The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-05

high priced then in California, anyhow,
and continued that way, of course, all
through the Comstock days.
SO Croker came before the board
of directors one day with a proposition
that they form another company of the
members of the board and style it The
Contract and Finance Company and
take over all those contracts which
they, as directors of the railroad COM
pany, were letting-an illegal thing,
as they well knew
Judah was member of the board of
directors, and the man to whom most
of the credit for the complete organ
ization of the Central Pacific Company
is due, for he it was who made up all
the preliminary work, getting out all
the plans, reconnaissance, and field
reports. He had shown them the
great opportunities offering in such
road, and even went to Washington to
obtain the influence of the United
States government in favor of it's con-
struction.
When Croker brought up his prop
osition to form the Contract and FL
nance Company, Judah at once entered
hearty opposition to the scheme and
said he would not consent to it as long
as he was member of the board of
directors. Whatever l do he said
shall bear public examination at, all
times. Such course as you propose
is illegal and l will never consent to it,
Croker retorted by saying he would
bring the matter up before every meet
ing of the board until he had his way.
Finally at the October. 1863, meet
ing of the board of directors, matters
came to a crisis. Judah at that meet
ing said: Croker, it is evident we
cannot do business together can
never consent to your views, and it is
evident you won't relinquish them.
Here's a proposition which l will lay
before you all: You buy out my inter-
est and Stanford's, or sell your own to
u.s. Croker, after consulting with the
others, said they would consider Ju-
dah's proposition. Judah made them
an offer finally for their holdings
don't recollect just now what sum it
was-and they accepted it. He asked
them how long they would give him TO
consummate the deal, and they an
swered Ninety days This would
give him thirty days to go East, thirty
days to arrange with his financial cor
respondents there, and thirty days to
return. The persons he was to consult
with were William and Azariah Body,
and the contractors who built the II
linois Central Railroad and their
friends, all wealthy men who would
willingly have bought out the Crocker,
Huntington and Hopkins interests.
Cali this time Mr.. Judah had been
working very hard, and was worrying
over his work and was not in the best
of health when he made up his mind
to go East. In those days going East
was either the hard overland trip or
by the Isthmus. He consulted with his
physician as to which route he should
choose The doctor advised him to go
overland, as at that time Of year the
Panama fever was at its height and he
might succumb to 1t. However, when
Judah had figured it out he found that
several days could be saved by taking
the Panama route Against the wishes
Of his physician, he went by this route
and was stricken with the fever, dying
three days after reaching New York,
and without having an opportunity to
make the deal.
'If Judah had lived he would have
taken the railroad out of the hands of
Huntington, the Crockers and Hop
kins, which would have prevented all
the illegal jobbery which took place
afterwards, and that gigantic conspir-
acy against the government which re-
suited in their getting that S30,000,000
into their own pockets. The whole
affair hinged on Judah's unfortunate
choice of routes, for undoubtedly the