Litchfield enquirer., 1878-04-11

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 These facts regarding the water in the stock
 of the Consolidated New York, New Haven
 and Hartford railroad are at last put in authen.
 tic, accessible form among the state papers of Connecticut. The amount of water in the stocks of the other railroads aforementioned
 has appeared annually in the reports of the railroad commissioners for several years past.
 Why Senator Bishop has been 80 10th to have the facts-regarding the stock of his roadshown tothe General Assembly. and why, during the past session, he has thrown every possible ob- stacle in the way of aninvestigatien of the facts finally brought out by a committee of the House alone, the Senate refusing their assent te such an investigation, is one of those mys- teries we cannot possibly explain. It is no doubt partly owing to the timidity of capital :; but more still to the dislike of all railroad con- panies to having the imperfections and even fal- sites of their reports to the railroad commis- sioners exposed to the public view. A glance at the allegations of MT. Goodwin, and the facts found by the committee will show how serious some of these misstatsmsnts have been, especially in times past when the railroad re- ports were less carefully scrutinized than now. We find the Hartford & New Haven railroad reporting, year after year, stock dividends as "capital paid in;" reporting $SOO, 900 as it's cost of equipment-mo than double the true amount and refusing to report it's surplus for several years, though required to do so by law. So, too, we find MT. Bishop reporting the fraudulent stock is ssued by Schuyler as ''paid-in capital" and, in 1867, reporting the cost of his road and it's equipment to the railroad con- missoners as about two and half millions more than he subsequently reported it to the stock -hclders-and thus including the loss by the Schuyler fraud in the ''cost of the road"
 To understand the extent of these discrep- ancies one has only to compare the allegations of MT. Goodwin with the corresponding find ings of the committee. Serious as the charges are, the reader will observe that they are gen. erally found proved and true.
 The attacks of MT. Goodwin on the railroad commissioners. it will be observed, are of more personal han pubic interest, and they have not been so successfully maintained as his vastly more important charges against the rail- road companies. Nevertheless the committee find that the commissioners annual reports be- fore 1872 are by no means the sources of exact and complete information regarding the rail- road companies, they should be. They also denounce the construction given the law by the commissioners which allows watered stock to be returned as ''paid in capital" as per version of language, which, if not corrected in some other way, would render their reports on this matter not only worthless but positively misleading. Questions subsequently, added by the commissioners to the schedule now, how ever, disclose the amount of water in all the above cases, except those of the roads forming the New York, New Haven 6 Hartford Railroad Co.,, into which the commissioners think they have right to inquire since formation of the new corporation. The commissioners have called the attention of the General Assembly to the question of watered stock in their reports, and the committee consider Mir. Goodwin's charge tn at they suppressed and concealed the facts in regard to watered stock unsupported.
 The public is much indebted to Mir. Good win for the persistence with which he has con- ducted these investigations, against every pos sible obstacle, and under cloud of obloquy. The facts he has finally forced upon the record we consider of great importance to the public Whether they are such as warrant legislative interference to reduce fares or freights on such roads as the consolidated New York, New Haven < Hartford, or the Naugstuck; or in what form such legislation should be shaped, if advisable, are very grave questions upon which the legislature can, with the full facts before them, act intelligently. Undoubtedly the Granger sentiment is not 90 strong now as it was few years since. Nevertheless there is much danger to the state from the power of such monopolies as Senator Bishop controls, and serious disregard of the public interests on the part of corporations which owe their being to the special privileges granted them by the public, in view of the public advantages expect ed from them.