Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-27
THE RAILROAD COMMITTEE.


 Opposes the Increase of stock for the | Naugatuck ROad-General Legislative l MaIters-Lively Times This Week. | Especial Correspondence of the JOURNAL AND CoURIER.l
 HARTFORD. March 26. The newspaper men wandered about the capital in desperation to-day, searching for
 something worth writing about. As a last
 resort visit was paid to the railroad com- 1 missioners' office. The railroad committee
 was in session upon several bills which
 would have been tedious if Henry O.. Good
 win of East Hartford, the chronic objector, 1 who creates so much excitement in the stock
 holders meetings of the Consolidated road, where he always kicks at everything done,
 had not been present. The reporters well
 comed MT. Goodwin as panacea for the monotony of the day, and he did not disap- l point. The first matter considered was 8 1 bill to allow railroads under lease for a term of not less than seventy-fve years to | increase or decrease the amount Of their cap | ital stock. William D. Bishop, jr., secretary | of the Consolidated and Naugatuck railroad | companies, appeared as representative ot the latter company in favor of the bill. He said that the company, which was leased to the Consolidated for seventy-fve years, wanted to increase it's capital stock from $2, COG, 900 to $5,000, ,000, two and one-half times. It was now paying dividend of ten per cent. and would under the increase pay four per cent. The proposed change would not dis turb values at all but simply change the divisional parts of the property. It was de- sired as the stock would be more easily sold in the market and would therefore be more valuable. Of the 635 stockholders MT. Bishop said 485 lived in this State. No one ! &4 tho Consolidated road, which by the terms of it's lease would have to pay increased State taxes if the Naugatuck stock advanced in value.
 Judge Harrison, for the Consolidated road, said that the increase ot their taxation was such slight matter that they would not object. In his opinion the Naugatuck stock would go up from it's present figure 235 to 250.
 MT. Goodwin lost no time in discharging some questions at young MT. Bishop. The first was how much of the capital stock of the Naugatuck was paid in. MT. Bishop re- piled that this was way back in his grand fathers time and he did not know. stAre you aware," said MT. Goodwin, half interrogatively, half afirmatively, ''that 40 per cent. of this stock is watered" Mir. Bishop was not aware that such was the case.
 "Forty per cent. of this stock is water." | said MT. Goodwin. "Why water it any moreq"
 Judge Harrison said that MT. Goodwin was mistaken about the amount of watered stock 1 and said that only about 20 per cent. of the ! capital had not been originally paid in. l MT. Goodwin borrowed railroad commis- sioners' report from Clerk Utley and found ! that he was wrong, and that only about 20 per cent. was not paid in cash. Senator Read of Bridgeport also favored the bill, and no others opposed it. sloro 1S1 ,soh was drawn by Mir. Goodwin himself and amends section 3,473 of the general statutes. The law of this section is that railroads may lease and be leased by a two-thirds vote of stockholders present or their proxies. MT. Goodwin wants to amend the law by requiring two-thirds vote of the entire stock.
 Judge Harrison for the Consolidated road opposed this bill. He said that it would be I almost impossible to get two thirds vote of ! the entire stockholdings for any measure as most of the stockholders of corporations ! were satisfied with the action of the mana gers if they only paid dividend. MT. Goodwin made a long speech in which he said great injustice was done the stockholders by such leases. Judge Harri- son inquired if Mir. Goodwin had attended certain meetings Q stockholder when he complained of the action taken. MT. Good win admitted that he had not. Judge Har- rison said this was but an illustration of what he had said that stockholders did not attend. MT. Goodwin said that he had often been asked to go to meetings of the Consoh- dated road with many proxies but he had said it was no use, the officers had things all could not let stockholders know about to attend and vote was that the railroad company would not show him list of the stockholders. When he had applied for this 1s-kz lal o1I T. AE- Goodwin said, that he did not care to have camp meeting out of the stockholders meet- ing, and wanted no fuss or disturbance about them. Judge Harrison said that MT. Good win had been the author of severa! valuable ideas in railroad legislation,
 to which he cheerfully bore witness, but he was trying to improve upon his own chil- dren, and his mind had dwelt so long upon certain subjects alone that it was naturally
 becoming narrowed. The judge gently inti-
 mated that the great objector was running to seed. MT. Goodwin smiled 8 serio- comic smile and said: "Well, we've had our experiences and think we know about some things"
 The committee then went into executive session.
 It was said to-day that the railroad con- mittee's report on the Housatonics petition road would be forthcoming this week. Sen ator Graham, chairman of the committee, said to-day that the report would not be made this week. It may be next.
 The shell fish commission hearing will wind
 up tomorrow perhaps. All the evidence is
 in now except that of the commissioners
 themselves. It is expected that their evi-
 dence will be given and the arguments begun to morrow. Attorneys Tibbits and Maltbie will argue for the retention of the commis- sion and Henry O. Rowe, the big Fair Haven grower, in opposition. Spicy arguments are sure to follow.
 The committee on cities and boroughs will have busy time with New Haven mat ters this week. Tomorrow afternoon the police pension bill will be heard and Friday the arguments on consolidation.
 The resolution committing Murderer Swift's death sentence was not called up in the Senate to-day, although it was expected and the chamber packed with people. One explanation of this is that counsel for Swift favored delay, owing to fear that the Senate if pressed to vote this afternoon would hurry the matter into the hands of the board of pardons. The prevailing sentiment among senators this afternoon was said to be in fla vor of that disposition of the case, and coun sel for Swift naturally desired more time to make votes in favor of communication.
 It is understood that 8 substitute bill will be offered which covers some omissions in the original resolution, and is in strictly le- gal form. Substantially it refers the case to to the board of pardons, reprieves Swift un- til about the third week of June, provides that if the board does not commute the death sentence, it shall be carried into execution as ordered by the court, and gives the board of pardons power to commute all death sen- tences hereafter.
 The judiciary committee was addressed this afternoon by Judge James Thompson and Attorney 0. T. Driscoll of New Haven Judge Thompson appeared for Dickerman the ice man, who objects to the extension of the Catholic cemetery by West river on the Driscoll appeared for the cemetery associa- tion.
 SENATE AND HOUSE.
 The Senate and House convened at noon to-day. In the upper body Senator Cleve- land opposed the incorporation of tha Federal