106 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



co-operation of the farmers, and you can realize far more than the labor 

 even of 40,000 men. 



The following report of the Committee on Railway Transportation, of 

 the New York Cheap Transportation Association, will be found of great 

 value and significance as relating to this question of a freight railway: 

 "The Committee on Railway Transportation respectfully submit the 

 following preliminary report upon the necessity of a freight railway to 

 the West, hoping that it may evoke discussion which will further the 

 objects in view. It is generally admitted that business is in a depressed 

 condition, that our receipts of grain and other exportable products have 

 not increased in proportion to those of other ports, that many of our 

 manufacturers are working at a disadvantage, that our great jobbing 

 trade in almost every branch has to relinquish a portion of its legitimate 

 profit in order ' to make up for the difference in freights,' and that so 

 considerable a portion of our commerce has already been diverted, that 

 its effect has been severely felt by the owners of real estate. In Baltimore 

 and Philadelphia, the situation is much more favorable, and when we 

 look for the cause we find it is largely the result of having the great lines 

 of transportation over which their commerce flows operated in the inter- 

 est of that commerce ; surplus earnings are invested in extending these 

 lines and completing their facilities, and when complete, rates of freight 

 are reduced, and at all times their own citizens are given special rates 

 for the avowed purpose of fostering their commerce. In New York the 

 following brief chapter from the history of the New York Central and 

 Hudson River Railroads, will tell its own story : In 1853 the New York 

 Central Railroad was formed by the consolidation of ten separate organi- 

 zations, owning the route between the Hudson River and the lakes. The 

 combined amount of share capital and convertible bonds of these separate 

 organizations was $23,235,000, but a considerable portion of share capital 

 had not been paid in. The equalizing process of the consolidation was 

 that the Troy and Schenectady Company — that being the least produc- 

 tive of all — should come in at par, while the holders of stock or converti- 

 ble bonds of the other roads received a premium in consolidated six per 

 cent, debt certificates, ranging from seventeen to fifty-five per cent., 

 making an issue of these certificates amounting to $8,894,500, or over 

 thirty per cent, on the true share capital of the company. From this time 

 down to 1867, there had been no material change in the total of stock and 

 debt of the New York Central Company, other than what could be nearly 

 accounted for by actual value received, and its capital account was then 

 represented by $28,537,000 of stock and $12,069,820 of bonds, a total of 

 (including the water) $40,606,820. The Hudson River Railroad Company 

 at the time had a share capital of $7,000,000 and a bonded debt of $7,227,- 

 000 — total, $14,227,000, making these two companies, which in 1860 were 

 consolidated, stand in 1867 as follows: Stock, $35,537,000 and bonds 

 $19,296,820, or a total capital account of $54,833,820. During 1867 the 

 Hudson River Company presented its stockholders with $3,500,000 stock, 



