The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-10
is 1T ANOTHER SOUTH DAKOTA
BOND AFFAIR?

and North Carolina railroad into the
hands of a receiver?
The result of the McBee-Finch
fiasco proved that their attempt was
not based upon any sincere desire to
protect the property of bona fide
stockholders. In fact Finch had not
invested a single dollar and was not
the owner of single share of stock.
When that all developed Judge Pur-
nell expressed himself as highly in
dignant and the temporary receiver
ship was promptly vacated.
Now what about the Cuyler suit +?
He is a bona fde holder of thirty
seven shares of stock He inherited
it. When it came into his possession
it is doubtful if he could have sold it
for more than ten dollars a share.
Today on the open markets of the
world he can sell his stock at fifty
dollars a share. Does anybody be-
lieve that Mr.. Cuyler has employed
counsel of his own initiative and has
brought this suit to protect his $4,000
of stock, which has more than doubled
! in value during the past few years?
AS a shrewd business man, when he
saw the stock advancing he would
have sold out at the advance, or be-
| lieVing that the advance would con-
! tinue hold on for the future rise he
expects. With the road in better con-
dition than ever in it's history, with
stock doubling in value within the
past four or five years, suddenly
| following the Finch application and
adopting it's allegations almost in
their entirety, including mistakes in
Latin) MIR. Cuyler, through the same
channels and with a portion of the
same attorneys asks for the appoint
ment of receiver.
Why? Certainly Mr.. Cuyler is not
doing all this to protect his own stock.
What is the secret of the onslaught,
backed by powerful interests, and sup
ported by certain concerns that never
act without selfish reason?
In some sources it is believed that
| it originated solely out of a desire to
make political capital against the
State administration. The North
| Carolina folks most prominently con-
nected with it, gives color to this be-
| lief Whether the instigation was po-
| litical or not, it is certain that every
organ hostile to emocracy-whether
openly Republican or posing as DEM
| ocratic-has used the incident in a
vicious and unfair attempt to iniure
the Democratic administration. They
have over-reached themselves by their
extreme statements, their unfounded
attacks, and their malevolent abuse.
"Snme guns there are that so con-
,trive it,
miss their aim whate'er they
drive at,
whether charged for duck or
back and kick their owner over"
| The second theory is that the At
| lantic Coast Line, wishing a complete
monopoly of Eastern Carolina, is be-
hind the whole movement. If it has
| purchased the Norfolk and Southern
Railway, as many believe, that lends
color to this report. These who &C
cept this view argue thus: 1.-THE At
| lantic Coast Line knows that the peo-
pie from Goldsboro to Morehead are
strongly opposed to leasing to the At
lantic Coast Line, because the people
| in that section would then be doomed
| to no competition. Therefore, that
road prefers to have "a receiver APP
pointed as the first step to securing
lease for itself by indirection.
| There is third theory-and the
| first two may have some connection
| with it--that may be the milk in the
cocoanut" Three or four years ago,
after Mr.. w. j. Edwards made an
offer to buy the Atlantic and North
Carolina Railroad for some Philadel-
phia parties, it was ascertained that
there is now outstanding for the
States stock in the Atlantic and North
Carolina Railroad something like
| $1,000 of State bonds. 1t seems that
since the State debt was compromised
and adjusted in 1879, the holders of
all the Atlantic and North Carolina
| Railroad have settled upon the terms
| offered by the State with the eXcep-
ton OF the holders of about $1,000
worth, which is still outstanding. No
body in North Carolina (unless it be
Daniel l.. Russell, Marion Butler and
their "HIGHER UP" associates and
employers) has known where these
100000 bonds were held and most
| people have not known that they
were outstanding at all. But for the
investigation that followed the effort
| of Edwards to buy the road it might
mot be known now. That investiga-
ton satisfied the prospective pur-
chasers that if private parties pur-
chased the property, the holders OF
these repudiated bonds would "swcop
upon them and compel payment OF the
entire $160,0nO with the accumulated
interest for forty years. They I'M
mediately, upon this situation being
brought to their attention, changed
their proposition to buy and proposed