The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-11-03
pso,;a A. Rock Island.

amusing meeting OF holders OF defaulted
railroad bonds. 1t is seldom that such a
meeting can take place. The subject does
not generally admit Of merTiment ; at least
bondholders do not seem to think it can.
But on Thursday of last week it was oul
fortune to attend a meeting of the bond
holders of the Peoria & Rock Island Rail
road which may be properly characterized
as AMUSING. :, =,
The meeting was opened by the presen
tation of the report of the committee pre-.
viously appointed. This report recon-.
mended that the bondholders should agree
to allow the present managers to remain il
possession and control, and that the bond
holders should be content to receive one
half the net earnings in lieu of the five
coupons which the company proposed to
fund or. 10 other words. that the bond
holders should do better for the company
than they had been asked to do, for, if We
can Judge by what they now say OF the
past it is to be expected that under the
present managers the net earnings will
amount to almost nothing for a long time
to come. To the extent, then, that the
bondholders agree to accept nothing, OF
almost nothing, 10 lieu Of their five "$35
gold coupons, instead of Certificate OF
Indebtedness which might be Of some
value when due several years hence-they
do better for the company than they were
asked to do. But the committee did not
even recommend that bondholders should
accept Of the company's proposition tor
funding. They recommend something bet
ter--for the company-and the man that
can calculate what the net earnings will be
| is not to be found, in this country at least.
| The report OF the committee was de
Tended and recommended by X. q. lnger-
soil, Esq, the attorney for the company,
in a very persuasive and rhetorical speech
of some length When he informed the
bondhoders that they owed a great deal t.
the present managers because they had
borrowed the money to pay the coupons
due February last-forgetting to say, how.
ever, that the directors had done 80 al
their o,cn risk, and for the purpose OF, pre-.
venting the bondholders fro supposing
that the road was not doing well enough tc
earn its forgetting to say this
Mr.. Ingersoll appealed to the kindly feel
ings OF his auditors, just as if the business
which had called them together ad
mitted of such appeals. This, we say
was amusing. 1t was the farce after
the heavy tragedy of criticisms made by
several gentlemen upon the committees re
port But Mr. Ingersoll's appeal hac
weight with many of those present "whC
had been benefited 81 by the directors
past management, and the report was &C
cepted and committee of three was APP
pointed to act with the company in the
carrying out its recommendations.
During the meeting, Mr.. Y. G.. Thomas
stated that. not being satisfied with the re.
port of the committee, and deeming il
best for his interests, he had begun suit
for the foreclosure OF the mortgage in be-
half of himself and any other bondholderS
who would join him. Here, again, the at
torney OF the company appeared, and stat
ed that it was impossible for Mr.. Thoma!
to begin such suit. The attorney of the
company insisted upon this point with ST
much vchemence tina Mr.. Hassler step
ped forward and stated that it 1t were nee
} essary he could point any gentleman pres
ent to many decisions sustaining Mr.. Thorn
as S action. and that, if the attorney OF the
company insisted on reiterating his state
ments, he would feel compelled to senc
= Tor and show him the volume, with which
he was doubtless familiar, in which suci
decisions were recorded The attorney o
the company did not reiterate those state
ments.
: The suit brought on by Mr.. Thomas i
t the one referred to in the telegram quote'
in our last issue.
0 As we do not approve of the course rec
2 commended by the committee, and as tn
Thomas suit shows /, better way out Of GU
difficulties we will add our bonds to thos
already in the suit and will be happy t
give assistance to other bondholders
We think that the road will shortly ear
it's interest if it has not been Skinned to
badly.
Bondhoders are invited to communicat
with us.-Uassler d Cos Weekly ftnar
!, cial report, New York, Oct. 80.