Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1901-09-07

Last week, the Minneapolis Journa
: instructed its correspondent at thi
place to send in "the other side" Q
l the ''right OF way deal" as that pape
r had already been scooped by bot
: the Minneapolis Times and Mime
. apolis Tribune in giving full ant
impartial write-up of the matte
which is at present Of so much in
terest to the people of Morris Tn
: correspondent accordingly inter
viewed number of the stockholder
! of the Morris Investment Go. and thu
result was the article which appeared
in the Minneapolis Journal last Sun
day. We quote the article paragraph
| by paragraph, with our comments
thereon, but for a fuller exposition oi
the whole deal we will refer the
reader to our article of August IL
| The Journal says:
A correspondent interviewed the
members Of the Morris Investment
Company this morning, They all
state that if the people of the village
understood the right of way deal
that they would have no grounds for
complaint.
This paragraph simply means that
when called uEon to plead in the
great court Of public opinion by
which they are now being tried, these
men plead 'not guilty"
Yet the'unanirnlty which is implied
can hardly exist when one Of the
members should be so very ungentle.
manly as to denominate an other at a
meeting of this very Investment
Company, as 'sno better than Judas
Iscariot, who sold his master for
thirty pieces of silver"
The Journal article continues:
One of the members of the Investment
more from the deal than would any Of the
members who had put up the cash for the /
transaction. Before the tract was plotted I
into city lots the Investment Co. dedicated
to the village twenty feet on the west side T
of Atlantic avenue, thereby broadening {
that important thoroughfare. This inn
provement was one that had been talked /
about in village commercial circles but it
seemed impossible because the title to the
strip desired lay in the railroad company
and the village could not afford to pay the
price that would be demanded for it. Fig
uring this twenty feet at the same rate that
the lots that were formed from the remain
der of'the strip were appraised, its value
would amount to one-sixth of the entire
valuation of the tract, that is, one-sixth of
SAC, 600, or between $1,000 and $1,000; but
the actual value of this strip to the village
is really twice. or thrice that amount.
If the village has realized better
than the investors, where are our
beautiful parks and public improve
ments? Let US see what the in
vestors realized
1 have it from the books of one of
the members of the company, with
permission to publish tho same.
that at the time of the division of
Dec. IL, 1900, he had received in cash
dividends $112.50 on his original in
vestment of $125. He lacked then
only $3.50 of receiving back every
cent of his original Investment.
With this stock which represented
only $I2.5o to him, he actually pur-
chased $500 worth of property in the
Harris Addition. N
One-ElaIf of the difference of $S47.-
so should have gone to the village.
Remember there is no estimace4
about these figures. They are taken
from the books Of member
Of the company.
The remainder of the paragraph
quoted above is correct regarding the
widening of Atlantic avenue and the
charging of $500 against the profits
still to acrue to the village. which is
IN itself an admission that there were
0 be profits to the village. 4
The Journal reports this surprising
statement: III
AS to the statement t1lat President J.J.
Hill intended to donate, anything to the
village Of Morris, one Of the company
jniled aloud and said that Mr.. Hill got all II
he could for the tract; indeed he had sold. Z
the tractor two valuable blocks Of tito !