Stephen Johnson Field

“ By the very terms of the charter of the company five per cent of its net earnings were to be paid to the government. Those earnings were necessarily reduced by every transaction which took from the company its legitimate profits. It is true that some of the directors, who approved of or did not dissent from the contract, early stated that they held their stock in the coal company for the benefit of the railroad company and transferred it, or were ready to transfer it, to the latter ”

“ These terms and the leasing of all the coal lands of the company for fifteen years to those parties upon a royalty of twenty-five cents a ton for the first nine years, and without any royalty afterwards if the price of the coal shoud be reduced to three dollars, with the stipulation to provide side-tracks to the mines, and also the furnish cars for transportation of coal for general consumption, and after charging them only what was charged to others, to allow them a drawback of twenty-five per cent on the sums paid, gave to them a contract of the value of millions of dollars. ”

“ Wardell, the principal contractor, informed those with whom be chiefly dealt in negotiating the contract that coal could be delivered to the company as a cost of two dollars per ton, yet the contract, which was to remain in force fifteen years, stipulated that the company should pay treble this amount per ton for the coal the first two years, two and a half times the amount for the next three years, twice the amount for the following four years, and one-half more for the balance of the time. ”