New-York tribune., 1908-01-07
LOPS OFF THIRD AVENUE
Continued on second page.

that 10 be MhO dT is sse
ever acts with single desire to do his duty: tha
bdden Interior object to be unearthed; that ne is
striving to find what there is in It ioT nhsTh Tba p
ape aqe ms IN this Community today men as as
there were who wnatnceo ii or ' are CON
tent to do it faithfully with scrupuous resaiu
for the rights of all affected.
WHO MR.. wHITRIDGE is.
Frederick wallingford Whitrdge is member
of the law firm of Whtridge, Butter q rice
He was born in New Bedford, Mass III ioo-' >
uos graduated from Amherst College in 1874
and from Columbia Law School IN 1919 III
1884 he married a daughter of Matthew Arnold
He was one of the originators of the Munlc1pai
Civil Service Commission and is a member OF
the Knickerbocker, Century Metropolitan, Uni
versitv and other clubs. In 1906 Mr.. Whitridge
attended the wedding of the King of Spain as
special ambassador from the United States
Mr. Whitridge is a director in the following
corporations Cataract Construction Company
Hover Quarries Company tpresfdent), Lake
Erie & Western Railroad Company, Depew
Lands Company (vice- e-president), New YORK.
Westchester & Boston Railway Company Mag
ara Development Company. Niagara Falls Power
Company, Niagara Junction Railway, Northern
Ohio Railway Company and the Bnion Sulphur
Company.
For more than twenty years Mr.. Whitridge
has been interested in railroad reorganizations,
the most important of which, perhaps, was the
reorganization of the Reading. when in 1894 he
was counsel for a committee of mortgage bond
holders About the same time he was inter
ested in the reorganization of the St Louis &
San Francisco and later of the Lake Erie &
Western Prior to that he interested in
the reorganization of the Chenango & Allegheny,
a small road in Western Pennsylvania For six
years subsequent to 1895 his firm engaged
on the foreclosure of the Toledo. ST Louis &
Western (Clover Leaf, which later was reor-
ganized by Mr.. Joline. now a receiver of the
New York City Railway. For some years the
firm was counsel for the Mobile & Ohio. 1t also
was connected with the reorganization of the
Cincinnati & Northern.
HISTORY OF THIRD AVENUE.
The Third Avenue Railroad Company has
once before been in receivers possession
1900 when ex-Mayor Hugh j. Grant acted as
receiver for about four months. For several
months prior to his appointment efforts had
been in progress for reorganizing the finances
of the road The electrification of the system
had proved exceedingly costly and money had
been borrowed to enable the Third Avenue to
acquire control of the Union Railway-the
"Huckeberry' road-the Dry Dock, East Broad
way and Battery Railroad, and the 42d Street,
Manhattanvile and st. Nicholas Avenue road;
and the floating debt in January. 1900, had
swollen to about s17.000000.
Early in February it announced that ar
rangements had been made by the directors by
which the floating debt and present emergen-
cies would be taken of by a syndicate
headed by Kuhn, Loeb & Co. The negotiations
were broken off two or three days later, how
ever by Kuhn, Loeb & Co, and quickly follow
ing that action came the formation of protec
tive committee representing the holders or a
large part of the floating debt. On February %
Vermilye & Co, Hagarten & Co. and Heidel-
bach IckeIheimer & Co. announced that at the
request of a majority of the Third Avenues
stockholders they had taken under considera-
ton the matter of a reorganization of its
finances. and were prepared to confer with the
creditors. Meanwhile. mechanics liens were be-
ing filed against the property, which in very
few DAYS aggregated nearly So, 100000 the mar
ket value of the stock rapidly declined, ru-
mors of impending receivershp gained cur
rency, and the last day of February ex-
Mayor Grant appointed temporary receiver
by Judge Lacombe, Vermilye & Co., Halgarten
& Co. and Heidelbach Ickelheimer & Co. hav-
ing earlier in the day formally announced
their withdrawal from negotiations for taking
care of the company's unsecured debts.
March 16, and only three days later announce
ment was made that the Metropolitan Street
Railway Company had secured control Of the
Third Avenue, as the outcome of skilful stock
market campaign in which the late William c.
Whitney and Thomas F. Ryan inflicted severe
loss upon their oldtime adversary, James r.
Keene, who had become heavily interested in
the property. The leasing of the Third Ave
nue. to the Metropolitan for term of 900 years
followed.
sented petition signed by H. H. Vreeland. ask
ing that it be permitted to withdraw its former
answer admitting insolvency, that the decree
appointing the receiver be vacated and that
the road be restored to the company. which. the
the sale to Kuhn, Loeb & Co. of an issue of
$50 100000 of its per cent bonds the proceeds
of which would provide for the payment of the
May "a the receivership was vcated. and on the
erty over to Mr. VreeIand, president of the
Metropolitan.
TRANSFER POINTS AFFECTED.
The following list shows how largely the lines
Of the Third avenue road interchange transfers
with the lines of the Metropolitan and what the
public will lose if the plans of the receivers to
cut off all transfers between the two companies
are carried out:
THIRD AVENUE LINE.
I45th ees or I45th street crosstown
cars. and east in kingsbridge cars
81 Amsterdam avenue and Manhattan street east
At Eighth avenue and i2oth street. south Eighth
Al Ienox avenue and I25th street south on BROADWAY