The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-03-25

will lift the road from the depression caused
by its early embarrassments and remove LOT
ever all danger of rivalry and contention. Are
these contracts to be faithfully adhered too, or
are they to be annuled? Does this change OF
policy involve renewal of old hostlities, win
all their acrimOny? Is our Legislature TO oe
again the scene of a strife as disastrous as "
was dsgraceful? Is our property to be !, I'M
periled if not ruined by the revival of poncy'
which we had supposed abandoned forever!
Gentlemen, there is not stakeholder present
ii he owns but one share, who has not a right
to reply to this question:; and ask for my
self and for all of these gentlemen VINO are
now to assume the control and management Oh
this property what policy they propose.
The remarks of Gen. Brown called forth fire.
quent marks of approval, showing that the
majority of men present if not of stock was IN
harmony with the speaker. Everybody looked
around for some one to reply, and particularly
to the corner of the hall where President Wool
dredge of the Eastern and the greater part OF
his spokesman and orators brought for the &C.
casion were grouped. They were doomed to
disappointment, for not word was uttered.
President Morrill, again announced that the
committee was receiving votes. but before
many had been deposited Judge George f.
Shepley of Portland rose, and at once the vOt-
ing was suspended while he addressed the
meeting as follows:
Mr.. President: suppose that the right of a
stakeholder in a corporation in Maine to ask
information as to the present condition OF the
corporation will hardly be questioned. And
the statutes of this state as well as the statutes
of our sister commonwealth of Massachusetts
impose penalty upon the officers who refuse
such information OF access to the corporation
books. 1t would not be deemed unreasonable,
suppose, for stakeholder to ask of those ex-
pecting to take the control of the corporation
that information which the law entities him to
from those who are now controlling it.
As a stakeholder, L have been present and l
have heard such information called for; but
yet hear no response to the inquiry.
AS has been stated here, the names of gen
tlemen who have been long connected with the
management of the corporation, and the repre-
sentatives of those who have long owned stock,
and who by their means, their efforts, their
credit, their labor and their brains built up this
corporation, the names of such men have been
left off from your ballot l look in vain for
the name of the director who has been long
prominent here, Patten, whose name has been
associated with this corporation from its incep-
ton to this day. No citizen of Maine need be
told of the history of the connection of Geo. r.
Patten and John Patten with this road. No
citizen of Maine need be told that large por-
ton of the success of this road is due to the
credit, energy and sacrifices of these men who
have been foremost in every good work in
Maine, every work of public spirit and enter
prise.
look in vain for the name of the son of one
of these gentlemen and the nephew of the 9TH
er. l look again on that ticket, 1 look in vain
for the name of Mr.. John B. Brown No one
need be told what capacity Mr.. Brown has for
the management of this railroad corporation.
No one need be told what qualification he has
for being one of the board of directors. The
best friends of the gentlemen who are substi-
tuted 10 his place, and say this with no disre-
spect to them, the best friends of these gentle
men would not say that they believe their
qualifications for the management of this BUSH
ness or any other business were superior to
those of Mr.. Brown. They Iwould not claim
they brought here greater amount of capital,
of energy, of credit, or of power to manage
and control successfully the business of this
corporation.
There are other names left off for the same
reason. And Portland the terminus of this
road, representing large amount of stock and
traffic, is left not only with such names as Mr.
Brown taken off, but there is but one man
from Portland put on. He, though gentle
man of character and credit and responsibility,
and amply competent for such position, one
never before connected with the road, though
an able man ald worthy man, he is left as
the sole representative of Portland. While the
little town of Enfield, in N. H., may have its
own representative, Portland is left out. Per-
sons representing the capital of the Eastern
railroad are here, but Portland is not to be rep
resented.
Now, gentlemen, this thing is not done
caprciously. The gentlemen who engineer
this are men of industry, and intelligence and
capacity. They did not leave off snch names
as we have mentioned, who have managed this
work successfully, and devoted their energies,
credit, means, and made sacrifices in
favor of this corporation, capriciously. The
names of such men arc not left off capriciously
and without reason. Such things are not done
without purpose.
And as stakeholder of this road, I ask
courteously, civily, respectfully, but yet earn
estly, gentlemen, what is this purpose? You
don't do this for nothing. You don't come
here with these hundreds of thousands of
money, taken from the treasury of the Eastern
Railroad to buy up the stock of this corpora
ton, to turn out the directors who have been
connected with the road from its inception to
this day, and have made these great sacrifices
and devoted their time and energies, and faith
fully, honestly and successfully managed this
corporation; you do not come here to turn GU t
these men against all the historical traditions
of the state, and put in other men in their
places for no purpose and as purely matter of
bows play; you have meaning and purpose.
As stakeholder of the company who has an
interest in this property. having right fairly
to the answer, ask cui bono? What do you
mean? what is this for? You are not doing
this deed as mere personal matter You have
not come here to-day to accomplish this with
out meaning.
If you take this road, and capture it as you
purpose to do, and as 1 see you have the power
to do and mean to do, and hold it in the hollow
of your hands, when you get it there, what do
you mean to do with it?
Ale YOU coming here and say to us that we
mean to take the management of this road out
of Maine and carry the manag ement of it into
Massachusetts, and place it at the disposal of
Al ,{o1x uti oh hao haQ inv cd in
sachusetts corporation and change its policy,
without at least giving us that information?
What do you intend to do? What is the
policy which you propose to follow? AS a
stakeholder 1 ask this question. and 1 ask it
civilly: ask it respectfully. The gentleman
who preceded me has asked this question, and
has received no reply, and 1, as stakeholder of
this road, repeat this inquiry. l ask you what
/ have a right to ask you; as the humblest
citizen and the bumblest stakeholder of this
road has right to ask what are your purposes?
What is the policy which you intend to in
augurate? Why do you remove those who
have faithfully administered these affairs, and
substitute others in their places without telling
us whether you have any fault to find with
the past management and what kind of man.
for that which has been in the past? lap
plause.
Every spectator was confident that this
pOlutcu opCCOu3 WIN ITO oom 15ibS ShaiS0 tud0
Eastern railroad money had been used to con-
troll Maine Central stock, would call out Presi-
dent Woodbridge, but again that gentleman
and his supporters and orators merely appeared
to be uneasy and to feel very disagreeable, but
still adhered TO silence and the motto to
which reference has been made. The voting
then went on, but was not work requiring
much time. At 11.45 the polls were closed,
and as the committee retired, gentleman who
evidently was not there for speech making
moved recess until one o'clock, which was
carried.
At one o'clock the meeting was again called
to order, and, after waiting fifteen minutes,
Mr. Nye of the Committee to receive, sort and
count votes for a board of directors reported as
follows:
Whole number of votes. ............... 34,046
Necessary for a choice. .............,.. II 024
Abner Coburn, SkOwhegan. ....... 33398
Noah Woods, Bangor. ............. 1916
+. w. Hill, Exeter. ............... 21,376
Darius Alden, Angus ta... 1896
N. M. Whtmore, Gardiner. 1876
Arthur Sewall, Bath. ............. 1916
VIM. G. Davis, Portland. ......... 2,O46
Frank Jones, Portsmouth, N. ". 34,O46
James w. johnson, Enfield, N. H q 1916
James P. Cook, Salem, Mass. 49, 81, 1916
John Woodbridge, Lynn Mass. >. 81, 376
John Cummings, Woburn, Mass. 81, 1916
Geo. l.. Ward, Boston, Mass. go. q, 1916