The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-21
RAILROAD FINANCE

RAILROAD FINANCE p-R-S HE INDICATIONS all are that this coun-
 try is on the threshold of the greatest expose of railroad financial crookedness that has ever been made. The inside Wall street history of the railroad financing of the past | dozen years is about to be told to the public and 1t is tn he opinion that the cumulative ef feet of the evidence of wholesale thievery will be to land some of the. rich thieves in iail at last.
 The New Haven sensation is but the be- ginning Even now the Interstate Commerce. Commission is preparing for an Investigation of the e. H 6 D. railroad that promises to uIl- cover scandal The Frisco is another road which will come in for it's share of the scru- tiny. And now the Interstate Commerce com mittee of the House is uncovering another bit of railroad finance that will add to the enraged. public's eagerness to know the whole truth about railroad finance.
 From evidence submitted before the House committee the assertion is made that the Wa bash Pittsburg Terminal Railroad company, an Eexceedingly profitable road only a few years ago, was deliberately wrecked in order that al powerful group of sSNall street railroad men might buy 1t in cheap. The job of wrecking.s of courses resulted disastrousIy to the investors in this railroads securities
 The Pittsburg Terminal railroad owns nearly hundred miles of track, a coal mine or two, possesses valuable rights of way in Pitts burg, and wa party with other lines entering Pittsburg in traffic agreen ents which were ex5 Iceedinglg lucrative to the terminal railroad
 As late as 1908 this road was prospering. It's bonds, over $30,0OO 900 of them had sold for. as much as 97 cents on the dollar par value. They had been eagerly bought as investments lby saving banks and insurance companies. widows and executors investing the proceeds 1 of estates for widows and orphans.
 But about that time the greedy eyes of the. Wall street financiers fell upon this property and for some reason yet unexplained they de- cided to acquire it But not at the price it would command going, profitable institution. Oh, mo- First it Inusthe wrecked. And itswas de- 1 lliberately, it IS charged.
 First the railroads with which it has the profitable traffic agreements sought excuses for caneelIing these agreements. The former lpresident of the road George Ramsay, IT,, of St. Louis, told the House committee that a fed- eraI judge aided in the cancellation of one of the most profitable of these traffic contracts the one with the Wheeling & Lake Erie Rail- way This road was in the hands of receiv- l CT, who asked the judge to cancel the agree lment. He did so. Later he sanctioned sirai-s lar agreements between the w & l. E. with other roads. Then he resigned from the bench 1 to take & partnership in the law firm which handles the w. & L. E. affairs for the receiver
 But the cruelest blow came from another direction. The Pittsburg Terminal Go needed l$40s000,0OO cash for some Improvements. Ram sey, who was president was dumb founded with the directors suggestion that this huge sum be borrowed on 2 year notes. He protested that such loan would throw the road into a re- ceivership at the expiration of two years He suggested long term mortgage bonds instead but he was overruled.
 Then he went to New York to plead with the magnates who were pulling the strings From them he finally secured the promise that t the $1O,O00,O00 would be borrowed on bonds and not notes. Thinking he had saved the sit Euation he left for his home in St. Louis He had scarcely arrived there when he received a telegram requesting his resignation as presi- dent
 He resigned and the $ioOooOoo was bor- rowed on notes. At the expiration of two years the maturing of these notes brought about the Ireceivership. The bonds, which had sold for 97, fell and fell in value, until today they are quoted at seven cents. The investment of S3o- lOOOO00 in these bonds is now worth slightly over $2,0Oo, o,Ooo0
 Seven per cent: of eggs packed for shipment is
 
 haps the mistake made of marking