Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-05-22
Aanraster f1lteIIige1rer.
SATURDAY EVENING. NAY %, 1880.
The Reading Suspension.

The Reading Suspension.
There is no sufficient reason why the
stock of the Reading railroad should be
considered to have lost half of its value
because it was unable yesterday to bor-
row the money it needed to meet'its cur
rent obligations. The company has been
well known to have been living on its
credit and borrowing daily from Peter
topay Paul in the expectation of the com
ing day when the increased prices of its
coal would enable it to earn enough to
pay its way. AS this day is certainly
nearer at hand than it has been, the
Reading property is more valuable to-
day than ever. 1t is, of course, possible
that the value of the property will not
save the value of the stock, since the
owners of the bonded Indebtedness may
have the power to sell the property at less
than its intrinsic value. This, how
ever, is but possibility. The strong
probability is that the stockholders will
not he ousted so that the right way to
look at the value of the stock is to gauge
it by the value of the property now and
in the future. This estimation of it has
caused its price to advance very largely
during the past year, and the same rea-
SONS remain to sustain it, daily increas
ing in force. The prospect of the stock
being wiped out has hung over it
for years, and the danger was ut
one time imminent. 1t is no longer SO.
Now that the country is on the upgrade
to commercial prosperity the Reading
railroad company with its immense
business and enormous assets cannot lie
submerged permanently. That it has
got into its present position after strug-
CLING successfully through the darkest
hours of the financial crisis amazes
everybody. 1t will probably be found
to have been Occasioned by some
accidental cause or incompetent
financial management. There have been
50 many miracles performed in the past
in tiding the company over its days of
heaviest financial strain that possibly
too much trust was placed in the coming
of prOvidential succor when it was need
ed. There appears to have been reck-
less drawing of half-million dollars of
checks which there was no money to
meet. No doubt it was expected to be
on hand when the checks came in, us it
always had been on similar occasions be-
fore something interfered with the ar
rangement. 1t may have been the fault
of the management or it may have been
the failure of the cOmpany's credit.
Whatever the cause, the effect should not
be to destroy the value of the stock. If it
was worth twenty-three yesterday morn
ing it was worth as much in the afternoon.
Probably it was not worth twenty
three and just as probably the price to
which it has gone does not represent the
proper value. Financial writer's are fond
of telling lis that the value of a thing is
what it will fetch; but it is not always
So, for nobody can lie stupid enough to
believe that the value of Reading railroad
stock was nearly forty dollars d share a
few weeks ago and that to-day it is ten
dollars. 1t is very certain that if the
stockholders can retain possession of
their property it will some day he worth
much more than it cost them and we
do not conceive that there is any prob
ability of their losing it.