The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-02-01

the company, and also granted thirty acres Of
land In the City Of san Francisco, OF great value
which is now mortgaged by the same company for
$l2.2S5,0 900.
The several counties of the State contributed to
the company in money and property l5O0, 000; the
city of Sacramento decided TO il its river water front
OF the estimated value of 81 100000 and the same
corporation acquired held without consideration
and contrary TO the plain principles of law more
than ten miles Of the front Of the bay of san
Francisco, forming the entire harbor of Oakland
and parts Of the harbors of Alameda, Berkeley and
San Francisco, which is of the estimated value OF
not less than $l0G00,000.
It also obtained from Wells. Fargo d Co. 81, 5Oe-
600 OF its stock in consideration of favorable trans
portation facilities accorded to said company.
VALUE OF THE GRANTS.
The foregoing grants reached the enormous
amount in value of $4,000, 900, which is much
more than the entire cost of the road.
Add TO the foregoing the interest which Mr.
Huntington and his associates obtained in every
town through which the railroad passed, and al so
for townsites, depot purposes and, in fact, every
known kind of property, and yon cannot but appre-
ciate the vast accessions OF this corporation.
Those donations of land and money were not in
tended as gift to Mr.. Huntington and his associ-
ates., but they were designed 10 secure the early
construction OF continental line of railroad, be
thereafter operated in the interests of the General
Government and of the people of the far West, and
always under proper surveillance and control.
The incorporates of the Central Pacific Railroad
Company were, 10 all intents and purposes, the
agents Of the Government and of the people. This
Nation conhded to their keeping the largest
amount of property ever in modern times granted
ton.
THE FIRST sUB-coMPANY.
III.
Soon after the organization of the Central Pa
cific Railroad Company c. P Huntington and his
three associates Incorporated another company
under the name of the Contract and Finance
Company" and the same men were the owners of
and represented both the Central Pacific Railroad
Company and the Contract and Finance Com
pany. The directors OF the Central Pacific Rail
road Company contracted with themselves to COM
plete the road OF that company, under the name of
the Contract and Finance ompany." They
charged their own prices for the work. and when
finished they held most of its assets and some one
else owned most of its debts. Under these condi-
lions it Is apparent that the asserted cost OF the
road was about three times as much as its actual
cost
MIR. Huntington has said he did not own 100
shares OF stock. He did not dare to own stock In
the company he had wrecked because under the
constitution OF California stakeholder is liable for
proportionate share of the Indebtedness OF a
poration ana, a director, he WAS them and is
still. liable for these palpable frauds
These same individuals and their successors IN
interest are now asking the General Government
TO relieve them from the liability which arose by
reason OF their illegal and fraudulent acts in in
curing this vast indebtedne by providing legal
means for re-funding it, and TO accomplish this
purpose they propose TO make new contract
under the forms of law whereby they will avoid
their personal responsibility for the creation of the
enormous liabilities now hanging overt the corpora
ton.
In this connection it must be remembered that
the bonded Indebtedness which the United States
assumed and agreed 10 pay is but small par OF
the actual nominal indebtedness of the corporation
According TO Poor's Manual for 1895, the total
liabilities OF the Central Pacific Railroad Company
reaches the vast sum of $500, 491 5S4 while under
the estimates made by the United States Railroad
Commission in 1883 the total cost OF building and
equippng the Central and Western Pacific railroads
did not exceed $40,000,000.
HuNTINGToNs THREE CORPORATIONS.
III.
Mr.. Huntington ana his associates at different
times organized three corporations through which
to carry their railroad business in California.
/. 1.-The Contract and Finance Company" which
we have referred TO, and under which corporation
the Central Pacific Railroad was built, and w hose
books have been destroyed.
2. 1.-The Western Development Company" Ex-
actly what this corporation intended to ode
velop" can only be a matter of conjecture. but it
continued in existence until its books became
laden with facts These books believe cannot
now be found or its history traced.
8. 1.-THE Pacific improvement Company" This
process of liquidation.
