| Annual Report of the Savannah, Albany &
Gulf RR |
| as of May 1, 1863, |
| President's Report |
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| Report
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Office Sav’h, Albany & Gulf Rail Road Co.
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Savannah, May 1st, 1863
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The President and
Directors respectfully present the Ninth Annual Report upon the
affairs of the Company for the year ending May 1st, 1863.
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Subjoined will be
found the Reports of the Superintendent, Treasurer, and Engineer, to
which reference may be made for any information desired more in
detail.
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The following
consolidated statement of the total receipts, and of the total
expenditures, ordinary and extraordinary, will afford the Stockholders
a complete view of the financial operations of the Company for the
past year, and their results. By ordinary expenditures is to be
understood, such as have related to the regular operation and business
of the Road – by extraordinary expenditures, such as have gone to
the accounts of re-construction, new extensions, liquidation of
floating liabilities and interest on the same, interest on bonds of
the Company and on guaranteed stock, and the purchase of a
machine-shop at Thomasville.
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| Cash on hand 1st May, 1862 |
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$13,149.30 |
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| Received of G. Gregor, amount of outstanding
Bills 1st May, 1862 |
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11,885.99 |
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| Received for Capital Stock paid in |
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900.00 |
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" for Confederate Bonds and
accrued interest |
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1,141.87 |
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" for Mail Service |
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8,783.06 |
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" for Passage the past year |
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264,033.09 |
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" for
Freight
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245,354.97 |
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545,248.28 |
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| Less amount due by Confederate States |
$66,614.83 |
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| " Freight Bills
uncollected |
15,914.79 |
82,529.62 |
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| Total Cash Receipts |
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$462,718.66 |
| Ordinary
Expenditures |
| Salaries |
$4,060.44 |
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| Repairs of Road |
57,660.77 |
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| Maintenance of Motive Power |
63,211.84 |
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| Current Expenses |
38,881.59 |
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| Goods Lost |
1,547.38 |
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| Stock Killed |
5,373.60 |
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| Printing and Stationery |
3,924.54 |
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| Repairs of Bridges |
33,178.37 |
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| Maintenance of Cars |
35,274.00 |
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| Incidental Expenses |
9,568.03 |
252,680.56 |
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| Extraordinary
Expenditures |
| Stock Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road Co. |
$20,100.00 |
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| Bills Payable |
103,472.66 |
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| Interest Account |
3,329.49 |
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| Filling Altamaha Trestle |
6,707.50 |
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| Florida Branch Road |
3,480.03 |
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| Improvements Savannah Depot |
3,361.72 |
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| Filling Ogeechee Trestle |
4,266.60 |
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| Extension to Lamar's Canal |
3,025.00 |
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| Machine Shop at Thomasville |
8,000.00 |
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| Connecting Line to Central Rail Road |
1,867.04 |
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| Interest on guaranteed 7 per cent Stock |
1,724.30 |
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| Interest on Bonds |
19,369.00 |
178,703.34 |
431,383.90 |
| Cash on hand |
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$31,334.76 |
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Thus it will be
seen, that the actual cash receipts of the Company for the past year,
amount to $462,718.66, including $13,149.30 cash on hand May 1st,
1862, and $11,885.99 of freight collected since that date. There is
due by the Confederate Government $66,614.83. Freight Bills
uncollected on the 30th ultimo, amounted to $15,914.76,
which will pass to the account for 1864. The total earnings of the
Company then, including all receipts and credits, amount to
$545,248.28.
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The expenditures
having been exclusively cash should be balanced against the actual
cash receipts. These, ordinary and extraordinary, amount to
$431,385.90, which leaves cash on hand $31,334.76. The ordinary
expenditures, as before defined, amount to $252,680.56, or $65,279.61
more than for the previous year. This large increase is explained by
the great advance in the prices of material and labor, and by the
necessity of laying in large supplies of subsistence, clothing, and of
numerous necessaries in anticipation of any scarcity of material and
increasing elevation of price.
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The report of the
Superintendent justly urges upon your attention the deficiency in the
amount and kind of the Rolling Stock of the Company. The causes of
this serious misfortune grow out of the total dependence of the
country upon foreign production for nearly every species of railroad
material. With iron, coal, and lumber abounding within the limits of
the Confederacy, yet from the very institution of Railroads in the
South until the declaration of an independent government, every
article necessary to railroad equipment was purchased from Northern
works. Freight cars, it is true, were constructed at home, but every
bolt and rod, every wheel and axle, every nail, spike and screw, every
sheet of tin, every ounce of solder, every gallon of oil and every
pound of paint came from the workshops and factories of the North.
