Litchfield enquirer., 1876-05-18
The courant and the shepaug R. R.

In commenting upon the annual report of the railroad commissioners, in it's issue of the 4th inst, the Hartford Courant made the following remarkable mis-state- ment regarding the Shepaug railroad ::
 As for the Shepaug road, it has not even a right to its own road bed, having ''reorganiZed so as to shirk even its bonds, and IS an anomaly in railroading not to be compared with busy lines. The attention of the Courant was promptly called to the utter falsity of these assertions by letter from the Treasurer of the Company. In It's issue of May 9th, the Courant published Mir. Colts letter and made partial retraction of its injurious mis-statements; but claim ed, in justification, that the Shepaug rail- road "reports no bonded debt, and that, ''whoever opens the railroad report reads that the road is unencumbered, and gets consequently, it Would seem, wrong im- pression." It can hardly be conceived that so positive an assertion is entirely without foundation in fact; yet such is the case. The railroad report contains the following statements regarding the She paug railroad {:
 2. Amount of bonds issued by other parties upon which interest IS paid $40O, 900. Rate of interest on same: seven per cent By whom were these bonds issued, and when due? Shepaug Valley R. R. Co.,; Due, April l, 1891.
 Even in the following article which ap- peared in last Thursdays Courant; which we reprint entire and which was evidently intended to withdraw everything like an unjust imputation on the road, the same astoundingly mistaken assumption of fact is aga1n reiterated. Evidently the editor of the daily newspaper is not much in the habit of verifying his statements:
 To remove altogether any prejudice against the Shepaug railroad which THE CoURANr may have altogether unintention- ally excited. we will venture few words more, explanatory of it's condition. We points intended to be made by alludlng
 
 road in its nature and in the character of the want it supplies is so different from the great roads of the state that there is and CD that with the knowledge that $400, 900 of the Shepaug Valley bonds existed. the report of the commissioners gave the reader the impression that, as these did not get into the report, there was some cI,i ha f ha
 In all of this there was not meant any attack on the road, but the full facts as to the Shepaug reorganization having now ced that if any mistake has been created move it. The road is owned and managed cellent business ability. It, as the She- paug Valley, was built with the proceeds of $4OO, 1000 stock, $2OO,00O second mort gage, and $4OO, ,OOO first mortgage bonds all paid for in full When the second mortgage defaulted, as it had to, the reor- gonization took place, the stock disap- pea,ing and the $2OO, 900 of second mort gages becoming $3O0,O00 of assessable stock of the Shepaug railroad. liable for $90, ,000 assessments. the defaulting bonds and unpaid coupons representing $210, 900. Cash assessments were at once lev jed, every debt of the road has been paid and nobody in dealing with it ever lost dollar; and it's credit is such as it's prompt payment entities it to- The first mort gage of the old road still lies on the prop. erty of this, but when so many other lines are especially exempted from state tax and when all roads are feeling the depres- sion in business it seemed as if these had as good claim as any railroad securities for exemption and the new road legally did not have to pay the tax on them. They are not it's bonds. The point is that the whole matter, as the officers nov rep resent, has been '.above board" and the obscurity of the railroad report is nothing for which they are responsible. They an swered every schedule inquiry, but there is no question to hit this case and so the fact comes out that the railroad commis- sioners' report does not give accurately the amount of railroad bonds on Connect icut roads.
 As for the Shepaug road it does pure ly local business and fully answers the pui poses for which it was built. Its re- ceipts are increasing and those who have sunk the most money in it feel that it will come back in the benefits resulting from having a road to open up that part of the state and enllven it's industries, which in. clude not only agricultural pursuits but important mines, Quarrles, and manufac- lures.