The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-08-07
rha Value of Railway Stocks.

STOCKS. Snc SOtu HeI eloSNs iAi UNN
road for par In her own bonds. ehe SUI"
that she owned in the Richmond ana Ky
tersburs road for $50 per share in her own
bonds. While the bill selling the Atiantic'
Mississippi and Ohio Railway Company p.i
bonds in the Virginia and Tennessee rail-
road Mt discount upon credit OF ten years.
without interest, was pending, telegram
came to the late JOHN B. BALDWIN uhen
Speaker of the House, offering par IN STATE
bonds for that stock. immediately the cry
was raised that the bid was from an alien
who wanted to ruin the State. Some de-
luded persons honestly so believed; but the
hvpocritical cry was raised by many more
who had been fed and biased by arguments
that never fail to degrade those who fall I'M
der their influence.
The offer by telegram was hooted by
those too confding or too corrupt to listen
to reason, and the stock in the Virginia ana
Tennessee road, S2,300,00O, was scld to the
Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio road, and
thus lost entirely to Virginia. What toliy
II follv were all it would not be so Dad.
But corruption carried the stratagcm
through.
As TO the value of these stocks OF Flr-
cinia in railroads, General MALONE appears
on two sides. Whenever they we're stocks
sold or in process OF sale to others than him.
self he was the "bull 4" to lift them as high
as POSSIBLE. lie opposed the sale OF the
stock of the Petersburg road and ran the
persons who were bidding for them, first
to $3.50 and then to 5000; but the Lcglsla-
ture was so convinced that this opposition
was excited by mere hostility, and there
fore not to be approved, that they refused
General MAuoSE's highest bid and sold the
stock to the persons he was endeayorins to
defeat at $3.50.
Tn the case OF the Danville railroad the
facts were most extraordinary. AT the
annual meeting Of the stockholders of the
Danyille road on March 8, 1866, 4 resolution
was passed doubling the amount OF stock
in the company. This was what is called
stock-watering." Four years afterwards
the Legislature by all act authorized the
sale Of "al of the stock of the State OF Vir-
ginia - in the Richmond and Danyitle Rail-
road Company "for the sum OF 81, 100000
OF the bonds or certificates Of debt Of the
State in twelve equal instruments" &c.
In 1873, seven years after the act OF the
stockholders doubling the number OF shares
in the company, prosecution was gotten
I'D against the Danville railroad, as every
body said, and az we believed, by General
MALONE, upon the ground that the State
had never been informed of the fact OF the
doubling of her shares, and that she had
sold only $4,000 shares to the Danville road
when she had "a 900 shares. Here he played
the part OF the "Railroad ISHMAEL," sou
6riquet given him in '73 by one who is now
his most fulsome adulator.l The prosecu-
ton fell from its utter absurdity, the act
selling all the States shares having speci-
fed the sum that should be paid for them,
and, furthermore, the State having been
fully informed of the stock-watering in
1866.
But General MALONE showed that he
wanted other railroads to pay more than he
had done for stock. So in the sale OF the
Petersburg and Weldon road he ran WAL
TIERS e. Co. off the field and gave up to REU-
BEN RAGLAND after putting the price largely
above hundred dollars per share, payable
in State stock.
It is only when we come to the stock he
buys that the State property is thought to
be sold too high. When he thought he had
made good bargain with the State he
boosted to the stockholders of the Atlantic,
Mississippi and Ohio Company of having
made clear for them $2,371, 1909. Not long
afterwards, when he got an insight that
warned him of trouble, he came to the
Legislature and got up committee to re-
assess the value Of the stock and claims he
had bought for the Atlantic, Mississippi and
Ohio. That committee put the value of
those assets very low.
For what was this reissessment desired !?
Well tell you. 1t was hoped that the State
would remit altogether the charge that
had been made by settlement with Gene
raj MALONE. But it turned out work
of supererogation, as the Atlantic, Missis-
sippi and Ohio Company was soon inextri-
cably involved, and the nominal railroad
president, who had been in reality little
more than a politician, was sent adrift-no
longer being railroad president, even in
efigy.
Plainly, Virginia could have sold all her
railroad stocks at par for her bonds after
the war, and that would have reduced her
debt SO materially that we should not now
have heard of reputation. Six millions
have gone for nought, and so prone was
General MALONE to {. bear" the stocks OF
the State he held while "bulling" those
sought or purchased by others that he bore
down with all his power upon those pur-
chased by the Atlantic, Mississippi, and
Ohio railroad after it had been pretty clearly
ascertained that not dollar of them would
ever be paid for.
And now we have the gentleman whose
administrative ability has been so carica-
tured by his own caprice and narrow-mind-
edness offered for the high position Of
Governor. 1t would be fearful slur upon
the good sense of people who would con.
tide their government to such man.
=
A Defence of MIR. Hanger.
STAUNToN, August 8, 1877.
Editors Dispatch: 1t is seldom prudent