Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-07-09
mbeelins Register
UNIoNToWN W. & w. VA. r. R.

"Citixen" Replies vigorously to OPP
ponents of the Subscription-An
Error Corrected.
WHEELING, w. Va, July s, 1900.
To the Editor of the Register.
Sir:-Please permit citizen, through
your valuable columns, to correct an
error that has been vigorously dissem-
mated in this community respecting the
ordinance concerning the subscription
to the Uniontown, Waynesburg and
West Virginia railroad.
What | desire to draw attention to
is the foundationless claim that the or
dinance does not protect Ohio county
in its subscription to the stock of the
railroad. This claim is only one OF
large number which our people must
expect will be started by the followers
and employees Of existing monopoly, to
prevent the competition of the new
company and its consequent lowering
of freight rates on coke SO essential to
the prosperity of our working people.
The Board of County Commissioners
seem to have acted with great care in
the preparation of this ordinance. 1t
is well known they employed a gen.
tleman Of high standing as lawyer
and with extended experience in such
matters. 1t is respectfully submitted
that he has done his whole duty. To
illustrate this l will quote a small por-
ton of the ordinance. Confining my
self in this communication to what is
said concerning the first installment of
the subscription, the ordinance reads:
THE said sum of five hundred thou
sand dollars shall be subscribed to the
capital stock of the said Uniontown,
Waynesburg and West Virginia Rail-
road, and such subscription shall be
payable as follows: One hundred and
fifty thousand dollars thereof when at
least four hundred and fifty thousand
dollars shall have been expended by
the said railroad corporation in the
construction of its railroad in the said
counties of Ohio and Marshall; such
four hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars having been raised wholly by the
sale of like capital stock of said COM
pany to private subscribers
No more is quoted in this commune
cation, because what has been quoted
illustrates sufficiently that care and
caution which characterizes the whole
ordinance, and as the communication
would be too extended if more of the
ordinance were inserted.
Al will be readily seen from the quo
tation that the county is only'to pay the
first 100000 when three times that
amount has been not only raised by the
Uniontown, Waynesburg and West
Virginia railroad from the sale of its
stock to private subscribers, but the
whole $4,000 must have been actually
expended in the State of West Virginia
in Ohio and Marshall counties in the
construction of the road. Nearly as
much money as Ohio county's whole
subscription must have gone into the
road and been actually expended on
the West Virginia part Of the road, be-
fore one cent is paid on the county's
subscription. Not only is this the case,
but this $4,000 is not inclusive of the
county's first payment of $3.50, 900, but
it is expressly provided in the ordi-
nance that the s450,000 put into the
construction of the road must have
been raised by the sale of capital stock
county will receive, and such sale must
have been made to private subscribers.
In other words, before Ohio county
pays one cent, the private stockholders
must have put nearly as much as the
whole of Ohio county's subscription into
the construction of the read, so that
it is irrevocably lost to them If the
road is not completed, before Ohio
county pays one cent on its stock. II
would be hard for the mouthpiece of
existing monopoly to find fault with
this provision. CITIZEN.