The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1913-02-06
WHY SHOULD THE STATE SELL
IT'S RAILROAD STOCK?

The Legislature has now under
consideration a proposition made by
the Norfolk and Southern Railroad
to buy the States stock in the A &
N. G. r. r., from Goldsboro to More
head City. The State now owns
s1,266,60O, worth of the stock of
that road, which Is about two-thirds
of the total stock. There is mort
gage on the road of 1926, 900, but
the interest on that mortgage Is now
being paid by the Norfolk and
Southern Road, which has leased the
A. & N. c. r. r. The income which
the State is now getting from the
lease of this road Is $50 ,016 d year.
The price which the Norfolk and
Southern Road, which is understood
to be a Standard Oil road, has Of
fered Through its State agent, Mr..
Duncan) is $949,950, which is a lit
tie less than the par value OF the
stock after deducting the amount Of
the mortgage.
While we have always felt that
when the State leased this railroad
to the Norfolk and Southern Road,
that it should have gotten a much
higher rental, yet, even at the present
rental, the State will receive over
$6,OOO,OOO in total rents or lease
money, by the time the lease expires,
and will then still own the road. 1t
will be remembered that while the
present lease price is only $53,016
year, yet provision was made in the
lease that this amount should be in
walls, which would make the income
to the State over 100000 year
during the last quarter of the lease.
In spite of this low rental, yet there
can be no possible excuse for the
State now to sell it's stock in this
railroad for the sum of $949,950,
except that the State is heavily in
debt, and needs about this sum of
ready cash to fill the big hole made
by Democratic incompetence and ex-
travagance. The situation in nut
shell is simply this: If we sell this
road now we take the sum that we
receive and dump it into a rat hole
and then lose the annual income that
we are now getting from the lease of
the stock, so that the net result will
be that we will lose the road and over
$6,OOO,OOO.OO of rental money that
would come into the State Treasury
under the lease.
The Democratic machine has more
than doubled the expenses of our
State Government during recent
years, and has given the people moth
ing to show for it, Several times the
Democratic party has been forced to
mortgage the State, by the sale of
bonds, in order to raise money, and
finally, when they could not sell any
more bonds, or induce any trust to
buy the bonds from the State, they
proceeded to increase the taxes of the
people; thus after piling up an enor-
nous mortgage debt on the State,
and after having increased the peo-
pies taxes, we now find ourselves
with a deficit of over three-fourths
of a million dollars facing us, and
the only result is, the poorest State
government any people ever got for
the money spent, and the poorest
public school system in the United
States.
If there are voters in the State who
endorse this kind of thing, and want
it to continue, then they can easily
have things to continue to go, from
bad to worse, by voting to continue
the present Democratic machine in
power.
In every State in the North and
West, where the Republican party
has been guilty of such mismanage-
ment, extravaganza and bad govern
ment, there have enough Republicans
arisen up and exercised their indie
pendence and patriotism in joining
with the opposition party to put the
Republican party out of power. Are
there not as many Independent and
patriotic men in the Democratic party
of our State as there are such men in