The age-herald., 1900-01-17
SENATOR MORGAN AGAIN MAKES
 REPLY ID GOVERNOR JOHNSTON
Writes Scahng Letter in Which He Freely Uses His Cutting
 Sarcasm and Fearful JnVecGp.

The $2O,OOO,OOO charter of New Jersey is a
 great sum, more than twice the amount of
 the public debt of Alabama. It would sup
 ply the amount of her appropriations for
 ten years. It Is nearly double the sum that
 l and my colleagues havc been able to ee-
 cure for public works and buildings in Ala
 bama, during the 23 years l have been in
 the senate; and 1t Is nearly three times the
 sum that is required to secure steamboat
 navigation from Rome to Mobile. You
 could not get a $20, GOO char-er in Ala
 bama, for General Rucker and your other
 friends, because of narrowne.ss, and went
 to a state where corporate expansion
 would be wide enough to admit the swell
 ing of your business ambition to its
 .predestined growth. .
 ''Bul. you must have had other reasons to excuse course so disastrous to the state,
 and wounding to the sens,bll.ties of the people.
 First you could not get spot cash for your 4,000 of stock dn the recently insol-
 verit American Coal company, and for your
 3,3O0 acres of land, held by your partner, l General Rucker, and yourself l cannot do your business methods the. discredit of supposng that you did not turn an honest penny on these sales of lands and stocks.
 hope your reply to the letter of Honorable Sterling Wood when it is made, will not show that you have made too great sacri- fee Of your interests started by MT. Mabon, your co-laborsr in trust building, if your interests were dropped out of the trust deal But you confess that they came
 into the coordination you had formed. Second, the property of these corporal
 tions when held in New Jersey, is difficult to reach under the tax laws of Alabama. #
 not almost beyond the power of the state.
 'Third, you left Alabama to deal with l dead corporations here, and resurrected l them in New Jersey under new name, and 1 o,,el,, o,r,e otaIt
 Fourth, 1t is your duty, as governor, to see to it that all Alabama corporations are held to obedience to the laws of Alabama, and if they violate the laws, by selling all their property to other corporations, that | thcr charters shall be declared forfeited
 under legal proceedings to be instituted un- der your authority. Instead of doing your duty, you assisted them tn violating the law.
 "Ftfth, the owners of the stock in the New Jersey corporation, that owns the mines furnaces, and other real estate or
 personal property in Alabama, were thus assisted by you to take shelter under the le- gal skeletons of the dismantled corpora tions here, so as to escape personal habiiity for the debts of the New Jersey corpcra-
 tion and of the Alabama corporaHons that
 are to be kept up for that purpose Ton created A cover to shield the New Jersey stockholders from responsibility for the
 debts of these corporations IT you nave
 failed. it has not been for want of efort. The New Jcrsey Law
 ssTae general corporation laws or New Jersey, revised in 1896, place no limit on the l capitalization of corporations except that | fl should not be less than $l'OoO.Oo. Ihey | authorize corporations to engage ln any | kind of business, except banking, ana 10 | change their business at pleasure. No limit | is placed upon their duration, and they are empowered to make any contracts they see | fit with foreign corporations. They pay | franchise tax to New Jersey, "hich l amounts to more than S1 000.0OO annually, | which is the reason for thus selling to them | the power to invade other states and specu- | late on their trade, property and ndustries | The latest reports show that under these 1 laws 194 New Jersey trusts and compina- tions, such as you have aided Tn creating for work in Alabama, have capital stock 1 of s4, ,4O3, 400, 900. This vast sum IS neariy 1 four times as great as the national deDt 1 of the United States, and the use or It an controlling every form Of industry IS the most hideous danger this country has ever
 confronted in its financial and industrial 1 affairs ooo "You have aided in adding 900 of l alleged capital to this mass of currupt and l tyrannical power, and to do this, you nave | destroyed several Alabama corporations
 and have turned into its maw the lands of | the university and the pubic schoois anu your private property.
 1 "In Alabama the people are liable to De | taxed on their paid-up stocks in corpora | tions In New Jersey this $2o,OoOVo or | stock is personal property which, not oeing l held in Alabama, Is not eaxable nere. mus | by slnrewd business turn you transfer tbe taxes on s2OO0O.O00 of stock from Ala 1 bama to New Jersey, and. at the least' you did it to help sell your property to that | corporation. This is what this trust com
 bine attempts to secure to its stock holo, CTS, and this is the reason of the wise and | just rule of law that no corporation of an- | other state can do business in Alabama | without the consent of the state.
 l "Knowing that this state would not con l sent to this you aided in organizing New | Jersey corporation that could join the vast | congregation of other trusts in riding down | the laws and public policy of Alabama, and | the whole country.
 l "As governor of Alabama, you abandoned l your post of duty as the guardian of her | welfare and honor and joined the specuia- l tors who would coin her greatest interests | into gan If you had been my colleague | in the senate would have said even more | about YOU than I found 1t my duty to say about the governor of Alabama. Your an- | swer to this plain situation is as follows, and the theme of it is often repeated dn your letter. You say:
 The gravamen of my o{seg.ss s-. your l eyes seems to be that encouraged the the formation of a company to bring a very large amount of money into Ala bama. I thought, senator. that every l good citizen and tax payer would be | glad to see that. and if that be an of- fense, am afraid that you must have l forgotten when you were supporting me | for governor that I was one os the l parties who organized the Sloss Iran | and Steel company In 1887. If this be an l offense, I am guilty, not only in the case cited, but in numerous others Was Not Aware