The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-05
WILLIAMS ANSWER TO RYAN.
fContinued from First pageJ

- HE@'A ACA DdclR4ESS, SUN ElCdtft ieSAits
will follow.
You comment upon the amount OF now
stock OF the consolidated company which
II Is proposed shall be raid 10 he Ricn-
mond bankers for services rendered by
/ them in connection with this consolidaucn
The allowance made 10 the Richmont
bankers engaged in the consOl dat on OF
the greater Seabcard System, for their
services, was approved by each and every
member of the syndicate, by whom the
compensation Was fixed and is much less
than the compensation heretofore given in
transactions of similar magnitude.
Propositions PrepOsterous.
The propositions which you brazenly
made TO me in our last conferences in my
rooms al the Waldorf, ard at my office in
New York, l regarded as prepo.te GUS;
such, for example, your statement that
you would not be willing to agree to any
consolidation of the roads comprising the
Seaboard System unless as controlling in
terest in the stock of the new consolidated
company should be placed in voting
trust, and that you should be one of tn
two trustees, and proposing that BE- the
other Your other suggestio was equally
ridiculous-that l should induce my ass9-
ciates 10 sell out to you at cost, and thai
! you and should then together REQ ganize
the system, and issue so ,0020O0 of
new stock on the Seaboard System alone
without the Georgia ard Alabama ami
Florida Central and Peninsuar, and divide
up the profits. I Indignantly and prompt
ly rejected your overtures of this ma ure.
and told you, then and there, that d
not believe that our views could be recon-
cied, as our habits and methods OF
thought and our IDEAS of principe were
radically and absolutely different.
In my telegram of the 18th l reminded
you of your statement to me in October
| that If you should not find that you could
join in our plan Of consolidation, that you
| would name a price on your Stock 50 as
| to get out.
Says He Sought Legislation.
Instead of doing this, you made des-
perate and malicious effort 10 sneak bill
| through the Legislature of Georgia which
was drafted for the purpose of preventing
| and defeating the consolidation of the
! Crelter Seaboard System; but when its
| object was discovered IL was promptly
xii ed. This attempt was a deliberate and
| outrageous violation of the promise which
! ycu made to me in October.
| You claim to own about twenty-five hun
bred SHARES of the stock Of the Seaboard
| ana Roanoke Railroad. Your attorney Mr..
| Groner, info med me a short time ago That
! this stock COST you between $50 and $lOO
rer share, ard that he had in his posses
! sion a statement which showed it. Less
,han fourteen months ago This stock was
selling at $l25 per snare Owing, princi-
| pally, to what has been done by the Sea-
| board syndicate and my associates, this
stock is now worth $500 per share, and II
| YOU are unwilling TO join us we are Will
| ing to take the stock held by yourself and
your friends, some of which, you have in
formed me yourself, cost you as low as
| thirty at 1900 per share, eliminating you
! from the situation with large profit to
! you. i,t+ @e
In conclusion, will tell you that I am
-.
| associates and hackers have adopted for
the purpose of delaying and if possible
of thwarting the execution of the plans
| approved by a large majority in interest.
| l Go not doubt that the reckless attacks
which have been made upon those insti-
| tutions in New York and elsewhere who
| are supposed TO have holdings in these Sc
i oufities win react upon those who inspire
i them for their own evil purposes.
Ryan Would Not Agree.
The statement which 1 submitted to
you, upon which our plan of consolidate ton
was based, showed very large surplus
earnings over and above all possible fixed
charges. We told you that If you cared
to cooperate in this consolidation that
We were willing to let you appoint your
| own experts to make a thorough exam
ination of the books and accounts of each
and every road concerned in the consol-
idation, with the understanding that If
| our reports should not be confirmed and
verified you would not be under any OBJ
! legations 10 come into the consolidation,
| but that if these statements of ours
| should be found to be correct then you
should join in with us, receiving terms
! as favorable as those allowed to any other
| stockholder. This YOU refused to agree
TO- / also proposed to you, on Nov. 8,
that we should lay our plans of con-
solidation before the best railroad minds
| frxr 10 get he of q
| Judgment in regard to them, and I sug-
| nested the names of the presidents or
| vice presidents of some five or ten of the
| best systems in the country. You again
refused my offer.
AZ that time 1 asked you whether
there was any other Information which
you desired, and which l could furnish
! YOU, in order that you might come to
| your conclusion, with all the facts before
| YOU. and you replied that you knew
| of nothing csc that you desired; That L
had furnished you with all the facts fig
ures and information, relative to the propo-
stion that you wanted.
Has Never Been to Florida.
When YOU remarked on Nov. 9. 1899,
that YOU had never visited Florida your
| self | urged YOU to select an expert and
| let him make a thorough examination of
the physical condition of oil the properties
involved in the proposed consolidation,
| and offered 10 put at MS dlsposal every
| facility fer such on exam nation, and |
specially invited you yourself to come
down and go over the properties, but you
refused to do this, and ; a matter of
! fact. YOU tlave not for several years past
| personally attended a single stockholders
! meeting OF any of the roads of the Sea-
| board system, in which you c,aim TO be
SO deeply interested, but have sent down
| to them certain attorneys, who seem to be
paid for the purpose of attempting to
make trouble wherever they can do so.
| I do not believe that those interested
in the creation of a system so sound, so
extensive and with such prospects for
| ne benefit of the South can be disturbed
by the futile and cowardly attempts which
ere being made to wreck the same.
Your holding OF stocks in the Seaboard
! and Roanoke road, as compared with the
value of the systems embraced in the con-
| soIidation. is a small fraction. and YOU
may be sure that those so deeply interest
| 4 -rffI brr alxyaG nd