Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-04-04
End Of the Railway Suits.

At an I'D journed term OF the United States
court, held at Burlington last week, the lit
igation which has been pending under vari.
GUS titles between the Vermont & Canada
and Vermont Central railways since 1865
came to an end, as the result of the com.
promise measures which for several months
past have been in progress of negotiation.
The origin of this litigation and its history
down to the great final hearing in May,
1882, in the court house at this place, have
sll been given in this paper. From the Free
Press report of the brief proceedings had at
Burlington, we take the following:
elm the case OF Francis A. Brooks and others,
holders Of Vermont Central first mortgage bonds,
as. the Vermont Central railroad company and
others, Hon. William G. Shaw, in behalf OF the
orators and by arrangement with the defendants,
asked for decree strict foreclosure Of the first
mortgage, that decree be entered against err
tain OF the second mortgage bondholders, and
that so much OF the orators petition related
to the removal OF the trustees be dismissed
Hon b. +. Fifeld in behalf OF the defendants ac-
guessed in Mr.. Shaw's motion. Thereupon Judge
Wheeler granted the motion and entered an order
giving the Vermont Central railroad company ten
days In which to pay an installment OF $500, 900
| and six months to pay the whole and giving the
second mortgage bondhoders twelve days and
| six months and two days for the same payments;
and as to all other sums to become due giving
| one year from the DAYS ON which they fall due II
appears that there Is due the first mortgage bond
holders nearly three million dollars S2 9ll 9l2)
OF overdue interest, and Of this amount the plain
| titfs in this case held million and half"
Various other cases TO which the Central
Vermont or Vermont Central or Vermont &
Canada railroads or j. G. Smith and others
were parties, were discontinued. The first
mortgage bondholders, it is said, will now
form new company under the general rail-
road law of the state, and the re-organiza-
tion which has so long been pending will be
effected at once. The end of these suits
must make new era in the prosperity Of
the state as well as of the railways whose
revenues and the energy and brains of whose
management may now be devoted to the le-
| gitimate business of railway development,
rather than to the exhausting and crippling
work of conducting stupendous suits at
law. The roads affected by these suits run
north and south through large sections OF
the state and have most important bear.
ing upon its general welfare, upon its agri-
culture and its manufactures. That they
are 10 remain in the hands of native Yer.
monters and subject to their control, untram-
meled by the exhausting and distracting en-.
periences Of more than quarter of century,
is a pledge that Vermont's interests will be
consulted and protected. The event is an
suspicious one for the state as well as for the
railways, in its moral no Less than in its ma
terial aspects. To abuse the railways has
been held as evidence of high morality and
Independence, while TO do them even scant
justice, to give the men who have managed
them credit even for common honesty or for
meager integrity of purpose, has been con
elusive proof that person so offending had
been "seen" and was actuated solely by
selfish or mercenary motives. From the
people, the press, the legislature and the
courts it is to be hoped such imputations will
now be lifted forever and that railways and
people whose. interests are mutual will moi
hesitate to deal justly, each by the other.