Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1901-04-26
The Canal Case Argued in Court.

The hearing Of argument on the petition
oil the canal trustees for postponement of
the sale Of the canal five years longer took
place before Judge Stake, at Hagerstown, ON
Saturday last.
Hugh l.. Bond, Jr., representing the canal
trustees, read the petition asking for a post.
ponement of the SALE He said the trustees
had received In the past five years $500 900
net revenue. Outside of the contract with
the Chesapeake and Ohio Transportation
Company, the trustees have valuable inter.
ests In the canal. He referred to the Court
OF Appeals decision, saying that the court
had decided in unmlstakable language that
in view of the guaranteed contract between
the transportation company and the trustees
the State had no right to step in and press
for sale of the canal at this time.
Isidor Rayner, Attorney General of Mary
land, argued for the State against an extern
sion of the time of sale. He read the reso.
luton Of the General Assembly requiring
the Board of Public Works to ask for the
sale of the canal. He also read the answer
of the State to the trustees petition. He
said the court, 10 view of the trustees de.
iaultlng in the requirements of the courts
DEGREES, had no discretion but to sell the
canal. The questions argued in 1895 are
not the same now, as claimed by the trustees.
A postponement of the sale now means the
turning over of the canal to the 1874 bond.
holders and the utter humiliation of the
States interests, amounting to some $780,.
100000. The trustees have utterly failed to
pay out of the tolls and revenues the cost
OF the repairs, labor and supplies, claims
and the bonded Indebtedness, as required by
the courts decree. Mr.. Rayner claims the
trustees have filed no report of the net rev.
enues or the amount of traffic on the canal
and referred to the Chesapeake and Ohio
Transportation Company as a mythical cor.
poration. He said the canal had been dis,
astrous failure, and always will be unprodt.
able. Its business Is decreasing The trust
ees' petition while really asking for five
year extension, means a perpetual exten.
sion
Mr.. Bond, in reply to Mr.. Rayner, said
the State had no right to ask for the destruc-
ton of the interests of the 1874 bondhod-
ers, no right to ask for a sale so long as the
bondholders have a hope of getting some
revenue out OF the canal. The States atti
tude in its litigation in the canal controversy
has been blot and a stain. The State has
not first lien, which it waived The same
equities exist to day that existed in 1886
The bondhodors are entitled to hold the
canal, and, he said, they would hold it,
George Whitelock, attorney for the Great
Falls Power Company, asked the court to
pany and the trustees for certain land rights
at the Great Falls
Joseph W. Hazel filed exceptions to the
ratification by the court of the contract of
sale of Cowen, Bond, Jr., and Bryan, canal
trustees, TO the Great Falls Power Company,
for $4,000, because the acceptant alleges
that the sum is inadequate; that the trus
tees have received bona fide and more ad-
vantageous offer-$1OO,OO0 cash-for the
identical rights and franchises mentioned
in the contract; that it is TO the best inter
ests of the exceptant and all other tax.
payers in the State that the highest price for
the property be obtained
With the exception is filled a copy Of the
proposition made by J. F. Mclaughlin by
Ia 10 he al
trustees In Baltimore on April II for addi-
tional land and riparian rights bordering
on the Potomac at Great Falls in Maryland
and Virginia, TO utilize the same in the con.
struction of water power plant. The dam
proposed to be built begins below the pres
ent Government dam and will be $50 10
above mean low water Of the Potomac at
Georgetown. II Is said Mr.. HAZEL repre-
sents Eastern aud N orthern capitalists, who
propose constructing an elaborate plant for
the generation of electricity.
In the trustees petition filed last week for
a postponement OF the sale of the canal there
WAS also filed for the court TO ratify the sale
by the trustees to the Great Falls Power
Company for $4,000 of certain lands and
rights which the syndicate represented by
Mr.. HAZEL also desires to buy, and agrees
to pay $4,000 more for.
Judge Stake intmated that the trustees
might not have the power to make con-
tract with the power company, but that this
right might vest in the Board of Public
Works.
Circuit COurt.--The following cases
were Disposed of In the Circuit Court for