Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-11-23
FRIDAY MORNING. NOV. %. 1877
THE VALLEY RAILROAD.

SA~S-~-J
south of this city, nor was any proposition
made at the meeting, looking to that end,
which was anything less than hazardous
in the extreme. Any attempt to build the
road by mortgaging it would only result,
in times like these, in the almost certain
sacrifice of the work to the holders of the
mortgage bonds. and Staunton is not yet
ready to lose the hundred thousand dollars
she has put into the work, at sheriff's
sale. Our people have every sympathy
with those of Rockbridge-a sympathy
which largely rests on the manly and honest
way in which they have met heavy bur-
den. for which they receive no compensa-
tion. but look at the situation The pro-
position, most especially hers, presented
to the stockholders last week was that a
half million Of mortgage bonds be issued to
be used while the road is being built to
Lexington; that being done, another half
million to be issued and used the same
way between Lexington and Pattonsburg,
and the third half million to be used be-
tween there and Salem. When mortgage
bends are issued on a work which may be
SAID to have been hardly begun, the capa-
city of the company for borrowing has
ceased, SO that this first completed section
from Staunton to Lexington must earn
enough in the first year to pay the interest
on the half million of dollars borrowed to
construct it-thirty thousand dollars. The
probabilities of it's doing SO are full OF
peril to the existence Of the road. The
twenty miles between Staunton and Har-
risonburg, with it's facility of connection
with the Chesapeake & Ohio R. R., earns,
over and above expenses, 50, 200 IN eight
months or about $4,000 a year, and there
is no likelihood that the stretch between
Stanton and Lexington, connecting
with nothing and in an undeveloped coun-
try, would earn as much. But, say it did
and $4,000 was the result, how far would
that go to pay 100000 Of interest due.
This failure to pay interest would put
sudden stop to the easy time the company
has had with its creditors. When the suits
of the contractors went against the COM
pany, the much-abused Baltimore u Ohio
Company, which has always been represent
ed as standing ready tosnap the road up at a
sale, stepped forward ard loaned the money
and prevented the sacrifice OF the proper
ty, but the time for that company to aid
others has passed from sheer want of abil-
ity. A company whose stock has gone
from $3.50 down to $7S is not likely to be
paying defaulted interest for other corpo-
ration. The city Of Baltimore, the only
other monied friend Of the company, was
not represented by her proxy lately as i'll
money-lending mood. So without friends
the road would go to sale to satisfy the
mortgage bond-holders, and among the
bidders at the auction would stand the
Baltimore Il Ohio Company, just s194 DOC
ahead Of any other competitors, as the de
faulting road owes it that much. And so.
as mist, would all the interest of the
Valley of Virginia in the road fade away.
Staunton is not willing that her interest
shall be sacrificed in this way. The other
proposition for a mortgage loan of three
millions is better, seeing that it is held In
wise check and is not likely to be put upon
the market until better financial days come,
when a good price may be realized for the
bonds, the road completed at once to a
valuable connection, and a more pres
porous condition Of the country at large
guarantee enough traffic to make the
line self-supporting one.
But we do not see that any OF this pre-
vents Rockbridge from making an effort
for railroad. Some Of her ablest and
more peTsevering ones than ANDERSON.
BRA DIZZY, DORMAN, and otberS-that she
annually sends to the stockholders meet
ings, are IL the purpose, heart and soul
1t does seem to US that such practical men
could devise something that the company
could accept with safety. If they were to
get bill through the legislature for con
vict labor, then find contractors willing t.
take the county bonds yet due the compa-
ny If their delivery can be procured, and
then come before the stockholders with a
tangible proposition for extending the
road, we don't see how they could be re-
fused. This looks like great deal Of work
but it would not be with the gentlemen
named, for the people Of Rock bridge who
do not see it can hardly realize the devo-
tiOn-We had almost said desperat ion with
which they have pressed the interests of
their county in this matter. AS for the
cooperation Of the Officers and Directors
of the company we need hardly say that
President PENDLETON would be very
exceptional Hallway President if he had
not rather be the head of a long line than a
short one, and the directors would be in full
accord with the desire for safe extension.
It may or may not be true, that tn coop
GRAFTON would be more earnest if there was
what is called VALLEY Directory but
the hope for such a thing is idle. That
Baltimore and the Baltimore & Ohio Co.,
who have paid in cash two millions into a
road should surrender the control to the
Valley which has not paid one-third that
amount is as unlikely to occur as that the
Valley of Virginia if it had paid two mil
lions in cash would surrender the control
to Baltimore and the Baltimore IL Oaio
Co., which had only paid six hundred
thousand dollars. Of this fact we feel as
sured from the debates on both sides at the
stockholders meeting last week. that if
any safe plan is presented to the company
for extending the road the two main owners
Will Jump at it and that they will in no
event touch any other. It is purely a bus
mess affair Invested of sentiment and it is in
such light that all the parties interested
should view it while looking around for
some practical way out of it.
The anxious waiting about the Lee
models at Richmond has been brought to