The daily gazette., 1877-08-14
From the Philadelphia Sunday Press.
PENNSYLVANIA R. r. OOMPANY Y

PENNSYLVANIA r. r. COMPANY
Capital stock sss, $40 200. Shares $50
each. The stock sold last year at S5S.37t
per share. 1t now sells at, say S2512t
per share. The shrinkage between last
year and this is, therefore, S3325 per
share, or $45, ,6S3 of the whole cap
ital.
Such are the figures as given by the
Pittsburg Post, and they, together with
the loss of property and time, and the
arrangement of business by the strikes,
represent the greatest loss that ever De-
fell the State of Pennsylvania in the
same period of time. We do not believe
that any year during the war cost so much
as this--for while our people were freely
bled by taxation for both Federal and To-
cal purposes, they were making money,
under exceptional conditions, at an
enormous rate. Nor can it be said that
this Is private loss alone. Private loss
| es when extended through the body of
the people become public ones. The
shares of the Pennsylvania Company are
held in smallllots throughout the Com
monwealth,and q shr1nkage ofS45, 600 900
In the aggregate signifies widespread
ruin. In this city thousands of mechan-
les and worklngmen have the savings of
hfe>time invested in small holdings of
this stock. Trust funds, executors and
ADMINISTRATORS funds, are largely in it,
+, and If 1t should continue to sink until
the bondholders are compelled to take
the road and wipe out the stock alto
| gether-and some persons think the man.
/ ayers mean just that-the result will be
something terrible. Moreover, the bulk
of the taxes which go into the Treasury
of the State are paid by the corporations
and in that view of the case, the pros
perity of this greatest of all corporatio ms
10 fha fy NJ haa
ficiency in that quarter must be made
i good by levy upon real estate, or some
other business. Besides it is not unlike
ly that the Pennsylvania Company viii
make its late reverses the pretext of
another corrupt appeal to the Leeisla-
ture for a releHse of some of in present
obligations to the Commonwealth. 1t
knows how to pss such bills. Its Presi-
dent, Colonel Scott,is particularly skilled
and has always had his servants of both
political parties on the floor and in the
y lobbies at Harrisburg.
1 The people have not forgotten the sale
OF the public works, the repeal of the
tonnage tax, and the gigantic $4,000, ,Ot }
steal, which would have bee consum at
ed IN spite of the iercest popular indigs
hauon, put Tor the unexpected interpo-
sitlon of Republican Governors veto.
although he had previously agreed to
sign the bill. Nor have they forgotten
that The powerful Republican Treasury
ring, which has ruled and plundered the
State for years together, is still in flou-
rishipg condition, and is to day, as it
ever has been and ever must be, in ir j.
mate fSSoclatlon with the railroad rirg,
and ready to aid and assist il In any feaS
ible and profitable public swindle. Un.
der these circumstances the condition.
: prospects, and further purposes al
me Pennsylvania Railroad become uub
TIC questions of supreme moment.
IL Is no secret even now that the com.
pany proposes to ask the Legislature tf
7 saddle the State with its Pittsburg losses
= the state, Notwithstanding its many suffer
ings at the hands of the road and The ring
connty sun baIn ape 70 ppy pay whereas Allegheny
ny the road and plundered by the ring &c
Ine verge OF bankruptcy, is no longer a de.
slraDle debtor Aud when they bring all
tneir JOINT political power to bear with
their subsidized press and with the ianizar
les of The ring and the ''hired members'' OF
the road, it will be child's play to tesisl
me assault; But this, If successful, will
ne only the beginnfng--the first a series o1
attaek-which it behooves the people-and
especially the peoples anti-ring, anti-non,
) opoly, anti-subsidy Democratic party-tc
: nominations. - ''iO
New fdvors and new power granted by
tne Sta,e 10 the Pennsylvania Railroad
would be used just as the old have beer
USED, SO long as the present managers re
tain their places. The Democratic part,
9 VIII be trampled under as in the past M,
Legislature will be debauched. the nres,
bought up. the ballot boxes corrupted
: every reform resisted and still the i'm
= poverished stockholders will be little If any
| petIer on than they are at present II viii
oe, , as IL has been. apparently Impossible,
Ior the small holders to combine intelli
gently 10 watch and control their siishones
agents. They have been openly robbed yea
~ ana year out without manly effort al
, a,.na asii,pIoHtection-tne very vftals of theil
prosperity being sucked out and absorbef
, Dy the iast freight lines, and other eoually
, shameIui Credit Mobilier swindles. unti
thelr agents were compelled In order n
Iorce out diminished dividends. to reduc,
, oneiI WorKlngmen to starvation wages
, aht tnls nnal ruin rushed down upon them
the Pennsylvania Company desire,
3 1urther gifts from the abused Common
wealth., which has already given n g,
much, let 1t dismiss the ambitious politi
Jians ana spectators who now control il
; Iet IL withdraw from Washington its Texa,
' Pacihclobby which, through Joe Bradlev
put fraudulent President In the Whit,
mouse let 1t accept in good faith the fun
3 aa,mental law of the State which govern
| Al else within our boarders let 1t abolish
one iast irelght lines. and the whole batcI
of abominable frauds upon stockboIder
ana public alike; let it end the atrocioui
. system OF freight determinations apains
pennsylvania interests and carry goods he
tween Philadelphia, and Pittsburg for a
most as much as IL carries the sanoa oooJ
, between New York and Plttsburg. n M q,
3 then be In condition to pay its men livin,
3 wages ana ITS stockholders an occasiona
/ oIVldend without the help of the State. A
, al events It's appearance in the lobby afIe
new grab Will be less shocking to tn
moral sense. ~ vi