The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1894-07-13
Evansville Courier.
The Peaceful Way.

capital that have been growing for
the past twenty-five years with ON
inous rapidity, is the universal prac-
tice Of corporations to get some
thing for nothing by the process
known as watering stock. This
is simply form OF robbing The
People for the benefit Of corpora
ton stockholders. We have case
in point here in Evansville. The
& Terre Haute railroad
was sold to the interest repre-
scented by Mr.. Mackey for *2,-
600, 600, including the Mount
Vernon branch which he after
wards built. 1t was soon dem
that the road was capable
of earning six per cent. on 81
$50, 600, and thereupon the board
of directors voted to increase the
stock and bonds to an aggregate of
81, $50, 900. Every dollar of this
increase over and above the cost of
the property was manifestly a tax
upon the patrons Of the road, for
they were obliged to furnish the
earning on this geyser Of water. 1t
represented not one dollar of actual
money invested. 1t was wild infla-
ton Of capital for which innocent
parties had to pay. What is true
of the Evansville & Terre Haute
road is true of every other road that
enters this city and every other rail-
road of Importance probably in the
United States. There are more wa
tered stock and bonds in the capi-
talization Of some and less in others,
but in all there is a sea of water
which has compelled all other forms
of property and of industry to swim
in hopeless struggle for land or
sink by the weight of the extra bur-
dens Of taxation and spoliation thus
put upon them. 1t is estimated by
some authorities that 40 per cent. of
the capitalization Of railroad cor
porations is composed Of water while
some statistics place the water in
railroad properties as high as Copper
cent. Either estimate is sufficient
to make the whole system Of rail-
way promotion an organized swindle
upon The People.
The watering Of stocks and bonds
is made at time i'm the career OF a
railway when its earnings are suf-
ficient to pay an annual interest OF
5 or per cent. on the capitaliza-
ton as watered. The lade Of water
is turned into the capital stock at a
time when general business is pros
porous and prospects for continued
activity are bright and promising.
When time of general depression
comes and the capacity for earning
returns upon railroad stock and
bonds is decreased and the outlook
points to failure in the payment
Of interest on bonds or dividends on
stock, railroad directors get together
and discuss the ways and means OF
preventing a result which must take
control of the property from their
hands and place it in the hands OF a
receiver. What is the remedy that
first suggests itself in such a crisis?
Does anybody ever hear OF rail
road company in aperiod OF depres'
sion assessing the stock, genuine
and watered, to provide for a threat
Iened deficit in the earning of the
road? o, no. Any one who would
suggest such method Of relief
would be accounted fit subject fol
iIthe insane asylum. The first and
)Ionly thing ever discussed in sucf
| an emergency is chow much shal
we compel our employees to take
from their wages to meet the threat
ened defcit?' When they deter
mine bv the estimates Of the com
panv's auditor how much Of a Gu
lin the wages will cover the anticl
pated shortage in revenues the di
) rectors pass a resolution cutting tn
: wages accordingly, just as the,
: passed a resolution previously IN
/, creasing the capital stock and bond
sIbv pouring in water, and withou
: which unlawful increase there woul'
lhaye been no necessity for cuttinl
D the wages Of employees.
5 II il fact which no informe'
! person will dispute that railroa'
: Corporations and the protected in
: tcrests Of the country annually col
/. llect from The People upon inilate'
e decentralization many times more rev
G enue every year than are collectc
Iron The People for the mainten
n ance of government, federal, state
! county, and municipal. And y.
n when an organized protest is mad
n against system Of spoliaticn sue
|as this. all of the forces Of socict
|, must be employed in defense OF o1
= der and maintenance Of peace an
n to prevent the destruction OF pr'
nj perty. II is the duty Of the pres