The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1894-01-12
CLAIMS AGAINST THE O, P.
"A Reply to a Letter Re-
Gently Published by John =
p. Fay. ~

MILLS CITY, Or, Jan. 6.-[To THE
EDITOR. lon December 80 last there
appeared an article in the Oregonian
entitled "a Statement by John P. Fay,
OF the Firm of Fay & Gest," from
which I quote the following: "a ref
erence to the copies of the teleerams
sent to the judge confirms my state
ment and shows that one of the ex.
press conditions upon which the $40
900 would be paid by the Blair and
Wharton bendholders was that it
should be paid direct to the laborers
upon claims of labor due to them
which were personally held and had
not been disposed of, and not to those
shylocks who, crawling between
heaven and earth by ways that out
Herod Herod, and blur the grace and
blush of modesty, had, in the hour Of
dire suffering, sqeezed out of these
laborers their labor claims at from 25
to IS per cent. discount on the dollar
We did not intend to pay those cold
blooded knaves, and I am gratifed to
say they did not get cent of the $4O,-
OOO."
Now the facts are, as Mr.. Fay well
knows, that for these claims, whoever
holds the same, the o. P. railroad
received 100 cents on every dollar, and
they represent an honest debt of that
road, even if it was fact that those
claims had been bought for 10 cents on
the dollar. Mr.. Fay knows that said
company could have no legal or equi-
table defense against them, and that
they represent just as honest debts
against that railroad as is if still in the
hands of the men who did the labor or
furnished the material. And when
MI. Fay states those men who pur-
chased those claims are "shylocks,
who, crawling between heaven and
earth" took advantage of those mems
necessities and obtained khelr claims at
25 to 70 per cent. discount, VIC pre-
sumo he did il advisedly, and if 50, we
further presume he has the proof for
this statement. If so, w e demand it.
And if he cannot bring 1T, we submit
he stands before the country as viii.
fer that would blur the grace and
blush of modesty.
The facts are the purchasers of these
claims are all men of integrity and
honor. Does Mr.. Fay mean that all
the merchants along the line of the
road, and almost every business man in
Albany and Corvallis, are shylocks
and thieves, as he boldly asserts2 Now
the writer hereof has not one dollar in
the Oregon Pacific railroad, and yet I
will affirm, and stand ready to prove
by the men who sold their claims, that
they received in 90 per cent. of the
cases dollar for dollar for their claims.
Merchants took the claims and fur
nished the men the necessaries of life,
and had it not been for these men Mr..
Fay so foully slanders, the road would
have been shut down for want of ma
terial and labor long ago.
If those claims had been bought for
25 cents on the dollar, who are the
losers by the transaction The fact is
the purchaser was sold at whatever
price he paid.
Running over period of about
three years, we find the road owes for
labor and material east of Albany
about $4,000; in other words, all the
wood, material and labor consumed by
the road for 80 months amounts to
about that sum.
Fay & Gest have been the accredi-
ted attorneys for the road for about
eight months last past, and for this SER
vices they charged the modest sum of
$48,705, or SIC, 900 more for attorneys
fees for eight months than all other ex-
penses combined for 80 months.
But the modesty of this attorney
does not stop here. He boldly chal-
lenges comparison with the fees of at:
torneys under other arrangements, and
states that the Hogs paid their attor-
neys 500, 900 for 26 months, which is
equal to about So, ZOO per month while
this man charges $48,705 for eight
months, equal to more than Sc, 900 per
month. In other words, the services
of this firm of lawyers was worth more
to the Oregon Pacific railroad by So, 800
per month than the attorneys under the
Hogg management. Of the truth of
this the writer knows not. But it does
seem that laborers, material men and
merchants who have been carrying the
Oregon Pacific for three years can by
these facts see where their money has
gone.
But how for Mr.. Fay to denounce
all the men who are so unfortunate as
to have become the owners of those
claims by such bard Dames, it would
seem is carrying the joke little too
far, especially when we contemplate the
fact that these slanders come from a
firm who haye made such stupendous
charges for services.