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543
reads as follows : " That if the subscriptions obtained be in-
sufficient, the President and Directors, or a majority of
them, may issue the bonds of said Company to an amount
not exceeding the capital stock authorized by this Act, and
may secure the same by mortgage upon the property, fran-
chises and revenues of the Company."
The policy and practice of the State has been to require
that all Stock. Companies shall have a real and substantial
capital value, and it has never encouraged corporate enter-
prises predicated simply upon debt. In the case of the Union
Railroad Company now under consideration, a real Stock
basis of $600,000 was doubtless contemplated. The capital
thus authorized was intended to bo first applied to the con-
struction of a Railroad as far as might answer that purpose,
some real and tangible value would thus be created upon
which to predicate a loan. But in the absence of such a
basis of values, it is difficult to see what the Company could
have to mortgage as a security for an issue of $500,000 of
bonds, and yet this is just what has been done. The entire
enterprise (saving the meagre stock subscriptions obtained)
and upon which there has been but one dollar paid in, is pre-
dicated upon nothing but bonded debt.
Much of the growth and prosperity of our State, and the
onward march of the City of Baltimore in numbers and
wealth is due to the successful prosecution of our works of in-
ternal improvement, and it is now a well accepted fact, that
no community can hope for prosperity if its people are indif-
ferent to the facilities necessary to afford certain rapid and
cheap intercourse, and interchange of the products of industry;
for it is by such means that vast treasures of wealth are
brought into the commerce of the world and made to con-
tribute to the general happiness and progress of man, which
otherwise would remain valueless.
The magnitude of such undertakings, however, not unfre-
quently exceeds individual means, and hence the necessity
for Acts of incorporation, uniting and centralizing individu-
al efforts and capital in order to secure the successful accom-
plishment of such enterprises. The aid of States and Cities
have, at times, been invoked and properly given to secure
prompt success, and benefits have resulted far in excess of
the temporary inconveniences resulting from the non-ability
of such undertakings in the beginning to be fully productive.
While these things are true, still there is a great necessity
for caution, and for legislative restraints lest communities
through the snares of the wiley and the designing, and by
the recklessness of others should become dangerously involv-
ed ia debts beyond their means to pay without great suffer-
ing and hardship, and thereby cause alarm, when capital
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