The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-01-25


X. In what proportion do you assimilate
the water distance from Quantico to Wash
ington? And in what proportions do you
divide fares between the Richmond, Frede-
rickshurg and Potomac Railroad Company
and the Potomac Steamboat Company?
Answer: The assiruilaied distance from
Quantico to Washington Is rated at about
twcnty-scvcn miles. and fnres and tolls are
divided in the proportion OF three-fourths to
the railroad and one-fourth to the steamboat
company. .....
1 Ai. Has not the Richmond, Fredericks.
burg and Potomac Railroad Company, or its
officers or controllers. OF some Of them. ac-
quired with the "FickIin charter" as it is
called for the Potomac Railroad Company
the right to build railroad from Quantico
to Alexandria parallel to the line of the
Alexandria and Fredericksburg railroad?
| Answer: Neither the Richmond, Frede-
ricksburg md Potomac Railroad Company
nor any Of lis officers, as such or acting in
its hcsalf, acquired in any form the Ficklin
charter" by which / understand is meant
the charter Of the Potomac Railroad Com
pany, passed February 81, 1867. and amended
April 2G, 1857. The Potomac Railroad
Company was granted by that charter the
right 10 build road to Alexandria. At the
time the said charter was passed it was un-
dcr.tood that the charter of the Alexandria
and Fredericksburg railroad had been for
faited.
XII. Ey what authority aud upon what
| prctauccs has your Richmond, Fredericks-
lr,lrg and Potomac Railroad Company ill-
vested i'm such enterprises as the foregoing
profits which should have been divided in
money among the stockholders, including
| the State Of yirgins2
Answer: BY what authority the loan from
the Richmond. fredericksburg and Potomac
Railroad Company TO the Potomac Railroad
Company was made has already been stated
in The answers given to questions eight and
nine. 1t is not here admitted, but ex-
presslv denied, that The Investment in this
| loan to the Potomac Railroad Company was
made from profits which should have been
divided in money among the stockholders.
including the state of Virginia." The func-
ton Of declaring or not declaring dividends
ont OF the profits of Il railroad corpora
ton, OF Of Investing those profits in what
nny he Of fur greater value and ne
ccessity TO the company and to each
of its Stockholders is one which all railroad
charters and the general railroad law of the
State coufide exclusively to the superior in
formation and sound discretion of the drec-
tors of those companies, in which the State
has always a representation proportlonate to
the stock which she holds in the companies.
No one else. therefore. has a right or is COM
pctcnt to decide ih what c.,3cS the profits Of
s,,r!, companies should or should not be
divided arioDg Stockholders, unless it be the
Stockholders themselves i'll general meeting
assembled.
| Mi. Why is it that since the 1st May, 1854
the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac
Railroad Company has not paid any div-
dends to the state of Virginia when the Sea-
board and Roanoke Railroad Company and
the Baltimore Stcam.PaCkct Company were
iE unohstrurtcd operation
Answer: The true history Of the two COM
panics referred to in this question so widely
varies from the statements made in it as to
the payment Of dividends by each of them.
that no answer clu be made giving reasons
why that has happened which, in fact, has
not happened. Appended to this answer is
statement (A) of the two companies show
inc when and what dividends were declared
and pid by each OF them up to the present
tine. either cotcmporaneousy or in different
wears, and fully Contradlcting the assumption
oi facts made in this question. Among the
reasons why more and greater dividends
were not paid by the Richmond E'rcdcrick>-
| burg aud Potomac Railroad Company may
| bc stated the following 4 very active COM
petition for this crmplny's passenger buSi-
ieSs between Richmond and Washington
was about the year 1854 inau@uratcd, and
during >n,4c I'VE or six wears thereafter
nrlint;ncd nj reduced rates Of fare
oyer the combined railroads on the
route rlu Gorton>yille. Hence resulted to
this company very heavy loss annually for
five or six years OF its principal business
and. although for that loss it afterwards re.
covered u partial indemnity upon the decree
OF the supreme Court of Appeals, yet that
indemnity was paid and received in Con-
| fpdclatc money when it was worth only one
| fifteenth Of the specie currency for the loss
Of which il was intended us partial com
pcnsation. The value to the company of this
Passenger transportation may best be COM
l.,ltcd from q statement (B) annexed to this
answer. showing the amounts received from il
respectively by this company and the Scaboard
and Roanoke Railroad Company, and the rela-
tive increase Of those amounts received an
n!mily by each OF those companies. This
statement Of those two companies will fur
thrr >iICX how this passenger business has
not been competed for, but rather surrcn-
J
| To,1rnfV. ly the Scaboard and Roanoke
Eailrcad and Bay Line Companies, although
TIL. could, hy lowering their fares on inde-
pendent through tickets, have diverted to
their route by far the larger ret profit on il
than could the inland companies, whose
through tickets exclusively at the same rates
Of fare (hc by line having nonc) were used
during nearly I'LL this period over the Setl-
board and Bay route. During this same
series OF years of competition with the route
riG Gordonsyil|e nearly the whole length OF
this company'S road was reconstructed with
| heavy iron rails in lieu of the wooden super.
structure and the strap-rail heretofore used
| on it..
During the war the bridges on this com
pany's road were all burnt Except one) three
timcs, and twice rebuilt, and some twelve
or fifteen niles of its roadway torn up
After the war there was expended or
the reconstruction Of this company's road
for rebuilding bridges, dep0ts, &c.-not less
ti,an S1j0,GOu, Of which only 100000 wa.
borrowed. aud repaid out Of earnings of the
company in July, 1867. These and the loar
to the Potomac railroad Will, other expenses
to improve and enlarge the equipment OF tht
company to accommodate its increased bu
sjnesS during the last three years, will nc
count for the failure to pay dividends since
the war.
\
RICHMOND. FREDERICKSBURG AND PoToMAC)
| RAILROAD Co., PRESIDENTS OFFICE, 7
RICHMOND. VA, January %, 1879
Join u. RcbinSon, Esq, President Rich
mond, fredericksburg and Potomac Rail
road Company:
Dear Sir,-A careful examination of th'
books of our respective companies Shows
! 1st. That the Richmond. Fredericksburg