The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-03-02
B. & o. COLLAPSE.
Causes Of the Receivership and
Chances Of Rehabilitation
of the Road.

BALTIMORE, March q 1S96.-The first
erect of the Baltimore and Ohio recetv-
ershlp viii be to enable the to
rnnold paymen of its pressing obliga-
lions and to Sinaugurate the policy which
president Cowen was about to start-the
general ~overhaufing of the rolling stock.
1nls Will be dome In a thorough man
ners and will extend to every locomotive
ana car thai is not at the maximum
standard of efficiency. It is. generally
understood that the rundown condition
OF tne roads equipment has greatly i'm
paired Its earning capacity. The current
receipts of the mpan will be used
for this purpose.
supplementary proceedings will be filed
today asking for a receivership In the
states or New York, Pennsylvania, Del
q Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio,
fnolana and Illinois and the District Of
Columbia. An order has been issued by
vice PRESIDENT King to all the employees
OF the Baltimore and Ohio Company CON
tanuing them in their positions under the
receivers.
1ooay there is due interest and rental
opiigations from the Baltimore and Ohio
company amounting to $3.50, $50. It was
tnis obligation, more than any other con-
oitlon, that forced the into the
receivers hands. President Cowen spent
most OF last week In New York irving
70 negotiate a loan with J. P. Morgan
g Co. for the pressing needs Of the com
pany.
morgan q Co. were willing to extend
Inc aug, out demanded concessions which
the Baltimore interests were not willing
10 grant. The New York firm made 1t
q condition of the loan that it was to
nav either absolute control of the Balti-
more and Ohio property, such control to
De secured to it through a pooling of a
majority of the stock into a voting
trust, to be placed in the FIRMS hands
Ior q term OF years, or 1t was to direct
Board 0l Of D III ene 1a ,ygis th s0 2 b the the
bers Of the Board. their places to be
and no. director enthusiastically to the
firm to be admitted.
Thls was the status of affairs when
MI CoWen. returned from New York last
Friday and it was laid before some Of
me largest holders of the Baltimore and
ohio stock. These stockholders, it is said,
troll of the property ny Morgan & Co.
ana q reeeivership. which might ultf-
roa : co w1nd Up r. ino E retention. Of the
more interests preferred a receivership.
Further communication with Morgan &
Co. was suggested, and on Saturday a
message was Sent to the firm asking If
1T could not modify Its demands in giving
assistance to the road. Thu firm refused
70 recede from its former position, and
with no other recourse left in which to
raise funds for current and pressing
needs. the company was forced to the
Receiver Cowen left for New York last
night to confer as TO the finances of the
reorganization. additional members Of
the Reorganization Committee will be
named in, a dayxor two. This committee,
as so far made. up, Is composed of Messrs.
Louis Fitzgerald, Eugene Delano, How
ard B. Bacon and William A. Reed, who
are the New York members of the Board
committee representatives of large in
terests In the securities of the Baltimore
and Ohio. The committee will also nave
associated with it another body of the
same. kind to be; formed by the English
interests in the road
A report on the property will be pre-
pared by the receivers and submitted to
the courts. This report will show the
financial status of the company and give
the details of its obligations, including
the floating debt which is estimated to
be in the neighborhood of $4,000, 900. The
funded debt of the company is $50, 672, 224.
1t has a share capital of So, 100000 of COM
mon and SIS, 1861, 500 of preferred stock-a
total liabilities of $144, OBJ, TIA.