Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-09-29

! RAuoS lduu grants DCAIA
l think, through the States. But there have
6een some memorable instances in the
racine Railroads and others of land granta
by the United States directly. Now
comes the construction company and
agrees to build that road and to raise the
| balance OF the money; and the first step I'd
! for the construction company, through soueA
bOdys name, to subscribe the rest of the stock,2
and subscribe enough to give them a coutroIla
ing interest. Their they elect their oficersS
they select their engineers; then they take irta
such officers of the road and prominent stocICS
holders as will secure peace. Then they gol
on and make the road cost as much as thew
can raise on it. They mortgage it with q
first mortgage; they mortgage itwith a second
mortgage; they mortgage it with q third
mortgage on the income and they 60 on and4
sell the bonds as long as they can be sold1
aGtu they make it an enormous cost. Tho
purpose OF a construction company is to suck
the egg.
They can make the cost, you observe, tusG
what they please, because they represent
| both sides. They represent the railroad com-
pany and the contractor They make the
road as poor as they please, and they takei
their own time for it, because they have only
themselves to deal with. The first result Of
all that is, that when they report the cost OF
the road, it requires an assessment of freightS7
and passenger fare which would pay interest,"
on two OF three times the actual cost of con<
struction. The whole Northwest and Vest
have been for years expressing their disSatis$s
faction with the amounts demanded of theHls
for freights. They have sought their renee
dies through legislation, and in som6i
stances have procured 1T But!
think their direct method would
have been through the Courts, compar-i
atively cheap aud absolutely sure. 1t is an
oppression. You see that at once. 1t not
only creates dissatisfaction, but it is an ops
preston, and the public feel it. But when
you complain they say, "Here is the cost; you
ought not to complain of our taking what
will pay six per cent. on the cost" Well, you.
ought not; but the cost they make Is twice or
three times the real cost 80 that if it is six pen
cent. on that, it is twelve per cent. or eigh%
teen per cent. upon the actual cost. But what
morei They have issued stocks and bonds ous
basis which is of itself unsound The stock
IS worth nothing in such condition, because
they have sold as many bonds as the incom6s
OF the road will pay interest onS
and generally more. The results
is that the bonds 90 to protest. The
stock Is worthless and the first mortgage
bonds, which are probably owned in the in-l
terest or this construction company, or theiE
friends-the first mortgage bondholders come
forward and fOreelOse upon the road and
take the entire possession of it for the amouna
of the first mortgage bonds cutting ont the
stock, cutting out the second mortgage, cut
ting out all the subsequent bonds, cutting OUT
the State and county subscriptions, and eVery4
thing Of the kind. So they, on the wholed
have got the railroad for themselves after
gettingsthrough that operation. 1t is unjustI
In itself; it is unlawful in ITSELF and it is OPT
pressive to the community.
Now Let me tell you what the result Of alE
that has been. In 1875 the amOdnt of liabili4
ties of railroads, including liabilities over and
above their bonds, was Just about the entires
amount of our National debt. The bonds
were about two thousand millions, and Other
liabilities some two or three hundred mild
lions beyond, making it not far from the eDS
act amount of our National debt. A similar
amount of stock was out, so that all that
class of railroad paper issued upon those un-d
sound transactions amounted to between fouKI
thousand and five thousand millions of dol%
lars in 1875. The panic commenced Septeml
Der l8 or 20, 1873. 1t begun by the failure Of
Jay Cooke & Co., of Philadelphia, contractors
for the Northern Pacific Railroad, and
bankers generally. Seven months beforei
that time-that is to say, january
1, 1673-there had gone to protest S134, ,654 600
of railroad bonds for nOn-payment OF inter-
est, making thirty-seven companies that had
gone to protest. At about the time OF the
panic there went to protest $91, ,740, 500 OF
bonds issued by thirty-ive companies, whicha
went to protest. From September 20, 1873, to-
January l, 1874, there went to protes1
S150 233, ,250 issued by twenty-five companies
in default. During 1874, S262, $50, ,701 In bonds
of seYenty-One companies went to default3
And in 1875, S140, ,44S,214 IN bonds of twentys
five companies went to default. And
in 1875 seventy companies had been taken
into Court for the amount of S3S7, SIS, ,615,,
and fOrty-four companies had been fore-1
closed for S159, ,373, 300. Somewhere from ifteenG
hundred millions to two Thousand millions OF
railroad paper, bonds and stocks, had fallens
dead in the hands of the holders. It had
been treated and valued as property, but
was, temporarily at least, good for nOthings
Do we need anything more, fellow -eitizensS
to tell us what cansed the panic, and whaF
caused the discharge of labor and the sus@
pension Of profitable industry Those fetiS
tiOus bonds and stocks are yet ahOat in th6
country; they are packed up In masses in
Wall street; they are looked upon as wealth.,
and scattered through the country; they aral
now owned by men who dislike to let it be-
known that they own them; men who are in-j
YolYed In endless financial difficulties, and
are wasting years of their lives in the hOpq
of struggling through and redeeming someh
thing from ruin. If q fire could have
swept through Wall street and through
every center where this paper was held
it would have burned up an enormous propor4
ton of the poverty of the country, and ts
would have emanoipated the men from their
struggles to retrieve something, and from loss
of time and effort to retrieve something an6
would-have set them free to go to work in othen
business. submit that this accounts for the
distress among the laboring men and the dis
tress in business.
But it has one other bearing, and in that =
shall be brief We all agree-Democrat and
Republication conceive that there can be.
no possible difference of Opinion-we all agree
that it is an unwholesOme and unsOund state
of affairs; that the processes which have de-
scribed to you of bringing it about were uns
vvholaqOuna and unaouud and that fhace
gether are species Of unsOundness which 10
is of the first Importance to the country to get
itself nd of.
The Confederate Warfsre Upon UuIon Soldiers G
MOUNT VERNON, o.. September 1s, 1875.