Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-02-16
rrRGINIA al ToM sCOTT.

VIRGIKIA AND TON SCOTT.
The Richmond Wing questions the
entity Of the Southern Security Rail-
way company and says that II can
ind no charter Of the company on
the statute books OF Pennsylvania.
The acts of legislatures are accessible
TO the public and it is hardly probable
that General Cass, the Messrs AspIn-
wall. Walters, Of Baltimore, Plant,
If the Southern Express company,
McComb, of the Memphis and New
Orleans road, and Others OF like char
acter would combine under an alleged
charter that has no existence when
this branch of their stupendOus sys-
TEN of fraud would be 50 easily eX-
posed, We imagine that President
Wicks and shrewd lawyers from Ala
bams and distinguished jurIsts Of
New York, who negotiated and
wrote the contract presented for &C
ceptance to the Memphis and Char
lesion stockholders knew they were
not dealing with a myth, and surely
it was no myththat paid SO, 0OOfO the
legal service rendered. in the adaptation
of this indenture to the purposes OF
the contracting parties. 1t was mol
an imaginary nOn-existent corpora
ton that paid cash for q majority OF
the stock in the roads between Bris-
tot and Chattanooga, and however
the Wing may condemn this tlansae-
ton, for the reason that the Security
company only bought q msjOrity OF
the stock and are thus enabled to con-
troll the roads Gd H6itsHm without re-
gard to the interest, Or wishes or divi-
dends of local shareholders, it must
be confessed that it was not the busi-
ness OfTom Scott to do more than deal
honestly, and guard his own and not
the interests Of others. For the Pc
culiarities of this East Tennessee trade
the Wing assails the wrong party TO
the transaction. The Wing is mistaken
As to the terms of the proposition sub
United to the stockholders in the
Memphis and Charleston road. In
this instance every stakeholder is
guaranteed a dividend OF six per cent
and, however unfortunate for East
Tennessee stockholders, their trade
with Tom Scott, and thus far these
stockholders have been prOfted in
the duplication, as we are told, of
stock values, the very ownership OF
these East Tennessee lines not only
assures the solvency Of the Security
company, but the prohtablenes Of
the Memphis and Charleston road. 1t
signifies nothing whether Cas-, As
pinwsll, Scott, McComb and others
were originally adventures or not;
they are made solvent by their aequi-
sitiOn Of the mastery OF these invalu-
able railway lines, which are only in
valuable when consolidated. The
system Of %uniication may be politi-
csIly unfortunate, but practical advan-
tsges cannot bequestiOned When Ma
hone and Scott, a. they should, have
agreed upon a rate oftONsand through
trains, as over a single line, connect
Richmond, Norfolk and Memphis.
More than one steamship line will be
required to transfer from Norfolk 10
Europe the wealth Of the West and
Virginia viii be enriched even more
rapidly than Tennessee. Scott and
his associates, with the influences and
agencies they may control in Europe,
will render needless those immigrant
aid associations which the press Of
Richmond and legislature Of Viz
ginia have discussed Of late 81 elab-
Orately. Beyond all this, the Virginia
system of roads will be extended by
this same Security company
across Arkansas and Texas, and
with this view provisional con-
tracts have already been made
with roads west of Memphis, and if
the purposes OF Scott be achieved,
Virginia gains more than any single
State except Texas and California.
The Wing says Of the Security CON-
pany:
Whatever professions 1t makes-it never
builds & railroad. II only swamps those
already built; converts them to its own
uss, If worth anything; and II worthless,
dism smiles and absndons them.
We know Of no road that has thus
suffered at the hands Of the Security
company. On the contrary, we know
that Tom Scott and McCOmb have
had enough of the Union Pacific and
other Northern lines that are worth.
less in winter months, and that they
propose to enrich themselves by per-
fecting southern railway systems, and
thus to enrich communities even as
has added millions to the
of Mississippi by consolidating
aud Periecting the disjointed railway
Of that State. Tom Scott never
yet "sWamped y a railroad; but here
Tennessee a dozen or more roads
have been " swamped," and the State
treasury found a DismalSwamp in the I
discovered condition of these lines. 8
Experience has demonstrated the I
commercial necessity for oonsOlids- 7
ion, and it is absurd in the South to I
oppose the adoption of a commercial c
principle which has swept yer the
and which, If defeated here,
,nly p~erpetuates our poverty, and /
eads, as we have see everywhere in Q
.he5e States, to the bankruptcy and '
.uin OF separate, disjointed railroad d
corporations. I
DEATH OF COLONEL TORBErF.
Colonel Granville G. Torbett, who :
lied evening before last at Nashville, '
will not soon be forgotten in Tennes- T