The daily gazette., 1880-11-04
From the Baltimore Herald.
A COLOSSAL FAILURE.


There never has been such f,ilure
IN the United States as that OF the Read
ing Railroad Company. 1t has an ascer-
tanned Indebtedness exceeding Sl23,-
600, ,0U0, and the contingent Liabilities
which it has Incurred through its leased
lines are almost beyond coHput At on.
rhe mortgage creditors are divided into
classes, hose respective rights can only
ue ascertained by proceedings in The
equity courts, and rs for The unfortunate
stockholders, il may be doubted whether
they have any rights which are worth
The trouble VI going into lhe courts o
enforce, The problem is still further
complicated by the fact that most OF the
creditors reside in fOreigu cOun; rIes, and
the legal relation Of boldliolder and
stocklolder has been modified and
changed by various waivers, Agreements
and compromises which have been made
from time TO time.
The Reading railroad ought to have
been the best paying road in The world.
For more than twenty Years it had a
monopoly of the anthracite coal trace.
and even after the ,thrr roads conucc,-
ing the Delaware river with the coal IT,
giOn began an active competition il bad
a vast advantage over all of them, which
It maintains 10 this day. Il runs through
The most plo porous and thlckly settled
counties OF Eastern Pennsylvania, and
is second only TO the grea' lenasy lvauia
road in its local traffic. Could tie main
stem be del ached from its coal carving
b auches, ii would still command a trade
second To no other road in the S.ata.
only excepting the one above mentioned
Notw .th in ~ al these advantages
his great corpO alton hns fallen into
hopeless insolvency. Not contant with
carrying on the suSIur~s of coInInon car
rior tho IN ln8gers sol mp a sort OF Inside
cOrpurauun, called "rhe Reading Coal
aud Iron Company" AMI evldlng he re-
'trictOns and Limitations of Its charter,
| through ihis sham agency, the Reading
| Railroad Company bought up nearly all
| the coal land reached hy its hueS and b .
| Q Ime the principal miner in the aut Il.
| cite regions. These opetaUous Ieumr. 4
an Immense amount OF capital, and one
mortgage after another was paceli upor
the ruad and coal lands, until the bonde,
1ebt became colossal In the meantime
over production brought the inevirab't
| penalty, the price of coal went doWI
AMI th, company found II impossl Bile I,
earn enough money to pay the vast
army Of miners and operatives v hiuh il
haI taken Ito It's service. After the
borrowing capacity Of the company ha,
been exhausted IL was obliged 10 allu y
| AiOa'lug drhtto accumulate, and 10 H.
ually was driven to the desperate expe
hent of laying it's emplJyes In scrip.
On tn. lth of May of the present yeAr
the nOtos Of the Reading COmpauy wen
TO protest ami suspension of paymen
immediately followed. Two receiver
we're appo! !uted, one Of whom, Mr.. Gov
en, Is the president of The COMPANY
The claims of the employees and othe
pr ferre1 debts have been met, but III
TO tbIs time no plan has been devised 70
reorganizing the company upon basl
that will make 1t possible for The com
pany 10 earn enough to pay its workin,
expenses and meet the interest on IL
bonded debt The foreign bondholler,
are anxious to save the money Whicl
they have invested, and are inchned [
, deal hherally with the other creditor,
but theIe are 80 many ohhIctlDg inter
eats that IT IL a III JSt Ill iti cult matter [
4 | agree upon plan of reotganiz A:iou,-
1lDce the company went into inso!venr
> The coal business has greatly improve,
e, and The receipts for transportation hay
/ been larger than during any CORES spon,
ing p-fion since,the construction Of Ill
< road. Bat with all it's vast resource
4 1t is impossible for tho Reading colnpal
to pay annually s5,629, ,575 for mere
1 and "a 1913 Gil In rentals and at the san
!, time earn enough Of money to meet i
working expenses, to say nothing ,
= continuing The vast improvements " hio
= II has in progress.