Locomotives and passenger cars came from the same source of supply, or
were constructed at the South at greatly enhanced cost. With our Ports
blockaded in the onset of the existing war, by the same people who
have proved themselves not merely the political, but the industrial
enemies of the South, it became impossible for the Company to obtain
proper or sufficient material for increasing its means of
transportation. There was neither time before the outbreak of
hostilities to make arrangements for importation, nor, indeed, was it
anticipated that in despite of the total suspension of Commerce, the
freightage of the Road would be increased, but that on the contrary,
it would be so much diminished, as not to impose any considerable
burthen upon the Rolling Stock then at command. The experience of 1861
appeared to sustain the correctness of these views, for the earnings
of the Road from freight for 1861 amounted to $58,301.02 against
$97,491.80 for 1860, or nearly $35,000 less. There was no reason
apparently to anticipate that the experience of 1862 would differ from
that of 1861, but when it was discovered that Southern Georgia and
Florida were supplied with an abundance of cheap provisions from the
crop of last year, the inadequate trains of the Company soon began to
stagger under the large purchase of the government as well as of the
people, the stations became surcharged with freight, and the necessity
for an increase of transporting power became only too obvious. The
Report of the Superintendent informs the Stockholders of the measures
adopted to add to the number of Locomotives and cars, how far these
measures have been successful, and what provisions are being made for
the future.
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It is no
exaggeration to assert that the earnings of the Company for the past
year would be one-half greater, could the general supplies of the
country have been brought over the road with ordinary dispatch and
promptness. 162,040 bushels of corn have passed over the Road,
principally since the month of July last, and it is highly probable,
that had the Company possessed the means of running daily freight
trains, nearly treble the quantity of this article alone would have
been transported. The tri-weekly trains, with one irregular train,
have been worked up to their full capacity, and yet it is estimated
that a very large amount of corn, chiefly for government use, is still
to come forward. This has been lately delayed in its movement,
partially by the obstruction of transportation beyond Atlanta, but
principally because the teams of the producers are now engaged in the
fields and cannot be used for transportation to the Road until the new
crop is laid by. Hence, the period of the year, which is usually an
easy season of transportation, is likely to present a considerable
business to the Road.
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The rates of
freight have been advanced, since the 20th ultimo, 100 per
cent over the existing rates of the Company, or 33 ˝ per cent. over
the then existing rates. This step was not taken without much
hesitation, but it was rendered necessary by the heavy appreciation in
the prices of labor and provisions, and of every article of railroad
material – an appreciation especially burthensome to an enterprise,
which has as yet been unable to accumulate any reserved fund and is
without any considerable net income. The advance in the value of
railroad material varies from three to twelve prices, or from 20 to
1100 per cent. while the advance in the price of labor is from 40 to
100 per cent. Some essential articles of furniture and equipment
cannot be procured at any price. In the meanwhile, the Rolling Stock
must undergo rapid wear and tear under the extraordinary service to
which it is subjected, and a portion of the rail, which has now been
laid about eight years, begins to show the necessary results of long
continued use. To meet the cost of the swollen value of all material
necessary to maintain the current operations of the Road and its
equipment, and to provide a fund for the future additions necessary to
sustain increasing transportation, as well as for other expenses
incidental to the period, the Board of Directors have been forced to
double the original rates of freight. The most flourishing
institutions of the South have been driven to the same step, not it
would seem from the same degree of necessity which compels this
Company, but to enable them to realize their customary dividends, as
well as to meet the cumulated values of the times. Unwilling however,
without more pressing necessity, to impose any restraints upon travel,
the Board of Directors have not changed the rates of passage, which
are now materially lower than on some of the principal thoroughfares
of the State.
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The Report of the
Chief Engineer, Mr. J. T. Stone, presents the condition of the Florida
connection, which on the Georgia side of the Florida boundary, 25 ˝
miles in length from Station 12, (Lawton), is complete and ready for
the superstructure, except 1600 feet of low trestle, (about 13 ˝
miles from Lawton) which can be readily constructed before the track
can be extended to that point. The Florida portion of the connection,
22 miles in length, is completely graded and bridged, (with the
exception of the Bridge over the Suwannee River, which is about to be
commenced) and is entirely furnished with cross ties.
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The work upon the
Georgia side of this connection was commenced in the month of April
1861, by Mr. F. P. Holcombe, who contracted to finish it, including
the superstructure, by or before the first of July 1862, but the
grading and bridging were not completed until the latter part of March
last, as it was not deemed necessary to urge the work, when it was not
in the power of the Company to obtain iron for the track. Much
attention, however, having been recently drawn to the importance of
more prompt and certain communication with the State of Florida, as a
military as well as commercial measure, it is hoped that this valuable
connection may be completed at no distant day.
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The whole of this
work was contracted to be done by Mr. Holcombe for stock of the
Company, guaranteeing annual interest at seven per cent. payable
semi-annually on the first of May and November. Scrip for $70,400 of
this Stock has been issued, sixty-nine scrip for $100 each, one
hundred and twenty-nine scrip for $500 each, convertible into the
general Stock of the Company at the option of the holder. To the sum
of $70,400 should be added $4232.15 for cost of engineering, and
$94.15 cash payment to the Contractor on account of fractional
estimates making the sum total expended for the Florida Branch to
date, $74,792.28, or $2,930.45 per mile, for grading and bridging
(except 1600 feet), for cross ties for about one mile of road, and for
cost of engineering. At peace prices for superstructure, the cost of
the Road per mile would be less than $8,500.
