The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-12-27
"ROCKY ROADS TO DUBLIN ="
They Fight and Thus Reveal
the Secrets.

They Fight and Thus Reveal
the Secrets.
$4,000 investment to Draw
Out Ten Millions.
In looking over some court pro-
ceedings in Chicago, a bitter fight
turned up apparently between one OF
the railroad bond-loaning concerns
of New York City and a railroad
with which we had been somewhat
familiar in southern Indiana. What
could not be ascertained by cores
pondence was turned in by the
Chicago Daily News-so that we may
get some inside views OF the railroad
builders schemes. The name of the
road is the Midland, Indiana" Its
President is lawyer OF Chicago
named Crawford, and the General
Manager is Crawford, Jr.
This road is "a miles long-just a
trifle shorter than the Little Falls &
Dakota, in this state, and but a
trifle higher in it's flights. 1t goes
from Anderson, Indiana, to Ladoga
and Browns Valley (Ind.). The in
teresting history begins in 1885,
when Mr.. Crawford bought the road.
Through this purchase we get at the
actual value of the road. Crawford
paid $4,000 for the "a miles, that is,
less than $3.50 a mile! An inventory
of the entire assets Of the road were
then taken, right of way, roadbed,
stations. rolling stock, etc., etc., and
it footed up SITS, 900. This was
81, 1865 to the mile.
Mark this, Minnesota granger
here was a road comparable to hun
dreds of miles of your railroads.
Here was a line the exact counterpart
of some of your $37, ,OO0-to-the-mile
highways? It had As lb. iron on it.
To be sure it was secondhand, but
so is the iron on many of your
highways. The report from our cor
respondent is, ''many miles the ties
are laid on the original sod with
ballast earth between But then
there are four hundred miles of road
in Minnesota with a one foot grade.
Well, the total cost of the plant
was 81, 1865 to the mile, and it owned
two wheezy old locomotivators.
(The L. F. 4 D. don't own a squirt
gum The road had an income of
$4,000 a year-which was a gross
income of over % per cent, and it
went nowhere to nowhere! Its. run
ming expenses were $4,000 a year
exclusive OF Crawford's salary. This
left a net profit OF 25 per cent, or
$44, ,4OO-from which taxes and
some other charges were to come.
Probably $4,000 was the clear net.
Now comes in the history. Craw-
ford goes to New York and formu-
lates scheme with a loan company
to issue 81, 900 a mile of mortgages
(bonds) on this road to the extent OF
ten million dollars by building on to
the "a miles already contracted-and
does this remind you any OF the
photograph of Jim Hill? 1t is a
graphic portraiture OF "Jimillism ?"
First, Crawford borrows $15O,OOO
of the loan company, and turns over
one million dollars in bonds as col
lateral (security.) The "a miles al
ready built would allow 81, 10000
in bonds to be issued-so Crawford
already had $4,000 to dispose of
after depositing the million. OF
course this million of bonds demand
ed it's interest. The loan company
had executed a mortgage for the en-
tire TEN MILLIONS OF BONDS.
After things were running along in
this way either the loan company
discovered that Crawford was beating
it out OF every cent being made-or
else it proposed to beat Crawford
out of the road; and various pro-
ceedings were begun before Judge
Gresham, at Chicago, to put a plug
on Crawford's hydrant and shut off
the fluid. Whether it was Crawford
or the loan company, the road was
being "wrecked''-that is, so mis-
managed purposely as to make it
valueless. Then at a sale all obliga-
tions could be buried by legal pro-
cess, and the bonding business con-
tinued. just how much of his ten
millions Crawford had realized when