New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-10-08
TILDEN AS A RAILROAD CONSOLE.
DATOR.

Long John'' Wentworth Gives a Lively
Picture Of Mr.. Tilden's Services to an
Illinois Railroad In his Speech al
Chicago.
Some years ago was started q railroad
toward Galena, called the Galena and
Chicago Union railroad. 1t was the fret
road ever started. 1t was the peoples road.
1t was made by the people and tor their
benefit. Every man along the line took q
share; if he had not the money he worked
it out himself The road was q great sue
cess. We got it as far as FreepOrt in one
direction to connect with the Illinois Gen.
trail. and we had got it we'll to Cedar Rapids
in another direction. The road paid divi-
dend semi-annually all along. 1t was con-
sidered as good as government bonds now
are. Trust funds, the funds of widows and
orphans, were invested in its stock. The
men who managed it we're an economical
set of men. Their salaries we're very low.
The president got about $1,000 for his ser
vices, and the lawyer who did the whole
business for the road, now your corporation
counsel, Elliot Anthony, he had $2500 q
year, and everything else was done upon
an economical basis. / was a member Of
the auditing committee. Every bill that
was contracted on that road passed through
my hands, and l had no pay for my ser
vices. If there was a cause for complaint,
along the line of the road, the people knew
exactly whom to speak to, and when there
was an annual election every man who had
one share had free ticket for his wife and
family, and came here and voted. The
vote got to be merely a matter of form, and
no attention was paid to the collection of
proxies At one time, while we supposed
the thing was all right, no complaint was
made from any quarter. But on came
Samuel j. Tilden with q lot of men from
New York city and stepped into the office.
aud about fifteen minutes thereafter the
road was wiped out, and was ever after
ward known as the Northwestern. The
documents were drawn in the hand writing
of Sam Tilden; the whole thing was manip-
ulated by him; and now, if you want to see
the merits of that consolidation, how it wac
that those men had claims upon the trust
tunds-the funds of the widows and
Orphans that were invested in that road
will read it to you: Tilden bought up, for q
merely nominal cum, first the bankrupt con-
Germ called the Illinois and Wisconsin Rail-
road Company; another bankrupt concern
the st. Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad
Company; another one-the Peninsula and
Marquette Railroad Company. Now, the
beauty of that consolidation with the
Galens road was, that while it ran out of
Chicago, you had to go about 400 miles and
= large distance over the lake in Q steam
boat to get to it. Whether they consolidated
the steam boat or not don't know. They
had also got the Hamilton Extension Rail-
ROAD Company, and then the Chicago and
Northwestern Company. They had bought
these for q nominal sam, and stepped right
in and took ours. We had not the least
idea there was any opposition to the road,
and made no efforts to collect the proxies.
They went around purchasing stocks, and
took little mp here and q little there until
they got q majority. What did this great
refOrmer do! The first thing was to declare
q dividend OF three per cent on the whole
of the road, the most of which they stole
from our treasury. The more the better
And having made the dividend of three
per cent. it put their stock up and enabled
them to unload, and they sold back the
stock at an enormous profit. l have never
heard the profits of Mr.. Tilden estimated at
less than S250,000 in that operation.
Now. what else did they do' ! am talking
to the farmers, and l am glad to see
some farmers here, and l am glad to see
some of my In diana friends here. The first
thing they did was to put up the tariff on
wheat seventy-twO per cent, upon coarse
grain twenty-One per cert, upon -four sew
enty one per cent, upon lumber thirty five
per cent, upon live stock seventy-twO per
cent, upon merchandise thirty eight per
cent. upon passenger tariff twenty eight
sAAN
formers operations with the Illinois and
railroad. Now, look at the
of the concern. 1t took every
road running out of Chicago to the north, |
G lear up into the upper part of Wisconsin,
Lake Superior, Iowa, Minnesota, and every |
thing, and there was nothing that could |
come to Chicago from that direction that |
hadn't to pay toll to them. And my opin-
on is, if Mr.. Tilden is elected President |
If the United States, there will be but just
me railroad in the whole Union, and that l
'ailrosd will consist of all the others. This
hing succeeded so well that he then went |
INTO the Fort Wayne railroad, and gObbled
hat up for the benefit of the Pennsylvania
CENTRAL. Not content with that. he then
vent into the Terre Haute and Alton road,
nd l can safely say that he has been in
very operation TO consolidate railroads that
las taken place IN the Northwest. Judge
'rumbull says he is the superior of Gen
raj Hayes in point of ability. He is in
ust one respect. He can sit down to his
able and draw the paper that will take
nore money out of the peoples pocket and
ut it in his own than any man living.