The whole scheme is a deception and fraud.
the great ferry and all its appendages on the line
of the Central Pacific Railroad at Port Costa and
also the steamer solano, which is the only ferry
boat in California that can carry a train of cars
across the Straits Of CarquineZ at that point.
p. !. CoMPANY's CLAIMS.
The same company owns. or claims to own, the
owns the ferry boat Piedmont, that plies between
Oakland and san Francisco, and which also forms
part of the Central Pacific Railroad Company's
line 1t owns the river steamers Modoc and
Apache, the railroad Office building at the foot of
Fourth and Townsend streets in the City of San
Francisco, the Del Monte Hotel at Monterey, the
principal part of the lands formerly helonging TO
the old company in and around North Berkeley
and the depots at sacramento and Los Angeles.
1t claims to own the Santa Monica wharf prop
erty, and the hotel at Lathrop before it was de
stroyed belonged TO this company. 1t also owned
the Central Pacific Railroad wharf AZ San Pedro
1t formerly owned or assumed TO own. the Oak
land water front and the Mission Bay properrv
but it is said that these properties have recently
been transferred 1t owDs the coal mines in the
State of Washington and in Mexico from whence
the Central Pacific obtains Its coal and it is pub
liciy declared that the Pacific Improvement Com
pany nets $2O00,00O a year from the coal # sup
T,1fn RI, fhQ har
companies.
Every dollars worth of all Of the above property
forms part of the Central Pacific Railroad sys-
tenn and was bought on its credit. The Southern
Pacific was also largely built the credit of the
Central, and the latter has wantony been made
bankrupt to build up and maintain the Southern.
TO DESTROY GOVERNMENT SECURITY.
From the foregoing it readily be seen how
the Central Pacific Railroad people have used the
money and the credit donated TO it by the General
Government and by the people of the State of Cali
fornia for the purpose of destroying the security
given TO the Government for the very money fur
nished to build the road.
The same men, viz: Huntington and his assoei-
ates, under the name of the Pacific Improvement
Company" hold control over much OF the private
business and large amount of the private prop
erty interests of California. To illustrate: They
own all the street railroads in San Francisco ex-
cept two. and most of the street railroads in Oak
land. They have gridironed the City of San Fran
cisco with lines actual and prospective. To do this
they commenced by issuing 81 000, 900 in bonds.
They froze out all OF the old street-raroad compa-
MES and now hold an Exclusive monopoly of street
rarosding in this grea City, and they control not
only the passenger traffic but the politics OF the
City.
They also own vast grants OF land in other parts
of California, to wit, in Amador, Yolo. Monterey
and other counties. They own most of the steam
ers IN the Bay OF San Francisco and the rivers
OF this great State They control the only line OF
steamers via Panama to New York, and they also
own the steam lines to China and Japan. They
thus combine with the shipping interests by sea
and land and fix the price of freight by both meth
DDS of transportation.
They even run our hotels and public resorts, be-
cause they control the means OF reaching them by
reason OF their ownership of all the lines of trans
poTtation in the interior Of the State of California
north of Tehachapi. They sell excursion tickets
TO their own resorts at prices that destroy all
petition of other towns or resorts which they do
not favor II is true the people visiting the State
are pleased by the apparent generosity of the rail-
road company, but in the end the producers of
California are the sufferers and have to pay all
amounts so expended.
SIDE CORPORATION HOLDINGS.
These side corporations referred to have always
held large part of the valuable assets of Mr.
Huntington and his associates. At one time the
Contract and Finance Company" held for them
$3S, 100000 of their property. (See Huntington's
letter Of January 10, 1887, and Mr.. Millers an
In 1888 to the President and the Congress of the
United States by the Railroad Commission ap-
pointed for that purpose)
To make uncertainty more uncertain, Mr.. Hunt
ington not only destroyed the books of the "Con-
tract and Finance Company but, according to the
reports made by those who investigated their
affairs, 1t is claimed they also destroyed part of
the so-cailed "RecOrd-book OF Corporation Debts,
(Which book they were required by law to Eeep):