The daily gazette., 1877-07-05
A CRUMB OF COMFORT.


- .A ..IittU lY
From the Baltimore Gazette.
In these days of disastrous decline
Ia railroad securities OF all kinds, IL Ii
perhaps comforting to reflect that the
railroads have had in former wears
their seasons of equal or greater de-
preston. Great lines OF railroad have
immense vitality and recuperative
power. They exist by the pecessitie,
of modern life, they build up apc
develop the regions through which
they pass, and thus in some degree
create the needs which they supply
Dizziness and stagnation OF business
throughout the country produce cor
they revive swiftly under genera
prosperity. Hardly any railroad in
the country has escaped the down
ward tendency in property of all kinds
The greatest of the highways east and
west, the very arteries of trade and
travel. have suffered. 1t Is Eot be-
cause they have been mismanaged OF
plundered-as was the case with Erie
but because the system of extensive
ramification and facilities for ship
ment and transhipment adapted to the
enormous business of five years ago,
could not at once be contracted to the
reduced scale Of the business OF the
past four years. The outlays have
been very heavy and the incomes have
decreased. This was made worse by
the ruihous competitions aud railroad
wars between the great lines, which
in striving each to get the lions share
of such freight as there was, they put
down the rates lower than prudence
justified. Ii is true that there exists
IN addition to the general stagnation,a "a
panic concerning railway securities.
due to moral causes. Several prosper,
Gus lines suddenly collapsed, aud it
was found that their credit had heen
kept up by wholesale fraud. misstate-
ment and suppressions of truth. This
cast suspicion upon all The other
roads, and added panic to the natural
and inevitable decline. But there is
reason to believe that this panic has
carried the prices too low, and that
the rebound when it comes will be the
more vigorous on that account. The
RdICay World, which is not over
sanguine, publishes some facts interest
ing in this connection: CAN the great
railways of Massachusetts have had
their dark days and their hours of de-
preston during the past hall. century
in which they have come into existence
la 1887 the Boston and Worcester rail-
way fell to IA; ithas since in partner
ship with the Western railway, which
fell TO 80 in 1912, risen to $50, paying
ten per cent. and extra profits for a
long series of years. La this same year
QS3D the Eastern railway fell to 80,
and the Boston and Providence rail
way to 90; since that time the Eastern
has risen TO 1873 in 1868, and the Boston
and Providence stood, few months
since, above l4O. When the Western
railway fell TO SO it was kicked through
State street as some hing worthless but
~nat fortunes have been made by
those who took one or two hundred
shares at the lowest point In 1874 the
Boston and Maine railway sold tor A !;
twenty year later it rose TO 139, OF
more than 200 per cent. In 1912 the
Norwich and Worcester railway, now
above par, was down to the low
level of per cent. In 1850 the Old
Colonly y railway fell to so, but in 1863
it sold for o3l per cent. In 1856 the
Boston and Lowell railway fell to SO,
but rose from thatto 160 in 1869. The
Connecticut River railway has risen
from 81 in 1865 TO 1870, last year. Even
the prudent Fitchburg railway, In
consequence of moving too fast in its
improvements, fell to TO in 1857, but
rose again to 142 few years since,
while its extensions, the Vermont and
Massachusetts railway, has risen to
the same level with the Ftchburg from
5per cent. to which it fell lin 1S47 -
And thus 1t goes on giving similar
statistics about the roads in other
states. In this city, where 30 much is
at stake in railroad securities, where
the city, the university and great
hospital aud numerous charities and
fiduciary estates are vitality concerned,
people should consider the Significance
of these facts, aud let calm judgmen
take the place OF panic,