The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-05-06
A. & n. G. &. R. REcEWERsHIp.

We give below extracts ron the Pc
ution filed by MI. Cuyler in his appli-
cation to Judge Purnell for the appoint
ment Of a receiver of the Atlantic and
North Carolina railroad. We regret
that a lack Of pac prevents our publ
cation of the document in full:
Your orator quotes from the report
OF the president to the stockholders in
general meeting assembled, dated Sep
TENDER "a. $685.:
Having in former reports called
your attention to the insufficiency in
quantity Of you rolling stock and mo-
tive power, / would not again lay the
matter before you but for the fact that
the business OF your road has reached
proportions which have placed ii far
beyond the capacity Of your equipment
TO handle. n which demands that you
take immediate n effective action to
so equip and partly re-iron it as to
enable it to meet the ever increasing
competition. or to make up your mind
TO give UP the struggle and to turn a
great portion of your earnings n the
Golfers Of your connecting lines.
Your road has reached a crisis in
Its affairs which must in some way be
met, or the cost of transacting it's bus
ness will soon be increased to such an
extent as to greatly impair its profits.
BY reference to the master mechanics
report you Will find that you have IA
locomotives, one OF which is virtually
on scrap pile, 7 first class coaches, 2
combination cars, 2 mail and express
cars, 3 express or fish cars, 1 parlor
car, 3 caboose cars, 90 box cars. IS fiat
cars, 3 gondola cars, 92 log cars, IL
shanty cars, l shop car.
All of which fall so far short of
meeting your road's demands that it's
use of foreign cars reaches a daily
average of rs to so, which cost you
during the year over IS, 200, and which.
if the proposition now being discussed
by the a association to double the
per diem is carried into effect, will cost
o during the coming year not less
than $40, 900. Add that sum to the in
terest, S19, 500, which you have to pay
on your bonded debt of $685., 900, and
you will have d charge Of S39, 500 or
more than two per cent on the entire
capital of your road from those two
alone, in addition to your taxes,
etc.
Your cars are so few in number and
many of them SO light in structure,
when compared with the more modern
cars Of your connecting lines, that it
Is not deemed e~xpedient to permit them
to leave your tracks, with the result
while you road is compelled to
2 heavy car per diem, it has not a
single car which by going Upon other
can earn it a penny by way OF
offset.
And IL, as has been intimated, the
of your connecting lines should
become SUCH as to render it advisable
for them to send their cars upon those
only which are able to send theirs
in exchange. you would awake to the
fact that your o did not possess
rolling stock enough to transact the
business it is now doing two days in
succession. and would virtually come
to a StandStill.
Upon the conditions existing today,
your o tapped at every vital point,
New Bern. Kinston and Goldsboro, by
the Coast Line n the Southern, with
out any rail outlet, except such as they
choose to give it, without sufficient
of it's own to do business,
and dependent upon them for it, is
absolutely at. their mercy, and but for
1t up in a week. it would be a bankrupt
in less than six months and would have
to suspend operations.
THE above are unpla~ssa facts VET
~! Idcts known to all who are
- my wise familiar with the condi-
lions governing the relations existing
between your road and its rail connec-
lions, and therefore l feel that it is
upon me, not only to lay
before you, but if o have any de-
sire to save it from destruction and to
put our property upon a paying bass,
to urge you to properly equip it and
to keep it for ear to come as it
has been doing for years past-HV1ng
from hand to mouth.
ITO meet your demands upon it, you
h following equipment. to-wit:
Two 19-inch cylinder locomotives
which will cost at this lime 49, $50. coo
One hundred first class $4,000
pound box cars ............... 5000
Fifty first class 1000 pound fi"+
r II, 500
One hundred and eight first class
80, 900 pound log cars .---.----- c4,G00
Four first class passenger coach
es "a, 1000
One first class passenger coach. 1000
One combination passenger coach 1000
Two parlor cars IL, 900
Making a total for equipment. $3.50, 500
But this is not all. You have in your
track about fifty miles Of light As pound
and so pound iron which should be and
soon will have to be placed with so
pound rails.
"Since this light iron was laid con-
ditions nave changed. The heaviest en-
gineS then run or in contemplation of
being run over it weighed Is and so
tons, and the greatest capacity of the
cars which were expected to be pulled
over it was but 40. 200 pounds, and your
highest speer "a miles Per hour, where
as at this time you are running so to 20
ton engines at a speed Of so to 60 miles
an hour and drawing heavy iron cars
OF 100000 pounds capacity at a speed
of % to 40 miles per hour, as circum-
stances of connection, ETC., may make
necessary.
This iron. as it must be apparent to
You all, is too light for the service which
the traffic of today requires ii to en-
der, and is liable, under the too great
strain to which it is daily subject, TO
give way at any time and cause a de-
~struction of both life and property that
will cost your roa many thousand
dollars"
That, as your orator is informed and
believes and so alleges, the facts set
forth in the foregoing quotations from
the said presidents report are substan-
tally frrrA