The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-01-31
THE LEASE OF THE N. G. II. r.
SOME HISTORY CONNECT
ED WITH 1T.

The big question in North Carolina IS
the proposition to annul the lease
OF the North Carolina Railroad to the
Southern Railway for term OF ninety
nine wears. That lease was made, six
years before the expiration Of the present
lease, in August, 1895. 1t was made
without inviting bids, and in manner
that indicated unwillingness for the peo-
ole to know even so much as that a prop
osition for lease was pending. And it
was entered into without the consent or
advice of the people or their representa-
tives in the General Assembly, and in the
face of the protest of almost every. news
paper in North Carolina.
The members Of this General Assembly
will be called upon TO answer the follow
ing questions:
/. Do you believe this great property
ought to have been leased six years before
the expiration of the present lease?
.. Do You believe a lease ought TO have
been made with one corporation without
public advertisement for bids?
g. Do you believe a lease ought to have
been made for ninety-nine years?
4. Do you believe the State of North
Carolina ougth to lease this road for
81 ,225 per mile, while the Southern pays
the State of Georgia, for a shorter lease,
for the rental of the Air Line from Char
lotte to Atlanta 81, 750 per mile, or $500
a mile less than is paid to Georgia for a
part of the system that is operated with
the North Carolina Railroad?
5. Do you believe that if six per cent
was fair rental on the 18th Of Septem-
her, 1871, when the road was leased for
thirty years (such Democrats then as
John w, Graham, John NJ. Worth, John
A. Gilmer and E. B. Withers believed
that the lease was attended, to say the.
least, with suspicious circumstances)--if
it was fair then, when the stock Of the
road was below par, is 6Ia and I per cent.
on the par value a fair rental when the
stock 10 above par? when the population
tributary to the road has doubled? and
the manufacturing interests have increas-
ed tenfold?
9. Do you believe in considering the
rental on the lease the par value or the
actual vadue of the stock should be consid-
cred?
Z. Do you believe that the whole of the
next century when instead of four trains
a day dozen win be running, when cleo
tricity win take the place of steam, and
wonderful improvements will be made).
that all these advantages should go to
railroad syndicate instead of to relieve
the people who were taxed to build the
road?
8. Do you believe twenty years from
now, when Raleigh has $4,000 inhabi-
tants and Durham as many: Goldsboro
10000; Burlington, 1000; Greensboro,
15,000;High Point, 10000; Lexington,
5000; Salisbury, $4,000: Concord. 12,-
900; and Charlotte $4,000, with like in
ClSdSt III Ill TIE luJeTIuen1aIe villages,
and an even greater increase in the indus
trial and commercial interests-all add
ing greatly to the income of the railroad
that the State ought to be satisfied with
the same rental it is now receiving?
8. Do you believe that IL your father in
1856 had paid $40 for an acre of land in
Durham, about where the Carolina Ho-
tel is now situated, you would be satisfied
with seven per cent. on the ten dollars
invested at that time?
There are other questions that will have
to be considered in connection with the
proposition to annul the lease, which
win suggest themselves 20 every
thoughtful legislator.
As a help to those who honestly desire
to have true history Of the making of
this lease, and are anxious to know their
duty and do it, as well as to refresh