Evening journal., 1911-03-04
SOME TRUTH ABOUT
THAT ROAD OFFER
General Corporation Law Gives
Right TO Companies TO Acquire
Right of Way for Trolley,
Pipe Line and Other
Companies

Efforts are being made by thinly
yelled antagonism to General r. Cole
man duPont's offer for a fine high
way to distort certain facts in rela-
ton to it and to instil into the minds
OF the people that General DUPONT is
demanding valuable concessions" in
return for building and presenting
the road TO Delaware. The motives
of General DUPONT in some quarters
are impugned and there are sldllfully
drawn intimations as to the burden
the road would be on the State.
The road would probably cost near
or two millions than one million dol
lars. General dupont asks for a
right Of way at least one hun
dred feet wide. Thirty feet of this
shall be devoted to a public road, with
a modern trackage from twelve TO
eighteen feet wide constructed of ma
terials that competent engineers rec
ommend to make the best road
The remaining seventy feet of the
right of way shall be reserved for Mr..
DUPONT or n company he will form, as
space for trolley tracks, pipe lines,
telegraph lines, conduits. or any other
public utilities in event of the COM
psny ever desiring to utilize the space
for that purpose.
These are the valuable conces-
sions" the Bourbon opposition is in
sinuating.
These concessions are something
that General DUPONT or any firm or
corporation may obtain under the
General Incorporation laws OF Della
ware
The procedure is set forth in those
laws. Any trolley company, a pipe
line company. a telephone or tele-
graph company, can obtain a charter
to engage in business from the Sec
retary of State at Dover.
The General Incorporation law
gives the company obtaining such a
charter the right to acquire and con-
denim land to width of forty feet for
right of way for a trolley company A
charter for a pipe line company gives
II the legal right 10 acquire land by
purchase or condemnation proceed
ings for a right OF way for such pipe
line. The same right and privilege is
given TO wire companies.
Thus If the requirement of righi
of way for trolley company was the
motive for General DUPONT Offering
10 build and give the highway, how
readily is opposition on that ground
shattered.
Mr.. dupont or company formed
by him could obtain charter for q
railway and pipe line company from
the Secretary of State, file his sur.
vey for a route alongside the State
road and then buy up the right Of
way. or have the land condemned by
a condemnation commission And he
could do it at less than one-fifth the
cost, probably, that his proposition
to build and give a State-long high.
way 10 Delaware Will cost him.
These so-called valuable conces
sions' that he is asking the State tC
grant to him are easily obtainable
and of only a fraction Of the value o'
the cost of building the State high
way.
II should be rememberer, too. thai
General DUPONT or the company t'
be formed by him is TO pay for al
land condemned The State is not e
pay one cent for the right Of way to be
condemned or bought.
Then there is that talk about th'
great expense of maintaining the roaC
projected by Mr.. DUPONT He offers
to furnish and plant the trees along
side It. The State is not asked to pal
for or to plant these trees. Thei'