The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-11-07
Railroad Difficulties In the
United States

Receivers Of bankrupt railways are
not always without consciences. Take
the case of the one iu Tennessee. f,r i'll
stance. VINO recently sold road that
cost $4,000. 600 for just enough to pay
his fees. How easy would it have
been for hin, to have brought the stock
holders few hundred or a few thou
sand dollars in debt. The questions fre-
queutly asked are: why has railroad
property become deprecated Why are
dividends passed, the hard earnings Of
labor swept away and widows and
orphans deprived Of support Why
are 80 many promising improvements
in the hands of receivers
The answer may be found in viola.
tions of trust and the general demorali-
cation OF the railroad service. Those
who bad been entrusted with the man
sgement of corporation affairs forgot
that they we're servants and imagined
themselves masters; forgot that they
were trustees, and appropriated rev.
enues to themselves as owners. SO long
as ten per cent dividends were paid,
stockholders were qnite even if paid
from capital, the annual rose colored
reports were received with satisfaction
and complimentary resolutions endors.
ing the management generally, pre-.
pared by the managers themselves,
were the order Of the day, but when
dividends ceased the stock holders
awoke to the realization of the fact
that their officers had been growing
rich aud themselves poor. aud anathe.
mas loud aud deep were showered up
on the heads Of the unfaithful servants
whom they are now unable to remove,
because fortified by foreign proxies.
they defy all opposition from dissstis
fed local constituency.
The progress of RAILROAD corporations
OH the road to ruin has been rapid. and
some of the successive steps can be
readily shown. Portraits could be
drawn which could be recognized as
those Of prominent rsilroad officials
still in the zenith OF power and popu-
larity, but there is no necessity to par.
titularize. If it be asked. why do
directors permit such abuses! the an.
swer j., the directors, as general rule,
know nothing about them except when
one or more are in the ring. They
have confidence in their officers, act on
their Recommendation. relieving them
frem responsibility before the public
by assuming it themselves. and il any
director is too inquisitive and makes him
self obnoxious, hs is quietly dropped
at the next election. At annual meet
ings the chairman is usually in sym
pathy with the officers. and if any invest
igation is ordered, the committee is
packed. and the report is whitewashsd.
Ii stock holders realize that they have
been robbed. and, desperate and iu Dig
nate, strive to organize and changs the
management. their efforts are futile.
for the officers hold the foreign proxies,
and proxies control oil elections. The
victim may writhe. but he cannot
escape the wreck. Other methods. such
as watering the stock and the leasing
and absorption Of other roads by trunk
lines which yield abundant harvests
might be enumerated. The evils are
beyond the power Of stock. holders to
unless they eau reach the ear
and convince tho judgment OF foreign
stsckholdess, and secure the proxies
necessary to control the management
and secure investigations that would re-
suit in the exposure of startling facts.
if witnesses could be forced to tell what
they know, aud expose the rsscality Of
receivers. trustees aud officers.