New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-08-24
MERGER RID OF BOOKS
ruENT TO THE JUNK M-iN.
~ObsoIcfc" Records Held II Years
Hisforw of RaiE1cay Financing.

,.s~i,,s Of tie Metropolitan Street Railway
,-.,,,,a-,, made the following statement yeste--
aav IN regard TO the destruction OF the co'"-
paws tooks;
--.,o,, should ne no mystery o. misunder-
.+sn,fir7E- on this subject When, in februarE-
l:rc, the New York City Railway company a pTa 2te
rarD,, lessee OF the Metropolitan system we
onenad a new sat OF books. The old DOCKS lot
.he re,-iod prior to the lease soon became on
- and were crowded out of the vaults AT
mr. main office by the accumulation OF cufren,
hooks and papers. They were then transferred
=, the storage loft provided for the storage OF
ru;ls-d books and papers. and were ~ ~hhatIg
,,rne6 over with other obsolete books anu
rapers 10 the party who purchases our acculnu-
iafion OF old papers. large quantltles oi Whlc"
arc :hus disposed OF and destroyed each year
The account Of the destruction OF the books.
river as il was officially by the corporation
caused general comment and surprise yester-
aav. The opinion of lawyers generally seemed
10 he that il one OF the most renlarkapie
,ransactions on record. Regarding the confess
con h,- 4 large railroad corporation that il had
transferred a set of its books from the vaults
of its main office to the storage loft and then
ens1lv turned them over to the party who pur-
chased their accumulation of old papers Tor
destruction because they were obsolete d lawyer
,,tasp Offices are in lower Broadway said last
night 10 a Tribune reporter
III is the most preposterous thing have ever
hoard Of DO not know whether the deSlI u
,ion Of the books of the Metropolitan Street
Railroad Company constitutes ground for cr1n-
3nal prosecution or not think that the books
,,,era probably destroyed in such a way that
snv danger of criminal prosecution would he
s,,oded But il is remarkable remarkable
Tho idea of having a set of books recording
-he transactions of a railroad corporation for
olp,en years, recording transactions involving
millions Of dollars thrown away. sold to the
.nls naper- man like many old newspapers,
Is hard to understand. It is original one.
u say the least
.,,-ornorarions and business houses are gen.
srallv most careful to preserve their books from
,be original set down They do this as a matter
OF sound business principle suppose their
ro,,s sbouId be destroyed and some one should
bring suit against them for some alleged H.
.5ebtasness or on similar pretext The case
cor1es 10 trial. Representatives Of the cor
nors+jon appear in court Produce your books.
,bav arc told We cannot produce them; we
have DESTROYED Them they answer. Then. OF
course the presumption is in every case against
the corporation. and rightly so.
or course such being the legal presumption
,bc o,estion naturally arises, Why did the
Ee-roro1itan Street Railway Company. ADVISED
s II is i,y skilled counsel. not only permit pur
.rso- tho destruction Of its books covering a
won't pretend TO. answer. but probably II
,,r ,a asked bv William NJ. Ivins and it IS
10 exaEgeration 10 say that lawyers IN Ne~
York civ generally will await the answer with
much interest.
Commissioner Wilcox chairman Of the Pub
lie Service Commission. and other Of the COM
,aissioners did not care to discuss the 'nnyS-
terry solving statement Of the metropolitan
IT would not be proper for US to talk At
mis- time" they said. Counsel for the COM
mission held the same view
For some time there have been persistent
r,,n,ors that the books of the Metropolitan had
49, zes,roved. These were neither directly
confirmed nor denied by officials Of the corpora
,,,, until YESTERDAY The fact that the books
ava mt an existence will greatly increase the
work of Mr.. WINS in investigating the Inter
borough Metropolitan merger lie neleNeS'
however. that he will yet he able to get AT lie
facts that we're recorded in them
r is 1bought by many that the fact that the
t.oolrs have been destroyed and that the com
many has acknowledged that IL is Responsible
for their destruction viii have decided bearing
on the future Of the inquiry and will cause un-
errected Developments. Just what the "unex-
pected DEVELOPMENTS will be is not known Inc
on5,,o- seeros to be spreading, however, that
,ses+erdav's development may mean that the
District Attorney will have grounds for action
Mr. wins has already said that he thought ue
Interborougf Rapid Transit Companys methou
or bookkeeping was malpractice and c1mlhaily
actionabIe" 1t is possible that he may ask the
District Attorney TO take UP the matter Oh 'he
destruction OF the books.
The destroyed books cover the eleven years o'
that period that the capital OF the company was
increased to 100000 the bonded Indebtedness
Of the company 10 S40,o0o,Goo. and securities
were issued for taking over the Fulton slfee'
line and the Second avenue line was absorbeu-
If was because of alleged acts committed dur
ing that time that suits and charges were
brought against the company IL was aieseu
in the charges that officers of the company nav
sworn falsely TO reports made TO the state f'"'i-
road Commission
The Metropolitan Street Railway company
ryas leased 10 the New York City Railway Com
pany, in February, 1so2 for a perloo vi 900
years thus merging all the surface car lines IN
the cItx. The Metropolitan itself either owned or
co,.roIlad a number of the surface lines
il ,s over the Capitalization of these lines tha'
.sa many cbareas of watered stock have been
made Mr. Twins attempted TO get President
Theodore p Shonts 20 express an opinion or the
costs Of construction and equipment OF seVeFd
OF the surface lines EIr. Shonts smlI'ngy oe-
rIsfed IN do so on the ground that ne was NOT
familiar enough with engineering condluOhs Ill
New York
Following is a table of the alleged cost q
mile OF construction and equipment oil some VI
the component lines OF the metropolitan S'tee'
Railway Company:
Alleged cost
Company and motive power ,.f. 81 sos 7s(
Tbyseg,-@1 81 ,,.e. erossfoEy electric eaa2z5
fory-secone Street Railroad Company