Year: 1872

handle any OF the cash raised In aid oil
this enterprise, and the completion ot
i. is guarded and secured by the pro
vision that the contractors are obliged
to first build twenty miles Of the road
out of their own funds and afterwards
to put up . dollar of their own money
for every dollar OF the company FUNDS
they are to receive. The language ol
the contract respecting these points is
as follows: - 49,, >.4.5.,s-@ .


"3. The said trustees shall take and
hold the said bonds and deliver the
same to the said parties Of the second
part (the contractors), or their order, OF
assigns, as fast as they shall be entitled
to receive the same, during the con-
struction and equipment of the said
roadway, upon the said monthly estl-
mates OF the said chief engineer.


Il. And the said party Of the first
part (the railroad company further
agrees to prepare forthwith the usual
scrip certificates Of stock Of said COM
pany, and to execute and deliver the
same TO said trustee or trustees for them
to have and to hold for the purposes Of
this contract, for the full amount of the
capital stock of the said company, au-
thorized by law and that the said trus-
tee or trustees shall hold the same in
trust for the various parties in interest,
and shall deliver unto the parties OF
the second part, or their order or as
signs, so much and such proportion of
said stock as they shall from time to
time require and be entitled to receive
during the time of construction, upon
the said monthly estimates OF the chief
engineer of said company.


And that the said trustees shall also
hold and from time to time deliver such
amounts of said stock certificates as
shall be called for by party of the
first part for delivery upon local and
other stock subscriptions made in aid of
said company, when such subscrip-
tions shall be fully paid up"


1t is hardly necessary that should
make single comment on these stipu~
lations, copied from the contract. Every
fair minded man must admit that, under
such provisions which we have bound
the company to have inserted in the
mortgage to be put on the line, there is
no loophole through which either the
company or the contractors can with
draw dollar Of money, either of share
or bonded capital, except for work
done and performed. The trustees
will deposit all local subscriptions in
local banks, in Wheeling and along the
line OF the road, and see to their apple
catlon-otherwis the trustees will
be liable for any default in the execu-
ton of the trust accepted by them. !
was assured by one of the gentlemen
employed to aid in framing the con-
tract, (Mr. Clark Bell, solicitor of the
Union Pacific railroad) that these
clauses of the contract will have a most
important influence on the value of both
the stock and bonds, and any man of
common sense must see in them the
best guarantee that our City Council
cannot, if they were so inclined, lay
their hands on a dollar Of city money,
voted in aid Of the enterprise.


The following clause was put in the
contract as guarantee that the con-
tractors should not abandon the work
when partially done, viz: g.


"Itis, however, understood and agreed
that no part of the cash payment from
local subscriptions shall be called for
by parties of the second part (the con-
tractors) until after twenty miles OF the
said railroad are graded and tied, and
the bridges and masonry thereon com
pleted; and thereafter for grading, tie
ing, masonry and bridges only fifty per
cent of the engineers estimates of cost
shall be called for in cash by parties Of
the second part out of the avails Of
local and stock subscriptions, either for
the said twenty miles or for any subse-
quent work until the said line is COM
pleted. .fe.


If these carefully prepared guarau-
tees for the faithful and honest per-
formance, both by the company and
the contractors, Of their respective obi
cations, will not satisfy you sir, l may
say, hope without being irreverent,
neither will We believe though one rose
from the dead" 1 do not censure any
man for asking for information and
seeking guarantees, but the Wholesale i'm
putation OF corrupt motives on the friends
of great and, | believe, beneficial pub
lie undertaking, calculated, if not driven
away from our doors, to do more to
promote the interests of Wheeling than
any work ever before set on foot, is in
my judgment wholly indefensable.


As to attacks made on Nh. Wilson
in your journal, have word to say.
1t is true as he alleges that he did not
seek q connection with this undertake
ing. 1t was presented to his attention
many months before the. contract was
entered into, and he employed compe'
tent gentlemen to examine the line,
from end to end, and had placed before
him the results of several surveys made
by Mr.. Blickensderfer and other
equally able engineers, who have sur.
veyed both ends of the line, and had
besides personal knowledge of the
general characteristics OF the country.
The assertion the either party to the
contract acted without ample and cor
rect information as to the character of
the work to be performed is wholly un-
founded. --.,--


Furthermore, have had personal
intercourse with eminent railway men
and capitalists in the East who have
known Mr. Willsonzsforsamose than
twenty years, and have received from
them the assurances Of his ability to
carry out what he undertakes, and what
is no less important, that he is an hon
est man. SFi


In conclusion 1 desire to say that l
shall stand firm to the policy adopted
by the Board of the Wheeling and
Lake Erie Railrosd Company, believing