deprive them
altogether of all power in the premises. To
this end an injunction was sued for to prevent
the registration of the stock in the name of
Heath and Raphael, Erie charging that these
stockholders were in league with Vanderbilt
and others, the enemies Of Erie, to disparage
the Erie road and to impair the con-
fdence of the public In its manage
ment. A receiver-Mr Coleman-was ap-
pointed by the Court, who thereupon
took possession of all the stock over sixty
thousand shares claimed by Heath and
Raphael. 1t is to recover possession of this
property that the present suit has been brought
in the United States Circuit Court. Judge
Blatchford at once granted stay of proceed
ings as to further action In the State conrts,
and made an order directing transfer of this
stock to Heath and Raphael or their solicitor.
But Jay Gould, of Erie, claims that he is the
owner of half the stock in question, and on
his application new receiver was appointed
for his share of the stock. Thus Mr.. Coleman,
the receiver, finds himself placed between
two fires. Under the act of Congress he Is an
officer Of the federal courts as well as Of the
court which appointed him its receiver, and in
order that he might come out Of the dilemma
scatheless he petitioned both courts to dis
charge him from the receivership and release
him from his bonds.
Erie, in its tactics in this campaign, has
been forced to break ground and to abandon all
their previously entrenched positions, and
Fisk and Gould, like other generals when
sorely pressed, have been compelled to &C
cept battle at the option of and on the ground
selected by their adversaries. Judge
Blatchford referred the whole matter of taking
testimony and making report to Master in
Equity Mr.. Kenneth G. White The case has
been going on for some time. In consequence
of the Instructions and barbados put up at
almost every step by Fisk and Gould and the
officials under them the advance is slow,
but it Is sure, and defeat to Erie, from the
present aspect Of the struggle, is inevitable.
Most important witnesses to the suit took
'lcg bail" the moment 1t was discovered they
were wanted to tell what they knew concern
ing the disappearance Of the Heath and Ra-
phael stock and the issuance Of three millions
of convertible bonds to cover deficiencies.
Some of these subordnates were only lured by
strategy from their hiding places and brought
into court raoIens oolens while others are still
non esd, lying en- perdu over in Jersey or off