The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-08-30

| nual dividends OF q per cent. am at
loss of conceive why the benefits of an
advantageous lease do not accrue to the
State as a stockhelder as well as to a
private stakeholder. WHAT the private
stakeholder has desired was that the
property of the North Carolina Railroad
Company, of which they owned one
million dollars, should be removed from
the domain Of politics and be regarded
and treated as business enterprise, for
their experience has been that while it
was in the hands of politics, the poll
ticians got the dividends, and the stock
holders as we'll as the State got nothing.
The tax payers Of the State must re-
collect that unless the State receives as
much as per cent. on dividends from
this stock they will be compelled to put
their hands in their pockets and pay the
interest upon the three million dollars OF
bonds issued to build the road.
Now, as to the second question, as to
WHY was this lease renewed at this time.
1t seems to me that sufficient answer
to that is that the State has made an
advantageous bargain, much better than
was expected. It has given by this bar
gain an assurance to the taxpayers
of the State that they will not be called
upon to pay one cent Of the interest on
these three million dollars of bonds tor
ninety nine years, but on the contrary
they are assured that the State will re-
ceive in less than thirty five years enough
money over and above the amount the
State pays out as interest, if invested at
4 per cent. even, to pay the entire prin-
cipal of these bonds, leaving the State
gamer by having its three million dol
lars of North Carolina Railroad stock,
which will always pay an amount of
money, to-wit: 1910, 900, and taxes into
the treasury, and not having cost them
one cent.
In looking at the Auditors report of
1894, we see that the State collects
$251 1893 general tax of % cents on the
hundred dollars from the lands. $685.
SAB. 81 from town lots; $45, $4,000 from
cattle; 1888, 1880 from money on hand,
solvent credits, and other personal prop
erty; making total of 1924, 1914. 26.
Therefore, this $4,000 received as
dividends from the stock under the new
lease, besides about $25, 200 Of taxes,
amounts to about one-half of all the
money that the State is to-day collect
ing for general purposes, so that the
tax payers can readily see that the per
centum of taxation will be reduced
nearly one-half on the present basis.
Can anyone think that the Governor
and board of directors had any other
motive than to benefit the tax payers of
the State of North Carolina2
The Southern Railway Company, as
any reasonable and intelligent man
should know, could not wait until the
expiration of the old lease before it as
certained whether or not it could re
new the lease. 1t has recently changed
its deep water terminus from West
Point to Norfolk, Va, and acquired
large terminal facilities at Norfolk. 1t
desires the North Carolina Railroad to
use it as through line to this deep
water terminus, and it was simply
question whether they would go to
Danville over their own line by Mocks-
will and Winston and use the Atlantic
& Danvill, or go through the whole
length and breadth of North Carolina,
from Charlotte via Greensboro, Durham
and Raleigh, to Selma, which is twenty
miles west Of Goldsboro and thence
over the Atlantic Coast Line to Wilson,
Rocky Mount and Tarboro, thence over
the Norfolk IL Carolina from Tarboro
to Norfolk, making a distance from
Charlotte to Norfolk, the deep water
terminus, 358 miles. Is it better to di
vert this traffic over the road from
Greensboro to DanVille, and the Allan
tic and Danville, in preference to going
through the center of the State When
this lease was formerly made, the great
hue and cry was that the Richmond and
Danville simply wanted the North Car
DINA road to run across the State and
carry the trade to Richmond; now, I'M
der this arrangement, it runs through
the length and breadth of the State, to
Norfolk, which is only 20 miles from
the State line, and which is settled very
largely by North Carolinians. This
line brings all the Tennessee and West
ern freight seeking tide-water, which
now goes via the Norfolk and West
ern, and does not come through
North Carolina at all, nearly
500 miles through our State, thus
developing and building up the
State and enhancing and improving the
value of our property. The Southern
Railway Company desired, even upon
the terms imposed by the board of di-
r3ctors of the North Carolina Railroad
Company, TO use the North Carolina
Railroad for the purpose of making this
through line. Why should we, as PEG
pie or stockholders, have prevented this i?
To make improvements required and
made necessary the use of the North Caro-
lima Railroad as through line, in
volving and necessitatiDg an outlay of
large sums of money, especially east of
Greensboro, and it was indispensable that
the lease should have the long term
AS matter of fact, we know that the
portion of the line between Charlotte
and Greensboro, being now used as a
through line, is in better condition
than the road between Greensboro and
Goldsboro, and to man OF ordinary
intelligence the outlay of large ms to
make the improvements between
Greensboro and lima, 100 miles, to
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