New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-10-30
THE ERIE ACCOUNTS,

came over here and examined the books OF
the Erie Railway Company does not receive
from the press the attention which it merits
We present this morning some very plain
spoken comments from The London Economist.
1t is not bad opportunity to remind
readers of THE TRIBUNE's course on two
or three occasions when the publication of
truth in these columns was thought to be
an unwarranted assault upon established re-
spectablity. Some fifteen months ago we
denounced Secretary Richardson for giving
out to the press statements which were In
substance falsehoOds in relation to the amount
of coin in the Treasury. Some weeks after
the outbreak of the panic we noted the
changes in the statement of the coin balances
| by which the reported and actual amounts
were brought together again. We were
accused of writing in the interest of operators
| in the gold market. but Congress did not in
stitute any investigation to discover whether
the Secretary of the Treasury was not
the person against whom this charge
could not have been more justly
brought. Again, our charges against the
late Secretary of the Treasury in relation
to his dealings with the Syndicates have never
been investigated, and we venture to say that
the columns of THE TRIBUNE contain fuller
and more Ineligible accounts of the illegal
methods by which the funding operations of
Messrs. Boutwell, and Richardson were carried
on, than any documents, official or unofficial,
yet laid before the people of this country.
Lastly THE TRIBUNE'S structures on Mr..
Richardson's management of the Treasury, be-
fore and after the panic, were received with
great disfavor by persons who fifteen months
ago were higher up in the financial world than
they are now, yet we are not aware that the
progress Of events failed in any important par
ticular to justify our criticisms or to prove
that our fears were without good grounds
We felt that Mr.. Richardson would initiate the
currency, regardless of the law, and we said
So He did raise the legal tender circulation
from $356,OOO,OOO to 1885,, 100000, and all the
chicanery of truckers like Mr.. Dawes cannot
make that act anything else than an unlawful,
unconstitutional, and unnecessary exercise OF
power.
Our course in giving place in THE TRIB-
UNE to ex-Audtor Dunan's statements about
the finances of the Erie Railway Company,
and the opinions we expressed that the Presi-
dent and leading Directors of the Company
did not satisfactorily dispose of those state
ments, met with similar reception. And
now that we have the reports of the English
accountants, fully substantiating Mr.. Dunan's
revelations, and indicating that gentleman'S
name from the ferOciOus assaults which were
made upon it, there is a deep silence in those
quarters which few months ago were so
vocal We conceive this question of honest
railroad accounts to be of vast importance.
The advice rendered by The London Times to
the capitalists of England not to lend the
Erie Company another dollar, and to buy no
more of its bonds at any price, seems to us
good The stockholders of railroad companies
have right to know how the earnings and
borrowings of these corporations are expended,
and we tell no secret when we say that the
information given to them by the managers
ON these points is Of the scantiest character,
and in many cases, of which the Erie Railway
is not the only example. even this scanty
information is not the truth.
The lesson conveyed by the long and event
full history of the Erie Railroad is this-that
if unscrupulOus men cannot be prevented
from obtaining the control of railroads they
should at least be refused further access to
the capital of those who have no part nor
knowledge in the management of their own
property. We have seen within few months,
besides the disappearance of countless mush-
rooms, some of the most stable dividend
having roads cease to return income to people
who may have held their stock for twenty
wears. Other great roads disburse their divi-
dends, which fall like the rain from Heaven,
no one knowing where it was collected,
whether from the borders of the great Lakes
or those of the German Ocean. Let us hope
the dividends will continue to descend in the
same abundance and with equal regularity.