The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-07-24


Total floating debt. .......... 1ls,404 81
Total admitted debt go. :. so, on, ,036 Sc
The disputed foallng debt was as follows:
| Loans in New York ............. $l6O,00O OO
Klmpton's account. ............... 1s2,86O So
Total. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. $685., $3.50 81
In ascertaIning the liabilities Of the com.
pany, the disputed claims were not to be in
cluded without an examination of the validity
OF those claims, and they would have been
very glad to have been allowed to show why
they did not admit those claims, but when try
ing to do 80 they had been constantly stopped
and embarrassed at every turn by the objec.
tions OF the counsel on the other side. They
had, however, got out of Mr.. Manson the tes-
timony that Kimpton's account was not cor.
rect. They also denied the Commercial Ware.
house Company's account President Magrath
had testified why they had rejected that: First,
because Patterson, who had no authority to do
so, had contracted the obligation; second, be-
cause the company had never received the
consideration for the debt; and, third,
because of the enormous rates of in
terest charged. Kimpton's account, he
claimed, was a fraud from beginning
to end. and fictitious, trumped.up
account. They had at least proved enough to
show that their objections to the claims were
not triatng nor presumptuous ones, and that
they were therefore such as should be enter
talned by the court. as to the assets of the
road, considering Its value In reference to It's
income, 1t had been shown that Its income for
six months had been s25l,oO0 aud its ex-
penses barely fifty per cent OF that amount,
go that it was fair to estimate its net income
for one year at fully $1,000 This would be
seven per cent. interest on nearly s3,000,000,
and by this calculation the value of the road
was certainly shown to be at least 50, 500, 900.
Under these circumstances 1t was absurd to
talk of putting the road into bankruptcy.
IT the road we're insolvent, then it
had been insolvent at any time
during the previous five years; yet, suspicious.
ly enough, Eot word had been heard about
putting the road Into bankruptcy until the
proceedings had been commenced In the
State courts against Its plunderers aud
thieves, and of all the men in the world, n.
q. KImpton was the one most interested In
putting it out of the power Of the directors of
the road to drag him before the courts.
Beslde.the above calculation, however, there
were other elements of value in the Greenville
and Columbia Railroad The value OF proper
ty was to be estimated with reference to its
probable future advancement, and with the
increasing prosperity Of the country traversed
by the Greenvllle koad, Its property was GER
tain to Increase. There was also active COM
petition for the possession OF that road which
enhanced Its value. There we're two compa.
MES, the South Carolina and the Wilmington,
Columbia and Augusta companies, either Of
which could afford to give more than anybody
else. The South Carolina Company had already
paid s4lO, 900 to obtain controlling Interest in
the road and to say that it was an lnsolvent road
would be to cay that the South Carolina Com
pany were the veriest ounces that ever exist
ed. The rival road had offered, according to-
the testimony OF Colonel Simonton, to lease
the road, pay the Interest on the entire debt,
disputed and undlsputed, and put the road In
flrst-class order. Surely, that did not look as
though the road were lnsolyent, and 1t proved
that the road was 10 them worth four or five
million dollars, while to any ordinary pur-
chaser it was worth two and half millions.
Mr. Melton said there were many other points
In the argument which he had not touched,
but they had been 80 we'll presented by The
counsel who had preceded him, and would be
80 ably treated by the very eminent gentlemen
who were to follow him, that he would leave
them In their hands.
Mr.. A. G.. Magrath followed, on the same
side. He said 1t was Impossible for the court
to divest itself Of the knowledge that in this
question was involved the future prosperity Or
the ruin of the State OF South Carolina, nor
interests of South Carolina wey, the lite-blood
ofthe State and the sources Of the interests
and prosperity Of her people. He had only TO
lift his eyes at that moment to see one source
of communication which had hitherto given
support to this metropolis dying away under
the control OF q foreign and adverse Interest.
The Northeastern Railroad under its then
hostile influence was like cable which had
once safely movred proud ship, but which
had parted, strand by strand, until there was
scarcely thread left. In the case,
too, of the Greenville Road that was
not the first time IL had been subjected to in
reference that threatened to af1lct the State
of South Carolina. 1t had not been many
years since an action had been brought with
the avowed Intention to destroy that road-to
tear up its track and level Its structures to the
ground, and 1t was only through the interVen'
tion of the State that the road had been pre-.
served. Then 1t had passed under the control
of an organized gang OF plunderers, the most
desperate crew of thieves aud scoundrels that
had ever overridden the rights of honest men.
At last, however, the road had been brought
back to the people, not, however, without the
expenditure of large amount of money to Sc
cure the restoration, and then it was found
that it had been despoled OF everything,
and robbed aud pundered right and left,
until, as it had been remarked, 1t was
a wonder there was spike left on
the road. Then the road had been back
less than short six months when another
effort was made to wrest it from the people
and give 1t to those who had been co7eting its
possession. He conceded that If the law said
II kl~o%s .