The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-06-22
JONES OF NEVADA.
His Panama Negotiations and his Extreme
Distrust of Jay Gould.

viewed by the san FRANCISCO Chronicle re.
porter. The interesting part Of the CONVEX
sation, which is indeed the greater part of
1t, is as follows
Reporter Mr.. Jones, the public are in.
terested in knowing the object which you
had in view i'll obtaining control of the
Panama railroad.
Senator Jonos-Tke main object in buy
ing the control of the Panama railroad was
to influence the Pacific Mail steamers to
land at Santa Monica as well as ut vii.
mington. / had purchased 40, 900 acres at
Santa Monica harbor, and the place is
bound to he the Long Branch of the Pa.
cific coast | was determined to make the
enterprise successful, and there were but
two courses open to me. | must control
either the Pacific Mail or the Panama rail
road. | did not think it worth while to
get possession of the steamers. The com.
pany at that time was wretchedly misman-
aged and heavily in debt. 1t would not
have been a good investment. With the
Panama railroad it was different l exam
ined Its resources and its earnings and
found that the corporation was in splen.
did condition. The capital stock is divid-
ed into 1000 shares, at 800 share, and
it has been paying dividends of one per
cent month. although wretchedly mis-
managed. associated myself with William
Butler Duncan and Trenor w. Park, of
New York, and we bought the road.
R.-Do you mean that you purchased
the entire property?
Senator J.-Oh, no. We bought enough
of the stock to cffec.ualy control the road.
We own among Us upwards of half the
shares. Then, of course, we control stock
held by our friends. suppose it is safe 10
say that our syndicate represents between
80, 900 and G0,000 fhares of the capital
stock. We went TO work at once 10 insti
tute reforms in the management, and it is
safe to say that since we have held control
we have saved 5000 month in reduc-
tions of expenses alone, besides increasing
our business. There were 900 men on the
payroll. We reduced the number to for
ty-one The Pacific Mail, under the old
regime, were taking the lions share Of the
earnings. We have remedcd all that, and
the road is paying dividends Of per cent.
a month regularly. If there were no Pa
cific Mail in existence we could run thH'
road and make money from it, Whv. the
South American trade alone would 20
| the road on n paying bass. y si'lrs. We
don't need the Pacific Mail r,ci if We de-
pended on the steamer trade. We have al
ready refused the offers of companies who
proposed to put on new lines. Oh. 70; il
is the Pacific Mail that is in our power ;
not we in theirs.
JONES AND JAY GOULD.
The reporter mentioned the fact that GER
tain reports had been circulated in the
newspapers to the effect that the senator
had dabbed in Panama stock in Wall
street, and had been blcd by Jay Gould tc
the extent of 100000, and an item on tho
subject from late number OF the CA,'oni
Gle was shown him. Mr.. Jones read the
article, smiling serenely. Then he said:
''Well, you can say about that that it is
all true about Senator Jones, with the ex
ception of the few unimportant facts, thai
he did not drop 800, in Jay Gould's
pocket that he did not drop 100000, Oh
any other sum, into anybody's pocket
and that he did not intend to build a houst
in Washington, although if he felt like il
he should certainly do it and that he has
not sold share of Panama stock since HI
bought it, nor has he increased it by buyins
a single share since February. will tel
you all about my transactions with Jay
Gould. as they form an important elemen
1t passed under our control. / found tina
the Union Pacific railroad, had control OF
OF the Pacific Mail, through Jay Gould
Instead of being our allies, which they nG
turally should be, the mail company haC
Joined the ranks of the opposition. Aftel
the combination with the railroad the natu
raj instinct would be TO throw all the
traffic they could that way, ant
thus cheat us out of our legitimate bust
ness. OF course the main object Of the
overland railroad companies in combining
with the steamers was to raise the rates OF
freight. These advanced rates will increase
their revenue about $S, 100000. Now We
had direct interest in this, as ny our con.
tract with the steamers a certain share o!
this freight which was thus diverted over.
| land belonged to the Panama railroad. II
| they put up the rates so that nothing would
come our way our contract would amount
TO nothing. A meeting of the trustees was
called to decide whether we should con-
| dissolving it, which was passed, and we
gave the required ninety daye' notice to the
Mail company. Mr. Park and myself were
chosen to reopen negotiations with the Pa
cific Mail company. We said to Mr..
Gould that in his attempt to control all
routes from the Atlantic to the Pacific he
had forgotten one important factor in the
calculation, to wit, the Panama railroad,
of which we lad the control and that the
control of the Pacific Mail steamship COM
pany was by no means the control of the
route. Nobody has monopoly of the ocean.
We therefore demanded proportion
ate amount of the increased earnings
OF the transcontinental carrying trade. To
this end we presented the schedule of an
agreement, and Gould said that it was fair
and right. Gould wanted a little delay,
and appointed meeting at which the doc
ument should be executed, but failed to
keep the engagement. Finally we re-
ceived word from Scott, the president of
the Pacific Mail, that Gould had requested
HIM to go over the details with us. We
met Scott lie objected to certain items
which we waived. He agreed to sign the
contract the next morning at 10 o'clock.
We met him at that time, but instead of
signing the paper he presented new agree
ment from Gould, which was not as good
as the one we had just terminated. The
Panama board of directors rejected it, of
course, and instructed us to stop negotia-
tions and take the proper measures TO col
lect the money due us from, the Pacific
Mail. There the matter ended, and lett
New York. During the entire transaction
neither bought nor sold a single share of
the Panama stock"
JONES on THE STREET.
Rim all this time did you not operate
at all in Wall street?
Senator J.-Oh, yes; l had one deal
while this wac going on. 1t was u small
one, and made through Jay Gould. When
it was thought that our proposed contract
would be accepted by the Mail company,
the stock of that corporation was at 145.
AttI mol A., lD.,.l Ia, Al 80 4 n