NP, AP 9/12/1862
From the Athens (Tenn.) Post
 
September 12, 1862
 
Annual Convention of Stockholders
E. Tennessee & Georgia Rail Road
Office E. Tenn. & Ga. R. R. Company
September 3, 1862
 
   Stockholders met and transacted the following business: On motion of President C. Wallace, Col. J. F. Cooper, of Georgia, was unanimously elected Chairman of the meeting, and took the chair.
   On motion, Dr. J. Grant, and Maj. R. H. Armstrong were appointed Secretaries.
   President Wallace presented and read the Annual Reports of the Officers of the Company; and on motion of I. T. Lenoir, Esq., the reports were accepted, and the usual number ordered to be printed -- together with the proceedings of this meeting.
   The following resolution was submitted by Dr. Grant, and unanimously adopted:
   Resolved, That the thanks of the Stockholders are due, and hereby tendered to the President, Superintendent, and other officers of this Company, for the faithful and untiring manner in which they have discharged the very numerous, arduous, and responsible duties during the year, -- and particularly, the promptness with which said officers rebuilt the Hiwassee Bridge, which was destroyed by the corrupt vandalism of the unnatural and wicked enemies of our country. By which prompt and energetic action, all possible aid in their power was afforded to the Confederate Government, in the defense of our country.
   On motion of W. S. Callaway, the Convention then proceeded to ballot for nine Directors. Robert Snead, James Forrest, and Geo. A. Caldwell, having been appointed Inspectors, and W. A. Lenoir, and James Wilson, Tellers, after said balloting, made the following report, viz:
   "The undersigned Inspectors and Tellers of an election of nine Directors, this day held by the Stockholders, of the East Tennessee & Georgia Rail Road Company for the ensuing year, respectfully report: that they opened and held said election, and that there were cast in all, 5590 votes, of which
C. Wallace, received 5590 votes
T. C. Lyon

 

 5567  
Jno. W. Lewis   5576  
Thos. H. Callaway   5552  
Robert Snead   5570  
W. S. Callaway   5589  
E. Waterhouse   5590  
Thos. Barrett   5575  
V. K. Stevenson   5508  
   And each of the above named gentlemen, having received a majority of all the votes cast, they are hereby declared duly elected Directors for the ensuing year.
  Robert Snead Inspector  
  Geo. A. Caldwell       "  
  James Forrest       "  
  W. A. Lenoir Teller  
  Jas. Wilson      "  
   No other business being before the Convention, said Stockholders adjourned to meet in Knoxville, on the first Wednesday of September, 1863.
J. F. Cooper, Chairman
John Grant     Secretary
R. H. Armstrong   "
 
President's Report
Office East Tenn. & Ga. R. R. Co.
Knoxville, Tenn., Sept 3, 1862
 
To the Stockholders, in Convention at Knoxville:
 
