New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-03-10
vantage and do what they must know to be
THE pxNNsyLV1NIA RAILROAD MEETING.

THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD MEETING.
Tomorrow there will be held in the City
of Philadelphia a meeting TO whose action
great interest attaches-interest, too, which Is
far from local. Not that we have the least
doubt as to what will be done, but we are not
disposed to let deed of folly and wrong be
contaminated without a word of warning.
The stockholders of the great Pennsylvania
Railway Monopoly meet in order to determine
if they will accept the act, which its Managers
have lately engineered through the Legisla-
ture, authorizing an increase OF capital stock
and mortgage debt either without limit or
to double the present amount; in other words,
from $15O,OOOOO0 to $3000OO,OOO. A railway
with line of little over 400 miles needs three
hundred millions! There was time when
this certainly was no direct concern of ours,
and the intrusion of distant counsel might
seem needless This is not 80 any longer.
The PENNSYLVANIA Railroad is an aggressive
corporation which intrudes everywhere. 1t
captures Legislatures, controls States, and
usurps privileges near and at distance. Its
last spol-not very valuable, we suspect, but
still spoil-was New-Jersey. Its remote OBJ
jective point is Virginia. OF making Jersey
City its terminus, instead of Philadelphia, we
have no reason to complain; but when
wo find the first fruit of this success
is to fasten upon New-Jersey anu
us a monopoly of transit, in contrast with
which "Camden and AmbOy" was hberallty
itself, the conviction is inevitable that the
initiate surrender of New-Jersey to the in
vader was a misfortune. Hence, we of New
York have q concern in this misdoing.
Besides, such an aggregation of capital and
credit as this Philadelphia corporation con-
trolls is too important an element in our imam
cial relations to be ignored. A crash of 80
many millions in Philadelphia would be felt
everywhere. We cannot exercise the evil one,
as long AGO we did Mr.. Biddle's bank, 30 that
the ruin should fall mainly
upon the heads OF those who sit beneath"
There is too much intervoluton for that.
Thus is it that we are in every way justified
in interposing even though Philadelphia ana
Pennsylvania Obstinately refuse to listen.
Look at the facts. 1t is quite unnecessary
to revert to ancient dates, when for per-
fectly legitimate object this corporation was
created 1t was a creditable Pennsylvania en-
terprise, and meant chiefly for the benefit of
the two great cities, Philadelphia and Pitts
burgh. A genuine enthusiasm was excited,
and that ebbing, municipal subscriptions were
demanded, and, in spite of the warning voice
of many of the wlsest citizens, the demand
was complied with. Philadelphia at this mo-
ment owns many millions of the stock which
tomorrow is to be so profusely "watered."
Nearly the whole Sinking Fund of Pennsyl-
yana is in its huge unmarketable bonds, on
which millions more tomorrow are to be
piled The return Philadelphia has is that it
is a mere way station, without even decent
building where the traveller can find refuge.
Pittsburgh is in open revolt, and Pennsylvania
seems contented to be Issachar to the end.
With legitimate extensions, in the form OF
mutual contracts, to the westward, no one
would find fault, nor with the encouragement
of tributary roads but, in an evil hour, a
wider ambition seized these administrators, and
we have now thousands of miles subsidized
all over the land, continuous and disjOinted
railroads, leases, guarantees without and
within a board of corporations; fast ex-
"pressn and " transportation" and "Palace
"car' companies, all feeding, for the benefit
of favored officials. on the vitals of their
mother, and a liability to stockholders and
creditors which, ten years ago, was thirty and
ia now one hundred and fifty millions, and is
tomorrow TO be increased a hundred fold.
And for what 7
This is the question we put to thoughtful
and considerable Pennsylvanians. of whom
there are many, and especially to Philadel-
phans, of whom there are some. Why is
more capital neededY The road and its
branches within the State are finished and
equipped. In fact the mortgage debt was
enough for that. Can it do any good to
them to have the "NOrthern Centraln leased
which goes to Baltimore, or to know their
money is used to pay ten per cent guaranteed
rent on roads which are of no benefit to themi
The outlay in rents and dividends has. thus
far, been ten per cent-more than any indi-
vidual trader can in the long run stand, and
far more than any really successful corpora
ton need pay. Has it been out of capital and
the sale of bonds that this has heretofore
been done, and is this false system to 90 on
forever, or till that crack of doom which is
sure, and it may be soon, to comet We ask
these questions and give these warnings in no
unkind spirit, and certainly under no impulse
of sectional or local jealousy. We of New
York know too we'll the misery of having
stretched over our soil, and Gripping our
energies, a huge speculative, semi-bankrupt
railway corporation, with its appendages, and
we should be glad to save our Pennsylvania
neighbors from enemies amongst themselves.
The crisis may be now.