The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-02-05

Mr.. Reed then said that he appeared to re-
monstrate. AS he had not been called upon UNI
| TIL that afternoon and as no one then seemed t6
know what the purpose of the meeting was he
| should not be able to present the objections OF
the remonstrants as fully as he could desire, es-
| pecially at that late hour. He would, never
theless, submit few considerations for the de-
hberate judgment of the Convention. This
was matter of very grave public Importance,
involving large sum of money and it was
| above all things important that it should be
submitted to the candid and unprejudiced judg-
ment, first of the Legislature and then of the
| cltlzens. Notwithstanding all that was said
| and all the assurances which were given that
the course proposed would not commit any one,
every person must know that the passage of
such vote would be interpreted to mean that
the City Council having had evidence adduced
before them were satisfied with the project
such result would be inevitable and entirely
unjust, whether intended or not While he had
the utmost confidence in their better knowledge
OF their duties he ventured to doubt whether
this was one of the subjects they were chosen
to pass upon. However that might be, there
were considerations of such magnitude involved
in this question that they might well hesitate
to encourage this scheme by their endorsement.
The proposition made is of the most remark
able character. 1t involves two and half mil
lions of dollars and more. That it will be safe
or anything like safe depends entirely and sole
ly upon the assurances of these gentlemen who
had addressed them. They spoke we'll, all the
prospects were sketched with glowing pencil,
everything had the color of roses, and yet this
was not the first time they had seen pic
lures OF this scheme equally beautiful. In May,
1868, Governor Washburn and other gentlemen
eminent in the enterprise had solemnly assured
the city that if $4,000 were subscribed, the
Company never again would call upon us for
more
Governor Washbun here explained that
while he had said SO yet at that time he thought
SO, ana now he advocated the present plan be-
cause the Company's bonds would sell SO low
That the construction of the road would cost SO
much as to swamp the city stock.
MIR. Reed resumed, saying that the Governor
mad handsomely acknowledged the correctness
OF what had been said. He had no doubt that
Governor Washburn and all the other gentle
men were sincere in May, 1868 and were sin
cere here tonight The point of the argument
was this. We had invested over 100000 on
the assurances of these gentlemen that no
more would in any event be called for. These
assurances were mistakes. Having then invest
ed 900 on assurance of gentlemen who now
frankly say they were mistaken, shall we on
the assurances of the same gentlemen invest
two and a half millions more? All these as
surances were the vaguest character Cover
nor Washbum had well illustrated the charac-
ter OF them in his past statement. He said he
was told there was an iron mountain on the
route. Ii this was so and the ore was good and
the mine worked, the whole of it would be
brought over our road. This may be so but
there are too many ifs in it. General Ander-
son says there are so many tons of freight NOV
ed into and out of the towns on the road If
we get one-half of it that will be SO many tons
at SO much ton, worth so many dollars. Why
one-haf! Why not three-quarters, why not
One-quarter, nobody could saw. This was like
guess work. He has further figured out as the
net receipts of the Company enough to pay in
terest on the whole investment and leave a
handsome surplus of much more than 100000.
II ra TINS be SO, why is it that the bonds of the
cent? If the road will pay and have hand
some surplus, why can't this fact be used to
convince capitalists as well as citizens what |
confidence the company puts in these figures |
may be seen by the Loan bill. That provides |
that they shall pay nothing into the sin g
fund until after five years, because during |
time they do not expect to be able to. |
Inns scheme had been compared to the loan |
OF two millions to the Atlantic & st. Lawrence
i me cases were entirely unlike. The Atlantic |
paid up subscriptions before the city was asked |
for cent. This company has not one third of |
a million outside of the city subscription and |
now the city is asked to increase its Investment
Two millions and half making in all over three
million two hundred thousand dollars In the |
one case one million dollars was used to float a |
city investment of two millions, in the other |
there is only 100000 to sustain city invest
ment OF $3,2OO,0OO. Moreover the Atlantic |
gave us first mortgage. In the Ogdensburg
there are $SO0.00O in bonds ahead of us. Evi-
IDENTIFY this is not parallel case with the At
antlc q St Lawrence loan. But even if it |
was it ought not to be listened to- We came
TOO near making utter failure of that transac-
ton to risk it again. He was informed by men
who knew the inside history of that road that
nothing but the providential appearance of the
Grand Trunk saved the road from bankruptcy
and failure and the city from ruin. Without that
ease hardly anything could have been saved.
Because by good fortune we had escaped one
LANCER, was it wise to plunge into another?
MIR. Reed then commented on Governor
Washburn's statement of the city debt. He
said the Governor had made mistake of a mil
ion, in exact figures S $4,000. He had added
'he securities of the Building Loan Fund to the
assets but had not added the Fund to the CITY
1ebt. This mistake vitiated all his comparisons
and ruined all his statistics.
The true figures will stand after the proposed
loan in this wav.