   The aggregate outlay for your property, with its rights and privileges,
amounts to $5,507,015.17
Deduct from this, profits derived from all sources, and abated stock 2,392,246.56
And you have the sum of $3,114,768.61
To this add surplus assets 2,170.64
And you will have $3,116,039.25
as the present cost to you of your road and its appurtenances and assets, which sum is now represented by two items, without contingences or floating debt  
Capital stock and stock script $1,318,939.25
Funded debt bearing six per cent interest and having 18 to 32 years to mature 1,798,000.00
  $3,116,939.25
   The internal improvement law requires 2 1/2 per cent., to be paid annually on your funded debt, which is ample to liquidate your entire indebtedness before it matures. In consequence of the distracted condition of the country, the Legislature suspended the payment of this sinking fund, but we have thought it prudent and to your interest to continue to pay, not only the 2 1/2 per cent., but as much more as possible, and your company are now some three years in advance of any legitimate call that can be made for payment of sinking fund. Your funded debt at present stands as follows:
Original State load $1,162,000  
Paid and cancelled 125,000 $1,037,000
Bonds endorsed by State $150,000  
Paid and cancelled 35,000 115,000
Mortgage bonds $800,000  
Paid and cancelled 184,000 616,000
    $1,798,000
   Income bonds issued and hypothecated, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars -- all redeemed and destroyed, making the total number of bonds redeemed and destroyed six hundred and sisty four thousand dollars, besides the payment of your floating debt, and distributing near one hundred and thirty thousand dollars in dividends, and reducing the original cost of your property from $5,200,000 to $3,100,000.
   Your receipts and expenses, from the opening of your road in 1851, were, To
Jany 1, 1852 $12,700.50 against $9,138.41
Dec 1, 1852 57,926.54 " 35,921.82
Dec 1, 1863 93,935.13 " 42,321.91
Dec 1, 1854 125,028.37 " 45,726.63
July 1, 1855 81,590.39 " 33,486.48
July 1, 1856 226,283.80 " 101,330.17
July 1, 1857 227,352.92 " 122,371.27
July 1, 1858 264,959.39 " 108,764.36
July 1, 1859 318,718.05 " 131,151.76
July 1, 1860 383,474.78 " 152,739.32
July 1, 1861 440,179.99 " 170,534.93
July 1, 1862 904,631.19 " 245,888.43
Total recpts $3,136,791.05 Exps $1,199,375.49
   Showing the nett profits to be $1,937,415.56, and an average of thirty-eight per cent. of the gross earnings to have been required to pay the current expenses for working the Road and keeping the same in good condition.
   Your receipts for the last year amount to $904,631.19 derived as follows:
From Confederate States  
For Passengers $288,692.28
   "  Freight 112,901.22
Making $401,593.50
From ordinary sources  
For Passengers $190,592.14
   "  Freights &c 292,145.55
   "  Mails 20,300.00
Making $503,037.69
   From these figures and statements, and the Tables of your officers, you will see, among other things, that of the $904,631.19 of gross earnings the sum of $401,593.50 was received for work done for the Confederate States, and that the balance, $503,037.69, was received from the ordinary and legitimate workings of your road, and that of the amount received from Confederate States $399,718.14 has been paid on your floating and funded debt, leaving a surplus of $1,875.36 of that fund, and that the sum received from usual sources, $503,037.69, with the surplus above, making $504,913.05, has been expended as follows:
Paid for Hiwassee Bridge $13,839.26
    "    "   Two Engines 21,335.23
    "     "  Current expenses 210,713.94
    "      "  Interest 130,324.62
Set apart to pay dividend No. 1 128,700.00
Making $504,913.05
   Thus you will see, that exclusive of the receipts for work done for the Confederate States, your income for the year has been sufficient to pay all legitimate demands on your company and to distribute a dividend of Ten dollars on each share of stock, and this has been accomplished in the face of the loss of a large amount of travel usually carried to and from the Virginia Springs, and the additional loss of the largest portion of females and other passengers who are unwilling to encounter such crowds of soldiers as have been daily occupying your cars, and an abhorrence of the annoying detention to which all are being subjected, going East at Bristol and both ways at Lynchburg, for the want of proper connections at those points. But your heaviest loss during the year was the diversion of freight and travel from this line by the burning of Rail Road bridges in East Tennessee, and the partial destruction of the Nashville & Chattanooga and the Memphis & Charleston Rail Roads. But for these calamities we do not doubt your gross receipts would have reached a million and a quarter of dollars -- at least three quarters of a million of which would have been from private sources.
   We have been thus particular in placing figures and facts before you, that you may the more fully understand and appreciate the intrinsic value of your property, and the desirable character of your stock.
   It is true, as intimated in the report of your Superintendent, that a portion of the work you have been doing for more than a year, has not been of the most profitable character -- and that your property has been much injured thereby; yet it has enabled you, while thus damaging your property, to curtail your liabilities some $400,000, and thereby lessen the amount of interest to be paid annually at least $26,000, a sum equal to two per cent. on your capital stock -- and which may increase your annual dividends that much in the future. It is also true, as he says, that it will require some 50 to 60 per cent. of your gross earnings for a time, to replace your worn out equipments, &c; but, notwithstanding all that, it is palpable that your stock must continue to be a ten per cent. investment, and should always rank above, instead of below par.
   By reference to the Table of Earnings and Expenses, submitted in this report, you will find that it has required only thirty-eight per cent. of the gross earnings to pay all current expenses, from the opening of your road to the present time. We will assume that your receipts hereafter will not be less than the amount received the last year from ordinary sources -- say, $500,000, or to make the estimate more safe, we will put them down at one-half the gross amount received last year -- say, $450,000, and we will allow -- not thirty eight -- nor sixty, but seventy per cent. of that sum to be necessary to pay for new rails, engines, cars, interest, sinking fund, and all current expenses, and you will still have left, out of the $450,000, after every possible demand on your company has been satisfied, $135,000, a sum more than sufficient to pay a dividend of ten dollars on each share of your stock. These are plain, unvarnished facts and figures, easily understood, and are placed before you with the hope, that in the future the stock of this company will take its proper stand along with the most profitable in the country -- and no longer be hawked about as a thing of uncertain value. With regard to the injudicious and exceedingly dangerous interference of some military officers, with your conductors and engine-runners, in charge of, and responsible for the safe delivery of, trains, freighted with hundreds of our brave soldiers, almost invariably producing collisions, or other serious accidents, causing the loss of life and property, we will not trust ourselves to speak, least we might do so intemperately; but bearing somewhat on the same subject, we adopt an extract from a recent report of that judicious Railroad President, Hon. John P. King, of Georgia. He says:
   "It is to be regretted that our military authorities do not take a different view of their power to seize and control private property for public uses. In certain emergencies, the exercise of this power is certainly necessary and expedient, but it is undefined in the Constitution, and unregulated by law -- is subject to the grossest abuses, and should never be exercised for mere temporary convenience, but only in obedience to the most pressing public necessity. Being arbitrary in its nature, it is regulated by no system, and submits to no rule -- but subjects all private rights to the caprice of Government officials; thus weakening confidence in private enterprises, and the security of private property. In peace or war, the resources of Government depend mainly on the resources of the individual citizen; and a policy that leads to the destruction of private enterprises, and private property, must in the end dry up the resources of Government itself.
   The control lately exercised by the army over the property and operations of Railroads, must soon leave them without the means of efficient operation for either public, or private, uses.
   It is earnestly hoped, that the Government will take an early opportunity of revising and regulating a practice that threatens such serious consequences, both to public interests and private rights."
   During the year, one of our number, Col. James A. Whiteside, departed this life. A man, eminent in all the qualities that constitute the good citizen -- and as a Railroad man, none more capable, vigilant and indefatigable.
   Respectfully submitted for the Directors.
C. Wallace, President

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