The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1897-09-23
THE LEASE FRAUB-sOME POINTS
THAT THINKING MEN MUST NOT
FORGET.

THE LEASE FRAUB-SOAE P"WIS
| THAT THINKING MEN MU,T NOT
FORGET.
The prince of corporatiOnists, Jay
G ,uld, said "that out of every one hun
dred shares in q corporation there
were just fifty-one that are good and
just forty-nine that are not
worth a Continental or q Confederate
note"
When railroad kings want to grab
up a railroad they prefer to get just a
bare majority of its stock, This gives
them the power to control the railroad
to do as they please with all the prop
erty, to pay themselves enormous sal
aries, to buy supplies for themselves at
their own prices, to make the railroad
buy iron from their furnaces and coal
from their own mines at their own
price.
1t is therefore this majority stock
that the railroad princes want. This
Is just what the State had and now has
in the North Carolina Railroad. But
for the lease, this State stock could
have been sold to them at big price.
But the directors or trustees of the
State ha d private stock of their own.
They knew that If the State sold out
their stock wo"iIc : . ;;.fG Oh V.e.r hands
and they might not be able to sell out
and the dividends on it might fail
Here was direct antagonism between
their private interest and the interest
of the State. The laws of honor and
the law of the land demanded that
they should stand up straight for the
State and disregard their own private
interest. If they were not willing ia
do this then they should not have &C.
cepted the trust.
What did they do? They rushed into
a bargain which was good enough fol
them but which robbed the State of it,
vantage ground and deprived it of the
opportunity to control it's own stock
for its own advantage.
The North Carolina Railroad was in
dispensable to the Southern Railway
Company. They could not live without
it. Rothschilds and Morgan had theil
money in the Southern Railway
Company. The North Carolina Rail.
way is the great link in the
middle of their line. The State
had these money kings In q cor.
ner where it could have made them
pay any price, where 1t could have Civ.
en- them taste of the chalice which
they have held to the lips of others, by
means Of which they have acquired
enormous wealth, and yet these trus-
tees for the State throttled 1t and tried
to chain it down to be run over by the
chariot of the millionaire.
What is the result9 If the people
send up legislature which would be
under the control of the monOpOiles
and the railroads and the trusts, then
the lease will stand and the million.
aires must have our property for less
than one-half. its worth, and entail up
on the tax payers of the State loss Of
millions upon millions, but if the PEG.
pie will send q legislature of honest
men who cannot be bought, then they
will pass railroad license law that
will prevent the Southern railroad from
operating the North Carolina Rail.
road unless they surrender the lease OF
pay into our treasury such price as We
choose to fix.
As to the Southern Railroad getting
independent of the State by building
from MOcksville to Mooresville, nobody
need be alarmed. That charter is re.
vocable at the will of the State. The
same law which knocked out Their
lease would repeal that charter.
Let every leader Of the people and
every thinking man understand that
the State is the master of the situa.
tion. 1t can decide it's own terms K
the Southern Railway. All it needs il
a legislature honest enough and with
sense enough to do it. Lawyers Xix,
Governor Russell and Judge Avery
and many others can furnish the lega
and technical knowledge. The legis
lature will only need to pass such ,
bill as would be prepared by lawyer
in whom they would have confidence
Then the legislative would prevail il
spite of injunctions or SimOntOns.
|
The farmers who were deceived b.
the silver nonsense last fall havI