NP, WJ 11/21A/1861

From the Wilmington Journal
 
November 21, 1861
 
President and Director's Report
President's Office, W. & M. R. R. Co.   {Wilmington & Manchester RR}
Wilmington, N. C., 20th Nov., 1861
 
To the Stockholders:
   The President and Board of Directors submit for the consideration of the Stockholders the Fourteenth Annual Report upon the affairs of the Company for the fiscal year closing on the 30th September last.
   It is with no small degree of satisfaction that, in rendering to you an account of our charge for the past year, we are enabled to do so in a manner gratifying to ourselves, and we trust acceptable to you. Had circumstances so ordered it that we should have been compelled to present your affairs in and aspect not so prosperous as it has heretofore been our province to do, still there might have been no cause for distrustfulness in the future promise of the Road. But such is not the case. An examination of our condition will inspire the most casual observer with renewed confidence in the permanent merit of our Road. The means of testing the accuracy of this assertion are afforded in the accompanying tables setting forth the year's operations, having a due regard to the circumstances under which the work has been done. In times of peace and prosperity, when productions are constantly on the increase, and exchangeable values are following their accustomed avenues of trade and commerce, and all the industrial interests of the country are in their normal condition, it would naturally be expected that with a properly located Road its revenues should be not only maintained, but every year bring with it a fair addition to its business. But when these have been deranged by such causes as are at present existing, it was to have been expected that Railroad interests would have greatly suffered in a decline of their usual receipts. This, however, has not been the case with us. Though the ordinary sources whence we have heretofore derived our receipts have measurably failed under the general depression in furnishing to us their accustomed contributions, yet being in the line of connection between the extremes of the country, our Road, by this position, has realized larger receipts than heretofore.
   Annexed will be found the Report of the General Superintendent, together with the Account Current and Exhibit of the Treasurer and the customary tabular statements showing the amount of work accomplished during the year. These last will embrace in detail the character of the work, the points to and from which it has been done, and the sources whence spring the revenue of the Road. To these you are referred as giving you a minute insight into the operations of the Road.
   From the Abstract of Receipts, it will be seen that the total earnings for the year have been $473,463.85. From the Abstract of Expenditures, that the cost of operating has been $214,522.25 -- leaving the nett earnings amounting to $258,941.60. The nett earnings have been 10.41 per cent. upon the entire cost of the Road. After deducting interest paid, they have been 17.52 per cent. upon the capital stock, and without making this deduction, they have been 22.8 per cent.
   A comparison of the business of the past year with that of the preceding one will show the following results:
A loss upon Way Travel 25,068.55
" " " Freight and minor sources 23,759.17
" " " Mails 6,432.87
$55,260.59
A gain from Through Travel $59,265.92
Difference $4,005.33
   This difference, which is but the difference between the aggregate receipts of last year and the preceding, shows but a slight increase in the business of the Road for the past year; but, in itself, does not present the proper and true comparison between the two years. The correct comparison would be between the nett earnings. The Superintendent's report shows that the cost of operating has been less by $35,247.95 the last, than the previous year. Every diminution in expenditures, as well as increase in receipts, tending to enlarge the nett revenue, these two sums taken together indicate the nett earnings for the year, in excess of those for the year before. The nett earnings for the year preceding the last were $219,688.32. Those for the year just closed $258,941.60. 
The Treasurer's Exhibit will show that the entire amount which has passed through his hands for the fiscal year has been

