Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-03-14

I luc putting OI lue Hlieu states i rust
the Farmers Loan and Trust the UniOI
Trust, the Central Trust, and all of New
\ ork S well known trust companies undel
one great trust company TO be managed
by Henry ). Ives for the benefit of Ives
x Stayner and their forty-thieyes confed
crates. How tine visions of this world
embracing conquest of other peoples
property must have electrified the master
thiefS brain and given delicious revenge
for the indignity of the SpittOon washing
epoch at two dollars week.
The story of the master thief's acGuisi-
tion of the Nandalia property, while he
was i'll possession of the Cincinnati. Ham
iltOn and Dayton, must be reserved to an
other day. But with a lust of lucre, an
advantageous opportunity and an ambi-
ton to rob that only the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans could limit, he had planned
to acquire and run an American trans
continental line The first link of this
great road chain was to be the Baltimore
and Ohio, the second the Cincinnati,
Hamilton and Dayton; the third, the Van
dalia; the fourth through Il traffic and
running agreement until such time as he
could steal instead of hire-the Atchison.
( Topeka and Santa F6. Applying for the
third time his system of buying railroads
with what was III the treasury of the road
/ last purchased, he went for the Baltimore
and Ohio with the capital acquired by
cleaning out the Cincinnati. Hamilton
and DAYTON
! This Maryland read was a renowned
property OF 1921 miles of main line and
/ branches. Its capital stock, preferred
and common, was only S20,000,OOO Its
debt was but S36,000000. The amount
7 ri in ire ", cfnoI-c a,I
! bonds and advances was over S2S,O00,OO0
The number of important branches it
owned. leased or controlled was twenty
eight, each presenting opportunity for
satisfactory lateral robbery after the main
line should be cleared out. How the
master thiefs mouth must have watered
as he studied the elements of convertible
wealth in this great Maryland corpora
ton and its then defenSeleSS condition!
He bought it. There can be no sue
ceSSful denial of this fact. Ives actually
bought from Robert Garrett controlling
majority of the cOmpanys stock on an
option on which he paid S200,000 in cash
and S1,000,O00 in the stolen preferred
stock of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and
Dayton Company. He kept this option
alive by installments of payment made
with the stolen stock; and while making
these payments he commenced to exer-
else the rights of ownership over the
property, part of which was its very
important telegraph system. Pursuing
his tactics of turning his pIunder into
money without delay, he contracted, on
July I, to sell to Jay Gould the Baltimore
and Ohio Telegraph Company's franchise
and property for S3,5O0,GOO
Had there been booming stock market
in that month of July; had money been
abundant and cheap and securities in de-
mand, the master thief would certainly
have acquired legal control of Maryland'S
one great railroad. The machinery of the
L. 5. District Court could not have been
made finally available in time to save it.
But declining stock market and a weak
bond market, and an increasing scrutiny
of collateral, and warning OdOr of thief
that began to pervade the atmosphere of
Wall street. came to the rescue. Instead
of the National catastrophe of its being
Quilted, as Ives had planned the world |
was mercifully treated to the farce of Al !
fred Jingle and Alexander the Great, an |
n0uncing that he was bankrupt for twen- |
ty mijlianS of dOllarSi
But we SOlemnly assure the owners of !
American corporate property that there [
is a deadly possibility in former spit |
toon-cleaner, against whom they had bet
ter invoke the utmost wisdom of the |
State Legislatures and an unSparing ad-
of the criminal law. Ives
has demonstrated that it is possible for
an American boy, in the humblest en-
without money, without family,
without education, without backing, with
nothing but his audacity and intelligence,
to suddenly flower out into master who
can, by methods technically legal, steal
railroad after railroad and clean them out
beyond the power of their owners to save
them from destruction.
EVADING STATE TAXATION.
WASHINGTON, D. c., March 5.-The
Supreme Court rendered decision to-day
in the Ohio Greenback case of Stewart B.
plaintiff in error, 0S. Samuel A.
Moore, as Treasurer of Harrison county,
Ohio, in error to the Supreme Court of
nbiO Oro tho Sat,,rdou T,raood- 7