The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-12-15

OF my business. When you get three
tourths you get control of this railroad.
The highly Respectfully and ''highly
toned" methods of corporate manage,
ment which prevail in what you are so
fond Of calling the business world, :"
will authorize you to wreck this mi
nority stock. You can swear that you
will not do it until your faces are as
red as an anarchists banner; but in all
this land there is not one man of sense
who will believe you. We know that
when you get three-fourths of this
property you will have, for all prac
tlcal purposes, four-fourths of 1T. You
are really buying from US not three
tourths, but all of it. You will so man
age the road as to pay no dividends to
the private stockholders. You will
run down their stock on the market;
and ultimately you will buy them cut
at nominal prices. That is the gen
teel" thing. By these and similar
methods you and your predecessors
have acquired wealth to an extent that
should be beyond the dreams of
avar:co. Up to this time jarists ard
and statesmen have invented no way
to prevent such iniquities. It is not
my business, as the chief servant of the
people Of this State, to so manage their
property as to enhance the value of
the property of private individuals.
l have nothing to do with the minority
stock. It's owners r entitled to the
same equal protection Of the law upon
this as upon any other of their prep
erty their cattle or lands or factories
no more. II they happen to be the
owners Of a species of property which
Is liable to be eaten up by the cRnnibals
OF Wall and Lombard streets, it is no
concern Of our save in so much as
they may be entitled to receive from
US that sympathy which ought to be
common to men.
Instead of saying this to the owners
OF the Southern railway system, our
Democratic Governor gave away this
splendid property to these multi mil
lionaires on substantially their own
terms and, if the lease is sustained by
the courts, threw away the chance to
turn millions of dollars into our treas,
ury. And he stands for the crowd
who for twenty-five years have prac-
ticed biennial Mysteries over the mis-
management of their opponents"
But has not the North Carolina
railroad been already leased to the
Southern, and is that not an end of the
whole things"
cit is not ended. The Populist party,
in their State Convention, denounced
the lease and demanded that the leeis.
iature should investigate it and take
steps to cancel it. The Farmers AL
lance have made the same declaration.
Unless / can see that I am wrong in
my views Of this transaction, I shall
advise the legislature to adopt measures
looking to the cancellation Of this lease
and for the restoration of this property
to the people. If the courts shall hold
that the Southern Railroad Company
has acquired a vested right then their
lease must stand. Vested legal right
must be protected even though they
be, in good morals and in justice,
vested wrongs. This principle is es,
sen5ial to the existence Of civilized So
ciety.
las to the Atlantic and North Caro-
lima railroad, the attempt of the pres
ent Democratic administration to lease
it to a Wayne county corporation will,
l presume, be abandoned, if it be true
that responsible parties are o offer
ing a better price. AS I understand it,
the Goldsboro syndicate are saying
that il their lease is consunmate6 the
stock will be worth $40 a share on the
market. If this is SO, or if they be
lieve it be so, let them offer $35 in pur-
chase Of the stock which belongs to
the State and to the counties. 1t seems
to me that the State would be glad to
sell its stock for about $500, 600, pro,
vided the stock held by the counties is
taken at the same price. This would
take the railroad out of politics and the
politicians who for twenty years have
enjoyed it in politics would be happy
beyond the dreams of poets.
"Ot course l know that THE tsIk will
shock some goody goody folks who
think that a Governor" ought not to
descend close enough to the earth for
plain speech. But you see I am only
a plain citizen now. Hereafter I may
call I'm soma IF tho tEtrn1v OON6 - the