Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-08-03
The Ru,Iand RniIroad Firh,.

The annual meeting of the Rutland rail
road company, held az Rutland on Tuesday
resulted in a defeat for Gov Page, and q vic
tory for the Clements The fight was a pro-
tracted and stoutly contested one There
was very large attendance of stockholders
and the meeting, which was held in the opera
house, is described as appearing more like
town meeting than the deliberations of a corpo-
ration. Both parties were represented by
counsel, E. P. Brown, Esq, of Boston, the
lawyer who bulldozed the buldozer, Ben
Butler, in the Tewksbury almshouse investi-
cation, appearing for the Clement interest.
Brown made speech severely critcising the
laxity of the directors in allowing the books
of the company to get into such a condition
and an ovsrissue and deficit to occur under
their management, and charged the blame up
on the directors. Col. A. F. Walker replied
sharply for the management and two or
three other lawyers made speeches Gov.
Page was put through course of very point
ed interrogations, and altogether the meeting
furnished day of no small excitement 1t
lasted until midnight and it took the tellers
the whole of the next day to count and veri-
fly the votes They finally announced that
the total number of votes cast amounted to
5G,396, of which SO, PA were in favor of the
Clement ticket to 10, 093 for the Page ticket,
thus making the majority for the opposition
to the old board of directors l7,l5l.
The new board consists of Charles Clement
and Percival w Clement, of Rutland, John
W. Stewart of Middlebury, B. B. Smalley
and William Wells, of Burlington, John T.
Coolidge, George NJ. Barnard, Joseph o.
Sargent of Boston and Geo H. Ball of Wor-
cestsr. This board IS a strong one in ability
and integrity, and the men comprising it are
guarantee that the affairs of the company
will be managed for the interests of the
stockholders. The Clements who have won
in this fight are represented as being a firm
of sharp, enterprising, and entirely RESPONSE
bic business men. They were not allowed 10
vote on the block of BOO shares of stock of
Ravens overissue which they hold and claim
to have bought in good faith A committee of
stockholders was appointed to investigate and
decide as to whether valid certificates for this
stock shall be issued A curious feature of
the contest was the appearance of ex- Gov
IOClOI III the interest OF eA-ATOV. rage, not
withstanding the bitter fight which has ex.
listed between the two for years 1t was evil
dent that the sympathy of the Rutland people
was with Gov. Page. Haven, the disgraced
treasurer, made speech in which he claimed
to have been made scape- goat for others and
said all the money represented by the compa-
ny's deficit did not pass through his hands
He asked for an investigation, and plainly in
timated that revelations would be made not
favorable to Gov. Page. Many people up
pear to believe that developments damaging
to Gov. Page viii be the outcome of this
overturn
The Rutland Herald declares that Gov.
Page was defeated solely on account of the
disgust and distrust excited by the loose
methods of the companys management and
bookkeeping under his presidency, coupled
with the large block of stock held by the
Clements, and that nobody believes Gov.
Page to be other than "a man of ability and
integrity" Taken altogether this fight has
been one Of the ugliest and most notable ones
in the history of railroads in this state.