The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-10-16
Public Sale of Reading Railroad.

MOISdll, W1lllll 10 ~ odD ~ eii~ ANONA'"
child money syndicate. This price is not
one-fourth what the road represents and
whether the stock and second mortgage
bonds have any legal rights which are
not extinguished by the first mortgage
bonds is question which will be tested
i'll the courts and will probably require
several years before final decision is
rendered.
The probability, little short of certainty,
is that the first mortgage claim will eX-
tinguish all others. That law holds good
in the case of firms which are being sold
under foreclosure every day. And what
more are stockholders and other claim
ants in railroads than heirs and similar
claimants to real estate, unless it perhaps
is made to appear that the public have
some sort Of vested rights which the cor,
porations cannot claim, which is exceed
| ing doubtful, in as much as the courts
are largely under the influence of the
monopolies, syndicates and corporations
Roundly speaking half the railroads Of
the country are or have been in the hands
of receivers and all of them will be if con
ditions are not changed. The roads are
paying no dividends OH stock, which is
being wiped out or purchased by the
bondholders at whatever they choose tc
! pay for it, to whom it is valuable only as
it enables the bondholders to control the
management of the roads.
The fate of the Reading is but fore
cast of the fate Of. all the railways in the
country (if the government does not STEP
in and take possession) under the gold
standard, the English policy, which is
tightening itself around the United States
as a boaconstrictor winds its crushing
folds about the animal it prepares to make
a meal of.
When the courts have decided that the
foreclosure of railroads under the first
mortgage extinguishes all other claims,
as they will certainly decide if present
conditions are permitted to continue, the
way Will NC SlSdl ~ u WI y
large system of railroads in the country
into the hands of the money syndicates of
Europe. When that time and the result
is reached, the salaries Of railroad presi-
dents and other high officials, which run
from ten thousand dollars to one hundred
thousand dollars year will be scaled
4 fN,,rf1,o Tho
of management which is independent of
the bondholders, will be entirely within
their own hands. From claimants as
mortgages they will be in the position OF
absolute owners of the entire means of
transportation in this country, and dictate
the wages and salaries of all employees,
from track men to presidents and super
intendents.
Attached to these railroads are over one
hundred and twenty-five million acres OF
land in the form of grants, donated by
Congress along with their charters, while
the people we're diverted from the things
of vital Importance, by sham battle over
tariffs and bloody shirt. In addition to
this vast territory composing railroad land
grants, private persons, Lords, Earls,
Dukes, and foreign syndicates own fifty
six million acres more of the territory OF
the country which has cost them almost
nothing.
In view of these facts it is readily seen
what powerful hold the foreign money
trust, Familiarity known as gold standard,
is getting on this country. When the
Wall street and English press of the
country (Which embraces nearly all the
daily papers of the large cities boastingly
publish the investment of foreign capital
in this country as something greatly to be
desired, the people should view all such
investments as chains of slavery in place
of something desirable.
We wonder if our people do ever seri-
ously consider where they are drifting
with our railroads owned and controlled
by foreigners, our best mines and largest
establishments in their hands, and for
eign money trust controlling prices OF
everything, debating laws that shall be
passed by Congress and filling the houses
of our national legislature through their
political agents, the National Banks?
This process is steadily going OH and it
is the inevitable result of what is flip
PANTY called, by people ignorant of its
results, the gold standard.
In place of this: Financial scheme being
gold standard or any other kind Of a
standard, it is a cunning device of for
eign money trust TO plumber the wealth
producing masses of the world.
1t has placed thousands of millions OF
National, State, railroad and other cor
poration debts on this country and crowd
ed down the price of products, SO that it
will be forever impossible to pay any
more than the interest on them. The
laboring and wealth producing classes of
way, but far more heavily than this
country. III fact they are in condition
of wage slavery, so grinding and impov-
erishing that they are too feeble to conf
plain above mere whisper.
This gold standard money trust is in
league with the crowned heads and arts
tocratic classes of the Old World, who
force the interest on these foul debts from
the people in the form Of taxes by theii
standing armies. which are kept ALWAYS