The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1875-07-31
THE WORKSHOP QUESTION.

TOWN..
9. The G. 4 st. Louis II. X. must have
shops at some place on the line Of the
road;
3. Other places are attempting to Sc
cure these shops. and Cairo also should
make an effort;
4. Other places are offering to the
company consideration for the shops,
why should we not therefore give the
stock the city and county have in that
road, and which is of no value, If such
giving will get us the shops;
5. And such giving will get the shops,
because although the stock is worth moth
ing to the country. its obtainmcnt by the
company would get ont of the way the
means by which the legality of S2,OOO,OoO
of the company's stock might be tested.
TO which the SIN replies:
I. All right.
2. Not so. There is no need this COM
many will need or desire machine shops
along its line.
[Wcll. now, we beg leave to say that
the SuR don't know what it is talking
about. The company's officers have
said they must have shops. and we know
they must. And they will not be the little
shops the S,nt predicts.--Bnt what we
| wish is, not to give the stock before
something is obtained, or too much for n
little; but to open the question of the
shops; to get the proper persons into
communication with the company and
ascertain what kind of shops the company
proposes to build: how many hands 1t
will employ in them, dc. Then, if the
shops are to be big enough, and will cm-
ploy hands enough to iustifyit, we would
have the..city and county say TO the COM
pany:
"lIcrc. now: If you will locate in Cairo
these shops we will give you the stock
we have in your road"
If the shops are to be the little things
the SIN says they will be, we would have
the county and city say to the company /:
at won't do too small by half. The
stock isn't worth much but your shops
are nothing. We can't trade"
Does the Sun see anything wrong in
this y
3. All right.
4. We would give a little, but not the
stock the city and county owns IN the
road.
3. Because: "Ah that's ii, ell The
stock might be worth about S2,0O0.000 to
the company, them" You have said it.
We'll, now, again we didn't say any
such thing. We said the stock was
worthless to us, and to any body else !;
but as there was a question about the le-
gality of S2,OOO,O0 OF the stock of the
company, and the city and county or
either of them might 20 into the courts
and have the question tested--in other
money value, since In the hands of the
city and county it might be a source o.
trouble and expense to the company
Payson d Co.. e. the company, could
afford to give the shops for the stock
Such q bout ut law would not, probably
make the stock we nave more valuable
| even II il resulted in the declaration that
S2,OOO,OO0 of the capital stock Of the
company. were void. Payson 4 Co. have
| a majority of the valid stock, and could
| run matters their own way anyhow. But
such bout at law might de-
vclop something T.. Il Co. don't care
to have known. 1t might show that the
road was not built according to contract;
that some Of the gentlemen who voted at
the stockholders meeting held void stock
and had no right to join in call for a
such n meeting or vote when ii
had been convened that the present or
ganizaton is irregular. and that, in short,
the matters of the company are much
mixed. But the showing of these things
would not amount to much. We would
all no doubt be gralitied by the expo
sure-if such exposure could be made
but the bout at law would cost our peo-
pie much money, would not add one cent
to the value of our stock, and we would
come out at last with stock valueless and
no shops
But, after all, we don't care. We
are not particular, when we think of it,
whether we get the shops or not. We
thought it would do the city some good
to have them, and we said so. Every
citizen we have talked to on the subject
has said "iou are right. We want tn,
shops-bad." But no citizen has startled
our ear by saying: LET us do somethin.
about this. Let MS see what we will re
If we give the stock. Let us move.
Everybody endorses, and everybody doe
nothing about the matter, and does It
too, with very much ability. So, aite
having thought the matter over. we hav
concluded that--well, that our people ar
a lot of do-nothlngs, who say: "Thi
ought to be done,' and then wait i'm ia
hope that it will be done in somewa
without any effort on their part, --proba
bly, by our natural advantages, by ia
two great rivers that flow by our door,
carrying on their bosoms the wealth c
the Mississippi Valley, of which Cairo /
the center, destined to he, at no distan
dav, the great metropolis OF the north