Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ...stock and $49,000,000 of common stock. The bondholders were to have $30,000,000 of preferred stock for their $30,000,000 of bonds, and as their bonds drew-;-?$ per cent. in gold, the interest was called 8 per cent. currency; two years' interest had already accrued, and it was decided to give to the preferred stockholders the two years' interest that had accrued and 3 years' in advance--5 years of interest at 8 per cent., making 40 per cent., so that each holder of a bond of $r, ooo received $1,400 of preferred stock. This absorbed, say, $42,000,000 of the preferred stock, and the remaining $9,000,000 was to be in the treasury for the general purposes of the company. The stockholders were to receive common stock, share for share, were not to be allowed to vote for several years, and were never to have dividends until, in each year, the preferred stock had received 8 per cent., and the remainder of the capital stock, after deducting the $51,000,000 of preferred and the common stock, issued to the stockholders, was to be distributed to the owners of the proprietary interest." When the plan of reorganization was suggested it was opposed in a great many quarters on the ground that a foreclosure of the mortgage would carry with it the constructed road, the lands earned, and any personal property the Company might have, but not the right to go on under the charter with all the Company's rights unimpaired; that additional legislation and a new grant by Congress, which then it would have been impossible to obtain, would be absolutely necessary. Mr. Billings, who proposed and inaugurated the scheme of reorganization, and Col. George Gray, who after the legal proceedings were commenced became, and has ever since been, the general counsel of the...
