The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1905-01-12
Atlantic and North Carolina
Railroad.

Railroad.
Early in the past year, while sew
eral propositions to lease this road
were being considered by me, upon
application Of a person who was not
stockholder and who never had
been stockholder, but had merely
entered into a contract to buy stock
in said road, and upon his unsup-
ported allegation that the road was
being mismanaged, this valuable
property, in which the State owns
two-thirds of the stock, was thrown
into the hands of a receiver by the
judge of the Federal court without
notice to the State or any real stock
holder. An investigation into the
facts OF the case, had before the chief
justice of North Carolina. at nv in
stance, resulted in showing that the
plaintiff did not own the stock on
which he based his suit, that he had
never owned any stock and that his
contract to purchase stock was at
price more than twice the then value
of the stock. When these facts were
made to appear. the suit was then
dismissed by the court and the road
restored to it's owners Subsequently
another bill was filed in the same
court in the name of a former stock
holder who at the time of the filing
Of the bill did not control his stock.
He claimed to own only 81 shares,
which even a. par would not pay the
expense OF a lawsuit in the Circuit
Court OF the United States. After
much expense to the State and the
road, this second suit was finally dis
missed and the road has been leased
by the private stockholders and the
State to the Howland improvement
Cympany for period of - years.
1t is doubtful if so long a lease can
be made under the. charter OF the
road. and provision was then made
in said lease covering the lease. The
charter of the Atlantic and North
Carolina Railroad does not run for
the length of time that the lease is
intended to run. | therefore recon-
mend to your honorable body the
extension of the time of the life of the
charter of the Atlantic and North
Carolina Railroad, and if need be, a
confirmation of the lease which has
been consummated. The terms of the
lease are set out in the report of the
president and the board of directors
of the Atlantic and North Carolina
Railroad. / regard the lease as II
very valuable one to the State. re-
lieving her OF all difficulty in manag-
ing a railroad and bringing in annu-
ally a reasonable revenue. The lessee
has set to work diligently to improve
the road and it is gratifying to be
able to say that he is doing much to
develop the property and the section
of country through which the road
runs. While the suits affecting this
road were in progress and ON account
OF charges Of acknowledgement which
had been alleged by the complainant.
/ caused thorough investigation
into the affairs-of the road by d COM
mittee appointed by me. That re-
port l herewith transmit. lam graf
ified that the report shows that there
OSS lo NohuuSi ou Poi I
OF anybody connected with the affairs
of the road.
Lynchings.
1t is gratifying to be able to rerort
to you that lynchings during the past
two years have been far less frequent
in this State than during the previous
two years. am led to hope that we
are close to the time when lawlessness
shall go from among u.s. The best
way to safeguard s,ciety is for good
people themselves to obey the law. /
know OF no teaching SO effective with
the lawless as the ready submission
to law by the best people. Wecannot
stop crime by committing it; We can
not teach obedience to law by dis
obeying it; we cannot preserve order
by the means Ola mob.
We disfranchised the negro on the
distinct ground that with him as a
voter We could not preserve peace.