The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-01-29
A Legacy Of Debt (and an Unhnish-
ed Railroad) to the next Genera
fiOp

Bro. Caldwell, of the Statesville Land
mark says:
There appears to be no doubt that the
board of directors of the Western North
Carolina Railroad passed unfayorably upon
the proposition of the representative of the
the New York syndicate to purchase the
Western North Carolina Railroad, and that
Governor Jarvis was likewise unfavorable
and sent the representative home with a
flea in his ear. There is not one Of them
who will not live to see the day when be
would gladly call him back, but ten to
one he will never come again.
s.Let us look at the other side: The State
has spent three or four millions of dollars
in this road, and what has she to show for
it? She has the road. Let who will hold
the deeds to it or the mortgages on It, there
lies the road and it can't be taken away.
What else have we in connection with this
property? Why, we have a debt of $3.50. 900
upon which We are paying interest at 8 per
cent. per annum-a burden Of which the
people would gladly be rid. And what
else? Why, the State is under every sort Of
obligation to complete this road to Paint
Rock and to DucktOwn-to this it's %inviola-
bic faith is pledged. To Paint Roc. II
plain sailing. but DucktOwn! ah! there's
the rub. TO build this branch to Ducktown
will cost millions. Compared with what is
to be done on this branch, the tunnellng that
has been lone at Swannanoa Gap is, accord
ing to the engineers estimate, utterly in
if to Paint Rock is comparatively
difficult, why not finish the read to Paint
Rock aud form the hoped for Western con-
nections, and leave the Ducktown branch
alone2 All! 1T is SO nominated in the
bond that after leaving Asheville the con-
victs and the money shall be equally divi-
ded between these two branches. The
State can't build to Paint Rock without
building at the same time to Ducktown.
Thus, each cripples the other and both
hobble the State.
The question to be considered, then, is
not how much money has the State paid for
this road, but how much has it yet to pay ?
This bonded debt, remember, contracted in
1875 for the purchase of the road, amounts
to $S50,000 On these bonds the State pays
an annual interest Of SOS, 900; these bonds
run tor twenty years; multiply your sos
900, interest for one year, by twenty, and
you nave 81, $50, 900. To this add the
principal, $3.50 600, and you have a total of
$2,2lO, 0O0-principal and interest, which
the State will have paid by 1895 on account
of this Incompatible property. This takes
no account whatever OF the money which it
is supposed it will appropriate to carry on
this work. We have built 1870 miles OF the
road we have yet to build 1914 miles. We
know the character of the country through
| which we nave already built, and we know
something of that through which we are to
build. 1t the $50 miles built have cost 81
600, OO0-the lowest estimate we have seen
it will be putting it quite mildly to say that
the 1874 unbuilt will cost 5000, 900. Let
us add this to the debt account-interest
| payable for twenty years and bonds maturing
at the expiration of that time and we have
| a total OF 1920, 600, now paying and to be
| paid within the neXtsixteen years on account
of this road.
There is no use undertaking to dodge
these figures or to conceal them. They will
not be lodged or concealed.
Are the people willing to continue their
investment in this enterprise? Suppose
they are, how long will it be. after this road
is finished to its termini before they begin
to get a respectable interest on the $lO.2iO.-
900. counting It's cost up to this time at
s., 900, 900, which they will have, first and
last, put into it? The oldest of the great
| Observation-Disclosures Of the youngest of US
will have died Of old age before beginning to
realize or the Investment.