The news & observer., 1895-08-18

the land out of which it issues. One is
a right of passage over the corpus, the
other, the corpus itself. A lease of the
road would carry the right of transpor-
tatiOn as an incident; but the
right of transportation would not
carry the road, for if so every
WAGNER at a ollgate, who buys
a ticket over a turnpike for a
year or a term of years, thereby ac-
quires a lease of the read and its man
agement. Nothing is more common than
for all roads, with connecting lines, to
farm out the right of transportation
over their lines, and in this day of close
connections and rapid transit, the prac-
tice is indispensable to successful bust
ness. We every day see this right farmed
ont to express companies, and by one
company for the cars and freight Of an
other, and for special purposes.
"But it is perfectly clear, that without
a power to that effect in the charter, a
railroad company can neither make a
voluntary sale, lease or mortgage any
more than it can bank, insure or deal in
stocks.
"Public law so we'll settled and recog-
nized at home and abroad should not be
overthrown by the mere constitution of
words on a charter, of ambiguous and
doubtful meaning; but on the contrary,
should control their construction accord
ing to every rule Of Interpretation.
''The rapid multiplication of these
bodies, their resources and far reaching
ambition, their ubiquity and vast COM
binations, all moved and directed by
concentrated power and talent, consti-
tute them a distinct and almost inde
pendent and oyershadoWing power in
our governments, and in fact the great
social and political problem of the age,
whether they shall control governments,
or governments shall control them, are
questions that are forcing themselves
uDon public attention, and fast assum-
ing practical Importance. They should
and will be maintained in the
exercise of all their essential and
legitimate powers, as necessary and
useful institutions of modern civiliza-
tion. But if in addition to the danger
Gus power of transferring all their pro
perty and franchises to any body and
anywhere, it should also be held that
their corporate powers are such contracts
as put them beyond the reach of all
legislative checa or control in the inter-
est of society, then the problem will
have been solved. The government, in
my opinion will have abdicated its
sovereignty, heretofore supposed to be
inalienable, and society will be left with
out protection to chartered irresponsi-
bility.
"My conclusion upon the whole case
is, that the North Carolina Railroad
Company had no right to change the
gauge and its assignee acquired no right
to change it; and furtE2c that the lease
is ultra Uire and void. For although the
right of transportation over the road is
the subject of lease, the lease as made
cannot be good in part and bad in part,
because it is impossible to separate the
good from the bad and to apportion a
rent given 611 sOLid0. l therefore think
the Judgment of the court below should
have been affirmed
If this question were brought before
the Supreme Court as at present consti
tuted, what would be the decision
Would majority of the Court take the
same view as did Judge Bynum in the
above opinion There are several an
swers to this question.
Following the lease by the directors,
the stock advanced yesterday, 4 points,
to 110 bid. 1t is firmly believed that
with the future fairly in sight for the
North Carolina Railroad, lease running
nlnety-nine years should gradually run
the stock certainly to $50, and many say
that under such lease the stock would
in the course of few years be worth
200 This would, doubtless, be nuts for
the private stockholders who no doubt
look upon the lease as a gilt-edge busl-
ness transaction, as they could be trad
ing all the time in it to their advantage,
and, if not, they could see their holdings
gradually double in value. And this,
they say, would be true for the State,
also, but if the State retained possession
of the road and of its stock worth 200 on
which it was receiving 7 per cent, the rate
of interest that would be realized by the
State thus holding the stock for SO years
would not amount 10 3 per cent. AT the
rate the stock is now selling, 110, even if
the lease were for so years only, the
rate of interest realized would be only
6 "a per cent at 1870 for fifty years, it
would be ST per cent; 130, 529 per
cent. 140, Sc per cent, and so on, so
that the State, being a constant holder
and not trader in this stock, will not get
the rosy returns which appear on the face
of the lease. So that President Alex
ander was mistaken when he said IN his
telegram to the governor: 'the lease is
much more favorable than the old one. !"
For the old lease bearing 6 per cent. for
80 years, even putting the sock all the
time at 100 (and there are few
who do not remember when it was in
the eighties) would realize to the state
only 6 per cent. or LA per cent. less
than if the stock sold at 140 on lease
even of so years. So that Mr.. Alexander
nightmare his figures over again.
But figures or no figures, the public
would like to be taken into the conf
dence of the directors just now as to
their property, and in the failure to be
convinced that the State is not getting
all that should reasonably be expected
from this rich profit bearing and grow
ing road, it may be in order for those
who have been so unnecessarily ignored
| to invoke the aid of the law, with the
hone that the nresent cOurt NAV see the