The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1893-07-15
Now for a Route,


contains the following relative to the
new railroad:
AT meeting of the incorporators of
the Denver, Salt Lake & San Francisco
railroad, held Saturday afternoon, Of
ficers for the ensuing year were elected.
and now the company is thoroughly or
ganized and details of the operations
will soon be taken up. The board is as
follows: President, Ex-Governor John
Evans; vice-president, VIM. N. Byers;
secretary, VIC. Evans, treasurer. John
J. Riethman, sr. The board is an ex-
ceptionally strong one and every man in
it is a worker. 1t had been generally
accepted that Mr.. Evans would be
elected to the position of president, and
much stress was brought to bear upon
him towards that end. In accepting
the Office the president-elect said:
"GENTLEMEN-I thank you for the
distinguished consideration given me
by your confidence. To be elected
unanimously by such strong, cOnser-
vative board of directors, selected by
the chamber of commerce on account of
your high position, ability and integ-
rity, to direct the affairs Of one of the
most important and promising enter
prises in the history of the country, to
be its chief executive officer, is nothing
but the highest honor, and to accept it
involves the gravest responsibility.
II have been associated with most of
you in similar railroad enterprises from
the first that entered the territory Of
Colorado to the last built in the State.
rely more upon your decision than my
own judgment as to the propriety of my
taking the position you have elected me
to occupy. In assuming the position q
brief outline of the policy to be pursued
may be well in order to avoid misunder-
standing and to assure cordial cooper
alton.
"First-We shall maintain the abso-
lutte Independence of our road and
maintain perfect impartiality between
the connecting lines that become our
patrons as to traffic or trackage. 1t so
happens to be the case that through
lines are at all points only open to fair
business connections with the systems
to which they belong. Our company
will belong to no system, east or west,
and its control cannot be bought. To
illustrate: If our company makes a
contract with two or more lines or sys-
TENS east of Denver for trackage or
traffic over its route west. rs it probably
will, it will give each such connection
equal facilities and access to business.
"Second-We shall keep the final To-
cation of our line from ultimate deci-
sion until it has been ascertained upon
which competing route the best line for
rapid transit, for economical operation,
for local business and for assistance I'm
building the road by grant of right of
way, depot grounds and interest in
towns, lands, mines, etc, can be found.
"Third-These and the fair treat
ment assured will have great influence
in determining locations on this or the
other route.
"Fourth-We have now the benefit of
contour maps to indicate practicable
routes to be examined, and information
obtained from the results of a great
deal of exploration and engineering in
the field; all of which will serve to di-
rect us in our actual surveys, which
will be carefully made by our own en-
gineers. We have Sl0,O00,0O0 Of capital
stock, which at par will do great deal
towards building the road. And when
it is exhausted or too much diminished
1t can by law be increased.
"1f my advice prevails, it will be the
policy of the company to put into its
stock all of the profits acquired, and to
incur as light q bonded indebtedness as
practicable, in building and equipping
one of the very best and most substan-
tial railroads in the country. 1 am well
enough informed as to the business,
both local and through, not only to pro-
ceed with its construction, but to build
the character of road just indicated.
But would not build it any more rap
idly than it can be done without any
sacrifice Of the intrinsic value of the en-
terprise, by parting with either its
stocks or bonds below par, and by put
ting the full value of all they bring into
the road. While it may be necessary to
sell bonds at a discount to purchase the
rails and other things that can only be
bought for cash from outside parties
1.-THE bonds not being participants ex-
cept as to the security they have in the
road). But IL prudently and honestly
managed there never should be time,
if the policy now propose is adopted,
when our stock should be worth less
than par. And there should come a
time at no distant day, when 1t will be
convertible at much larger price than
par, into cash.
"The parties who put their money in
the enterprise should be assured of an
equal proportionate share Of all the
profits, and no stockholder or officer
will be allowed to take any advantage
OF the company by interfering with its
securing speculations on its routes or
taking any Of them until after they are
declined by it; and the profits Of such
investments, secured by the location
and operation of the road through the