Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1873-03-28

have seen the man on the mule before ant
are familiar with his tricks, his device may
not succeed, and you will, perhaps, press OF
with your enterprise. But you have vet tC
borrow money to complete your road you
Igo to the financial markets of the country
Ito negotiate a loan and are asked imme.
Idiately, "where is your road located %
You reply "Clifton Forge to Bonsack's
depot" and are at once informed that the
Southern Security Company have an.
Inounced their intention to build road be-
tween the same points-for the heather
Chinee, under this or that alias, has antici-
pated your presence in the monetary mar
Iket by his announcement of such a pur-
pose-that there is not business enough to
support two lines, and therefore your bonds
are declined and you are unable to get any
money. This is the way in which you
would be met. And if this be not the ex-
act result l ask what would be the view
taken by any capitalist who seeks safe in
vestment either for his own money or that
of his clients, when he came to understand
that any one else could build railroad
parallel and within invading distance of
the work in which you sought to secure his
aid? Where is the man in Virginia who
would be willing to invest his money in
railroad enterprises under such circum-
stances? l speak from experience in this
respect.
TEMPTED OF THIS POWER.
1t has been the duty of the Atlantic,
and Ohio company to appear in
foreign markets to negotiate loan, and the
first and only difficulty which presented
itself to cause hesitancy in the sale OF
their bonds was suggestion coming from
the Southern Security Company that they
to build competing line from
Norfolk to Bristol.
IT THREATENS THE SAFETY OF ALI. Ex-
listing RAILROAD INVESTMENTS.
Safety is the first condition which capt.
tai seeking permanent investment de-
mands, as evidenced by that preference
which is given to English consols at their
low rate of interest-and where it's honest
those directly connected and interested IN
the success Of the enterprise is the essence
of the guarantee alike for safety and for
profit. Where is the safety to capital in
vested in any railway enterprise when it is
left to any =" five natural persons " to pro-
ject scheme in opposition and parallel
thereto?
In England every precaution is taken to
avoid any such unwise trespass upon the
trade area of established works, as mat
ter of good faith between the public and
those by whose means such works had been
put in operation and as the surest reliance
6r the procurement of capital requisite in
the construction of additional lines, whose
propriety and necessity the interests of
other localities may legitimately require.
In considering the subject of railways,
it is observed by committee of Parlia-
ment that the complaint of monopoly urged
against railways was an indication of the
benefits they had conferred upon the coun-
try, as it was not by force of special privi-
leges conferred upon them, but by superior
accommodation and cheapness, that they
had acquired the command of travelling in
their district; that railway enterprises
should be encouraged that the country still
afforded great scope for the extension OF
the railway system; that Parliament
should take no step which would induce so
much as reasonable suspicion of its good
faith with regard to the integrity of privi-
leges already granted, because one of the
elements of encouragement to future un-
dertakings was just and equitable dealing
with those already established"
In another place the same high authority
says:
"In dealing with the question of allow
ing competing lines, the committee urged
that greater protection should be given to
existing interests, upon the ground that an
act of Parliament constitutes all engage
|ment with the promoters GA one side and
the public on the other; that this principle
rightly understood, conveys to the promo.
tiers no right that their privileges shall be
Exclusively maintained when they cease tc
be consistent with the general advantage
but that it does imply that the promoters
having been authorized by the Legislature
to construct expensive works for public
use, the resources from which their JUS
remuneration was to spring, should not be
taken away upon any other than cleal
grounds of public policy"
So far from operating to generate railway
enterprises, so far from offering any induce
|ment to capital to seek investment in Vir
:;, 90 a., from, ancoura DINO orr own moo