612             JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS           [Mar. 3

On motion of Mr. Rowles,

The rules were suspended to enable him to present the Report
of the Select Committee upon the proposition to sell the unpre-
ferred stock of Maryland in the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road
Company,

The select committee appointed by this House, to take into con-
sideration the proposition to sell out all the unpreferred stock of the
State of Maryland, held in the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co.,
beg leave to make the following             

REPORT:             

The State of Maryland subscribed $500,000 to the building of
the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road in the year 1827, and if the State
had received 6 per cent annually upon that sum, she would have
received into her treasury, for disbursement, the sum of $740,000.
But what has she really received? $182,000 in dividend stock of
the company, which is now worth 54 cents in the dollar, and on
the decline. Therefore, if the State was compelled to sell the di-
vidend stock at. the present market price, she would realize $98,280,
making a clear loss of $641,720 on a loan of $500,000 for 28
years. Would any sane man, much less a financier, recom-
mend the State of Maryland to continue a partner to a con-
tract at such ruinous rates? We think not. Your committee has
introduced a bill which they believe will enable the State to dis-
solve her connextion with said company, not only upon reasonable,
but profitable terms. The bill contains the following provisions,
to wit: That the treasurer of the State be, and he is hereby au-
thorized to offer at public sale, at the exchange, in the city of

Baltimore, on------day of May 1856, after duly advertising the

Same in the several newspapers in said city, all the unpreferred
stock of the State in said Rail Road, which embraces the $500,000
subscribed by the State to the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, in
the year 1827, together with the $182,000 in dividend bonds,
which the State has received, from time to time, as interest upon
said subscription, making a total or $682,000 of unpreferred stock;
and then and there sell, to the highest bidder for cash, or its equi-
valent, at a minimum price of seventy-five cents in the dollar,
making a total of $511,000 that would be brought into the State
Treasury for disbursement. But your committee have reasons to
believe that the stock would bring par value under the inducements
held out to the private stock-holders in the bill, and if our expec-
tations should be realized, the sum of $682,000 would be placed
into the Treasury. Therefore it is for the House to fix the mini-
mum price. We say give us the bill we will find the purchasers.
Now if the State can sell the $682,000 of stock for 75 per cent she will
realize $143,220 more than the stock will bring in the market;
and if she can sell it at par, then she realizes $313,720 more than
its present value. But there is another provision in the bill of