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The special
attention of the Stockholders is called to the proposed consolidation
of the Stock of this Company with that of the Atlantic & Gulf Rail
Road Company, and as the following extract from the recent annual
Report of the later Company affords a brief and sufficient explanation
of the objects of the measure, it is here introduced.
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"Such have been the intimate and apparently
inseparable relations of the Atlantic & Gulf and Savannah, Albany
& Gulf Rail Road Companies, that a consolidation of the two has
for sometime past been a subject of the most earnest consideration to
the Directors of both companies. Finally in November last, a Bill was
prepared with this object to be laid before the General Assembly.
Unfortunately before any Legislative action could be taken the General
Assembly was adjourned, and the subject deferred to a future session.
The expediency and propriety of the measure can scarcely admit of
argument. The object of the two enterprises are practically one and
the same, the point of separation of the tracks of the two railways is
literally mathematical, one being merely a continuation of the other.
The two lines are operated with the same Rolling Stock, and in every
respect, admissible under the conditions of distinct charters, the two
companies bear to each other the actual relations of an intimate
partnership. The disadvantages of such relations, however unimportant,
so long as harmony of feeling and strict agreement of views as to
their common purposes exist between the companies, may, at any time
and upon trivial occasion seriously impair the prosperity of both. As
it is, the present arrangement of their affairs demands the nicest
adjustment of accounts of the most complicated character, and upon a
basis, which, though carefully just and equitable in its provisions
for both, may not always prove satisfactory to one or the other, and
from which it may be impossible to make any acceptable change. If it
be of importance to reduce the common interests of the two companies
to a fixed and unchangeable harmony, it would seem most judicious to
consolidate them at once into a permanent, legalized unity.
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"Economically considered, such an union presents the
most obvious and important advantages. Dissever the two Companies, and
each would be driven to the heavy expenditure necessary to purchase
and maintain separate equipments of all kinds, (amounting absolutely
to double the quantity necessary for the operation of both, when
working together,) and to the maintenance of separate corps of
officers, clerks, and depot operatives. Upon the Atlantic & Gulf
Rail Road Company, would devolve the excess of the burthen just now
named, while that company would be forced to an enormous expenditure
for adequate warehouses, offices, shops, and fixed machinery, at one
or the other of its termini, or both. All this expenditure so readily
avoided and seemingly so unnecessary to be incurred, amounting to
perhaps a little short of a million of dollars, would be better
devoted in carrying out the greater objects of both companies and in
extending the Road to a point where its successful results will be
beyond all mere speculation. The Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road is not
now the great thoroughfare of commerce and travel for which it was
projected, and cannot become such, until its lateral connections are
fully established and it attains its terminus on the Gulf of Mexico.
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"Can such a consolidation prove injurious to either
one Company or the other? The Savannah, Albany & Gulf Rail Road
Company stands entirely cleared of every dollar of floating liability.
The Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road Company stands in the same fortunate
position, even while its road is still in process of construction, all
of its grading completed and paid for, excepting about six and a half
miles, and with abundant means to meet the cost of the remainder and
to go far towards meeting the expense of the superstruction of the
whole division between Thomasville and Bainbridge. The funded debt of
the Savannah, Albany & Gulf Rail Road Company is $300,000, payable
in 1879, and amply secured by the endorsement of the city of Savannah.
The funded debt of the Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road Company amounts
to $500,000, payable in 1881. With no floating liabilities existing
against either corporation, and with every prospect of an easy
liquidation of funded liens which cannot embarrass the profitable
operations of either Road, there can be no fundamental financial
obligation to an union of the two institutions.
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"Nor is there any condition in the charter of either
corporation in conflict with such a proposition, so far as their
separate interests are concerned. If there be any, let it remain
unchanged so far as it may pertain to either Company. If the State has
been careful in guarding her interests, and those of her citizens, in
the charter of the Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road Company, let the
protectives she has established in granting the charter remain
untouched. They do not and cannot endanger the welfare of either
Company, nor embarrass the accomplishment of the great objects for
which both were created. In fine, the proposed consolidation can only
result in a concentration of capital for the public good, in the
enhancement of the common credit of both institutions, and in the
harmonious pursuit of a policy which no dissensions could be permitted
to weaken, and which is now bringing and will continue to bring
abundant prosperity to every interest within its influence.
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Subjoined to this
Report is the Act for the consolidation of the Stock of the two
Companies, passed at the recent extra session of the General Assembly,
which is not, however, of force until accepted by the stockholders,
and until the terms and conditions of the consolidation are determined
by the Boards of Directors and by a majority of votes of the
Stockholders in each Company. The period of time which has elapsed
since the passage of the Act has been too brief, to permit either
Board of Directors to give to a plan of consolidation that degree of
deliberation which is due to a measure of so much importance. It is
therefore respectfully suggested, that the present annual meeting,
when it adjourns, shall meet again on the third Wednesday in June
next, to afford the Boards of Directors sufficient time to mature and
adjust a plan of consolidation, and present the same for the
consideration of the Stockholders.
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Respectfully submitted,
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John Screven
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President
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