$553,257.85

His disbursements have been 329,700.24
Assets in hand at the close of the year 223,557.61
$553,257.85
   These disbursements are composed of the following items:
Operating expenses of Road for the year $214,522.25
Balance of interest and premium on Exchange 60,041.82
Amount of Debt reduced for the year 5,168.69
Interest on anticipated payments on Capital Stock paid in Stock 2,915.89
Amount paid on account of Construction 8,360.77
Amount paid on account of filling Trestle 6,517.63
On account of Engine Rotunda and Foundations 7,910.76
Balance of Subscription to Stock of the Cape Fear and Ocean Steamship Navigation Company 5,250.00
For building Wharf and foundations for Warehouse, including materials furnished for same 14,524.68
Paid for insurance 1,398.75
Counterfeit money received 89.00
Aggregate disbursements for the year 329,700.24
To which add assets on hand 228,557.61
   Total $553,257.85
   The capital stock of the Company has been increased this year to the amount of $4,763.51. Of this, $2,915.89 has been paid in accrued interest on anticipated payments on account of Capital Stock. The remainder, $1,847.62, has been paid in cash or its equivalent.
   There has been about the same amount absorbed in construction which there was for the last two or three years. The amount paid for filling Trestle is considerably in excess of what it was the year before. During that year there was a very small force engaged in filling, hardly more than a mere nominal one, but at the commencement of the past year it was determined to occupy a much larger force than had been usually applied to this work, and to undertake the embankment of some of the largest work of this character on the Road. Consequently, the force organized for the year has been chiefly engaged at the Trestle Work on the Great Pee Dee. Before undertaking it ourselves several efforts were made to have the work done by contract, but all these were unavailing. Either from the magnitude of the work or fears of the effect of miasmatic fevers upon the health of laborers remaining at the swamp through the summer season, or from a diversity of opinion as to the compensation which should be allowed, no contractor could be found to undertake it. Under these circumstances, deeming it very desirable that a beginning should be made upon a work of so much importance, one too which would necessarily consume a good deal of time before its completion, it was begun by the Company. The quantity of work done during the year has been considerable, as stated in the Superintendent's Report. To what extent it may with safety be continued cannot at this time be stated. We are satisfied, however, that the larger portion of the distance between the bank and the river may be filled. To do this will require parts of several years, so that the inundations in the meantime, to which this stream is so subject, will have afforded ample opportunity for testing the propriety of prosecuting the work, and of marking out the limit to which it may be extended.
   In the last annual report it was stated that the Board, feeling the urgent necessity for more extended accommodations for the transportation business at this terminus of the Road, had selected a site for the erection of a suitable warehouse. The location selected rendered it necessary that before a commencement had been made upon the warehouse, a wharf of proper dimensions should be constructed. This has been done. We have a large and commodious wharf, and the foundation piles driven and plans ready for going to work on the warehouse, all adapted to what we consider the prospective demands of our business, upon the return of an auspicious season for entering upon it. This work, which we had hoped to have had very nearly, if not entirely completed, by this time , has been postponed from prudential considerations. It will not, however, be postponed beyond a period when we shall feel justified in executing it.
   The indebtedness of the Company is as follows:
First Mortgage Bonds $596,000.00
Second     "          " 200,00.00
Income                 " 174,000.00
Bonds secured by hypothecation of Stock in Wilmington & Weldon Rail Road Company 75,000.00
Bills Payable 24,351.77
Other liabilities (see Treasurer's acc't current) 21,779.80
$1,091,131.57
   As will be seen, the amount of indebtedness reduced this year is $5,168.69. Upon the completion of the Road, after exhausting all of our means which had been derived from the negotiation of bonds and the subscriptions made by individuals, we had incurred a very considerable debt which it was found at the time impracticable to fund. Heretofore it has been our constant aid and effort to liquidate this floating debt, and hence all of the surplus available means of the Company have been directed to that end, until now we may be said to have reduced it to an almost nominal amount. We felt assured that so soon as this could be effected, then being possessed of a great public enterprise such as ours is, with a property costing some two and a half millions of dollars, with a debt of about only one million, and this in a funded shape, and having amongst our assets stock amounting to some two hundred thousand dollars, we should then have placed our Road upon a firm and solid footing.
   At the last annual meeting it was declared by the Stockholders that, from the condition of the Company as then presented, they were entitled at some early day to receive some remuneration upon their investment in the way of dividends. Though this declaration was true in view of the profits which had been realized for that year, yet, in consideration of the fact that these profits had been disposed of by applying them towards a reduction of the debt, a portion towards meeting a balance of the debt for which stock had been hypothecated, and a larger portion towards removing floating debt, it was not deemed prudent to make a dividend at that time, though the Board felt extremely desirous of doing so at the earliest moment; but better a little longer to await events, and when done, it could be done with safety and without incurring any risk of embarrassment to our finances. It was consequently postponed until the month of October, when the Board declared a dividend of nine per cent., payable to Stockholders on and after the 1st of November, three per cent. of which was due to the Stockholders in compliance with their expressed wish, and six per cent. for the current year. Though a large dividend for the first one ever declared by the Company, an inspection of the revenue of the Road for the year's business will fully vindicate the propriety of it. The receipts for the fiscal year have been larger than they have ever been before. The expenditures for operating have been below what they have been for several years. After paying this dividend there will then remain a surplus on hand to provide for any future contingency.
   The Stockholders, at the same meeting, passed a resolution instructing the Board to take steps for raising a sinking fund to provide for the debt of the Company. The Board, in compliance with this resolution, have appropriated twenty-five ($25,000) Confederate Bonds for this purpose.
   The double daily mail service which has been performed by the Road for some years past has been discontinued. Upon the organization of the new Government the Department determined, with a view to retrenching the expenditures requisite for maintaining service of this class, as well as because it was not deemed absolutely necessary to the wants of the country to continue the mails with as great frequency as has heretofore been the case, to enter into contracts for the carriage of but a single daily mail. Under this new arrangement a contract was made with the Department to commence on the 1st July, and continue for two years. The compensation to be allowed was divided into three classes, according to the importance of the mails to be transported. Forming a link in the main route, our line was assigned to the first class. For this service we receive one hundred and fifty dollars per mile, with twenty-five per cent. additional for night service, so long as we continue to perform that service, which is now being performed under a schedule ordered by the Department. The absence of the former daily mail trains rendered it necessary that some provision should be made in accommodating the local travel of the Road, which, from considerations of comfort and convenience, had been chiefly done by those trains. To meet this requirement, it was regarded as most economical and expedient to unite the two classes of service, and daily through freight trains, with passenger coaches attached, running upon schedule, have been put into operation. Though not running at so great a speed as the former trains, we think that they will be found to answer the purposes of this travel.
   At the invitation of the Post Master General a Convention of the representatives of the various Rail Road Companies assembled in Montgomery, in April last, to confer upon the change which was about to be inaugurated in the postal system. The Secretary of War, availing himself of the presence of the Convention in that city, addressed to them a communication asking their assistance in arranging some plan for the conveyance of troops and materials of war. Their deliberations resulted in their agreeing to receive for this service to the new government payment in Bonds or Treasury Notes of the Confederate States, at the rate of two cents per mile for troops and half the regular local rates for munitions, provisions and materials. This portion of the business for the year has been done subject to these rates, and consequently the actual amount of work done by the Road for the year has greatly exceeded what it would have been, under ordinary circumstances, to have earned the same amount of revenue. This concession on the part of the Rail Road corporations was prompted by motives of patriotism, to aid the Government in the great cause in which it is involved and with which the destiny of us all is identified. Had there been no disturbing cause in the affairs of the country, we think that our revenue would have been much larger than it is, and we feel well assured that upon a return of peace and a resumption of their wonted avocations by our people, our Road must continue to thrive, and participate in the renewed prosperity of the country.
Respectfully submitted,
Thos. D. Walker, President

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