580 



MISSOURI. 



was 4,636 miles. The total earnings for the 

 year ending July 1st amounted to $22,415,500, 

 being an average of $4,844 per mile, at which 

 ratio the earnings in Missouri would be $15,- 

 525,500. There is one mile of railroad to 

 every 20 square miles and to every 625 inhabi- 

 tants in the State. Of the forty-four counties 

 north of the Missouri River, four have no rail- 

 road ; and of the seventy counties south of the 

 river, twenty-six have no railroad. The re- 

 port refers to the classification of roads made 

 by the Commissioners in April, fixing the pas- 

 senger rates on all the main roads in the State 

 at three cents a mile, and on all others at four 

 cents a mile. Some objection was made to the 

 new arrangement, but finally all submitted to 

 it except the Hannibal and St. Joseph and the 

 Burlington and Southwestern companies, which 

 claimed exemption through their charters. 

 They, however, were compelled by competi- 

 tion to reduce their passenger rates to about 

 those fixed by the schedule. The report says 

 that the total saving by the enforcement of the 

 new rates is at least $1,000,000 a year, or 25 

 per cent, on the $4,000,000 annually paid to 

 the roads for passenger fares. The Commis- 

 sioners met with less success in the case of 

 freight rates, in consequence of difficulties 

 which arose about the adjustment of charges 

 for long and short distances over several roads. 

 Many of the roads evaded or wholly disregard- 

 ed the schedule established by the Commis- 

 sioners. There is a total of 993 miles of steel- 

 rail track in the State. The Missouri Pacific 

 has 260 miles; the St. Louis, Kansas City, and 

 Northern, 180 miles; the Hannibal and St. 

 Joseph, 130 miles ; the Missouri, Kansas, and 

 Texas, 75 miles ; the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, 

 and Southern, 93 miles ; the St. Louis and San 

 Francisco, 55 miles; the Kansas City, St. 

 Louis, and Chicago, 130 miles ; and the Kan- 

 sas City, St. Joseph, and Council Bluffs, 70 

 miles. 



Under an order of the United States Circuit 

 Court, the Illinois and St. Louis bridge was 

 sold on December 20th for $2,000,000. The 

 bridge cost $7,000,000, and has not been a 

 financial success. First, second, and third mort- 

 gage bonds were issued, and the earnings were 

 not sufficient to pay the interest on the indebt- 

 edness. The bondholders began legal proceed- 

 ings, and E. A. Woodward and Solon Hum- 

 phreys were appointed receivers. In order to 

 secure the holders of the first and second 

 mortgage bonds, the receivers borrowed $370,- 

 000 to pay the interest, for which they gave 

 certificates of indebtedness. This amount was 

 not sufficient, and a sale of the bridge was 

 ordered. The purchaser was Anthony J. Thom- 

 as, of New York ; but it is said that the prop- 

 erty was bought in for the bondholders. Be- 

 sides paying $2,000,000, they assume the in- 

 debtedness and all claims against the bridge. 



By the provisions of a joint resolution of the 

 last General Assembly relating to the Hanni- 

 bal and St. Joseph Railroad, counsel was em- 



ployed by the Governor to enter the appear- 

 ance of the State to a bill in equity brought in 

 the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, wherein 

 the said railroad company was the complain- 

 ant and Sydney Bartlett and other trustees 

 were defendants. The suit was for the purpose 

 of closing their trust. It was claimed that Mis- 

 souri had a lien on the proceeds of the sales of 

 lands, after the extinguishment of a mortgage 

 given in 1856 by the company, and that the 

 surplus proceeds of such sales should be paid 

 into the State Treasury for the purpose of pay- 

 ing the bonds of the State loaned to the railroad 

 company. The claim of the State was based 

 on section 18 of the act of December 10, 1855. 

 The decision was adverse to the State. The 

 Court held as follows : 



2. That the only interest of the State of Missouri 

 in the lands conveyed by said trust indentures and 

 in the proceeds of such of said lands as have been 

 heretofore sold, and in the contracts for the sale of 

 any of said lands heretofore made, under the 18th 

 section of the Statutes of the State of Missouri of the 

 10th of December, A. D. 1855, which requires the 

 complainant to pay into the treasury of said State the 

 surplus proceeds of all land sales, or such other se- 

 curities as may be provided by the Hannibal and St. 

 Joseph Eailroad company aforesaid, in a deed of trust 

 or otherwise in a plan to be adopted by said compa- 

 ny to raise funds to complete the road. That by the 

 true construction of said statute, no such surplus can 

 be held to exist, except such as would remain after 

 deducting the amount of all expenses and obliga- 

 tions lawfully incurred by the corporation in com- 

 pleting, equipping, and putting in operation its rail- 

 road, including (1) sums advanced by the corpora- 

 tion to the trustees for expenses of the management, 

 surveying, and disposing of the lands granted under 

 the acts of Congress, and included in the deeds of 

 trust, and for taxes thereon, and to satisfy reclama- 

 tions for bad titles and other incidental expenses ; (2) 

 sums paid by the corporation, either in money or in 

 stock, to discharge the bonds issued by the corpora- 

 tion, and secured by the deeds of trust, including the 

 interest on such lands. 



3. That it is found by the report of the Master, 

 and adjudged by the Court, that the whole value 01 

 the lands now held under the said deeds of trust, 

 and of all the proceeds of lands sold, and invest- 

 ments of the same, now held by said trustees, is 

 much less than the amount of the deductions afore- 

 said to which the complainants are entitled before 

 there will be any surplus to which the right of the 

 State of Missouri can attach. 



An important decision has been rendered by 

 the Supreme Court of Missouri against the 

 validity of the bonds, amounting to $400,000, 

 issued by Greene County in aid of the Kansas 

 City and Memphis Railroad. It appeared that 

 in 1870 an order was made by the County 

 Court subscribing $400,000 to the capital stock 

 of the above company, on certain conditions, 

 one of which was that there should be a writ- 

 ten acceptance of the subscription by the com- 

 pany. This agreement was afterward trans- 

 ferred to the Hannibal and St. Joseph company, 

 as successor of the Kansas City and Memphis. 

 The bonds issued to make good the subscrip- 

 tion were in controversy. The Court found that 

 there was no written acceptance of the sub- 

 scription, as the order required, and hence 

 there was no contract. It held that the law 



