The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-03-05

The Plots Of the Erie Ring nj Albany
| IL the Republican Legislature = Den Of
Thievess
| The latest rumors from Albany strengthen
the suspicion that the lobby agents of the Erie
Railroad have succeeded in buying up a
majority Of the republican reform Legislature
this session, as they bought up the republican
to destroy the twin Ring of Tammany will fail
unless the bribers and the bribed can be made
to realize the fact that no pains will be spared
to arraign them for their acts at the bar of
criminal court. The course to be pursued by
the friends of Gould and his associates is not
an open opposition to the reform measures
now before the Legislature, but the mutilation
of the bills and their passage in such shape
as will defeat their real object and leave the
men who are plundering the stockholders
and confiscating the property Of the road in
full possession of its management and funds.
The bill recently introduced by Assemblyman
Hustled, Of Westchester, Notwithstanding his
professions of hostility to the Classification act,
was precisely what was needed by the lobby
to enable them to carry out this conspiracy in
the service of the Ring. 1t is to be reported
to the Assembly in lieu of the O'Brien bill,
with a proviso that the. repeal shall not be
operative until confirmed by vote of the
stockholders, and a provision for the reduc-
ton of the stock of the company by, we be-
lieve, forty million dollars. The vote on the
question of repeal or no repeal is to be
taken on the reduced amount of stock,
and if the result be affirmative, then new
directors are to be elected.
There are to be provisions in the bill in
case Of repeal for fair election, for proper
control of the transfer books by the stock
all sounding well enough to the ear; but, as
the preliminary vote as to repeal is to be
decided under the management of Gould and
his fellows, these provisions are mere frauds.
The reduction of the stock will, of course,
occasion rise in Erie, and the bribery of the
legislators is to be covered up by pretended
operations on the market. This is the pro-
gramme as it reaches us from reliable
authority, and there is little doubt that, if not
correct in all its particulars, some very
similar plot is in progress at the State capital.
The people of the State of New York are
not to be deceived by any such flimsy frauds.
They have given to the republican party
three-fourths majority 10 both branches of the
Legislature, and have sent them to Albany
commissioned to complete the destruction of
the New York Tammany Ring and to destroy
it's counterpart and associate in rascality, the
Erie Ring. They know that the latter work
can only be accomplished in one way-by
wrestling the transfer books of the COM
pany from the INSCRIPTIONS hands of the
Ring, causing an honest election to
be held by the bona .fde stockholders
and turning out the men who have
lawlessly seized and lawlessly hold
possession of the road. No honest
Senator or Assemblyman will vote for any
less reform than this, with the few exceptions
of those who may be elected as known friends
of the present Erie directors, and are prepared
to vote boldly against any bill adverse to their
interests. When your genuine Artful Dodgers
prepare their bogus reform measures which,
while protesting to legislate' against the Erie
Ring, in reality leave them in full possession
of the revenues and management of the road,
the people know that they have been bought,
body and soul, by the Erie lobby, just as well
as though they saw them receiving their
money in a room at Stanwix Hall or counting
it over in the secrecy Of their own apartments.
Let the Senators and Assemblymen who
are now preparing to sell themselves to the
men who have debauched former Legislatures
be warned in time. The people are in earnest
on the subject of reform, and they will no
longer have thieves for their rulers and bribe-
takers for their lawmakers. The conspirators
who are now hiding from justice in foreign
lands, or awaiting trial as felOns believed a
few months ago that they had successfully
| covered up their tracks and were secure from
| the grasp of justice. Senator James Wood,
who is now at the head of the Judiciary CON-
mittee of the State Senate, did not dream last
have brought to light the fact that he had
"borrOwed" large sums of money of Gould
and Tweed, two of the Erie Ring directors,
| while member of the Senate and voting fol
their bills. Yet there is now more danger o.
exposure and punishment than there was 9
year ago, for keen and determined men are OF
the track Of the bribe-panders of the Stat
Capitol and are resolved to hunt them down
Nor can any legislator hope to escape b!
voting for mutilated bills known to be in the
interest of the notorious Erie Ring. If tn
present directors are to be brought to reckon
ing at all there can be no pretence Of neces
sity for half measures, and the members O
the Legislature who vote for such bills will b
known to have been bought just as much a.
| tho,cvh tbay had voted directlv IN retain th