The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-01-14
The Reading Deal Broken.

President Mcleod makes out, in the
statement which he gave to the New
York papers yesterday, an excellent
case for the Reading c~ombine-so-
called-in every respect save one. He
fails to explain why coal was raised
twenty-five per cent. in price by a
move which was intended to cheaper
the cost of mining and handling it.
There may be a good reason and
there may not. Ii there is one, he
does not bring it out.
But he very clearly and s~atisfac-
torily shows that a close alliance be-
tween the Reading Railway and the
New Jersey Central is not only
natural, but almost an absolute
necessity. The Central is the natural
way, almost the only way, for the
Reading to reach New York and the
East, and, as a matter of fact, the
roads have been closely bound to-
gether for a great number of years.
Such relations were of the greatest
advantage to both roads, and to the
public likewise; but they were always
liable TO be disturbed by stock job
bling operations. A change of ma
jority control of the stock of either
road was bound to cause fluctuations
in it's policy, which injuriously
affected their traffic arrangements
and their common earnings. To pre-
vent this, Mi. Mcleod says, the cele-
brated stcombine" was made, and the
public stood a good chance to be the
largest gamer.
OF the famous bill of last year. MI.
Mcleod adds
Under these circumstances, a lease Of the rail-
roads Of the Central Railroad Company OF New
Jersey TO thePort ReadingRailroa Company was
executed SHORTLY after the last annual meeting.
The Port Reading Company, it will be remem-
bered, Is a corporation or the State of New Jer-
sey. which was promoted by this company, as
set forth in previous reports. At the TINS this
lease was executed there existed, under the laws
OF New Jersey, certain technical obstacles to the
contamination of the transaction, which, as
they involved no principle of public policy, it
was supposed would be readily removed by the
Legislature.
He advances some arguments in
answer to those which Governor
Albeit used in vetoing the bill, and
then, briefly reviewing the history of
the lawsuits, says that the combined
roads have already fully complied
with the requirements of the Chan
cellor. He says
His order was promptly obeyed by all parties.
and the change was effected with the less diff
Guilty that all the officials of the Central Com
pany had been retained by the Port Read
ing Company in the positions formerly oc-
cuDied by them, and as no material changes ha |
been introduced by the PORT Reading Company
in the manner of conducting the business from
what had formerly prevailed, no change was
required to be made by the Central Company
when it resumed operations, except TO Continue
to conduct them in its own name, as 1t had done
previously to the lease.
There is a story abroad that the
Central has on hand about half q mil
lion tons OF coal which it will throw
on the market next spring. That will
be cold comfort after such a winter as
this; but, If the event takes place, it
must inevitably break the market,
and coal may be SO cheap next year
that consumers will be able to even
UP for the extra rates they now have
TO nav