Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/319

Rh could not well be expected to yield more for some time to come.

The ten and a half million dollar bond issue brought about seven and a half million dollars. The total cost of constructing the road to Roseburg was $5,463,805, or $27,478 per mile. This would leave about two million dollars received from the bonds which was not put into construction. Yet before we make a wholesale accusation of fraud against Holladay, we should at least attempt to see what became of the money. If the company was only paying one-third the interest charge, funds could not be expected from that source. This deficiency would have to be met from some source. The interest payments on ten and a half million dollars would amount to about $800,000 a year. If two-thirds of this was not forthcom- ing from the earnings there were not many places from which it could come. It might have been made up by sale of stock, but the stock was not salable to any great de- gree. The Oregon Central Company, of which this com- pany was successor, had been unable to dispose of their stock at ten cents on the dollar, and it is unlikely that the Oregon and California Railroad Company fared better. Ben Holladay could have paid the deficiency from his own capital or used his personal credit, and the chances are that he did, although we have no record of this being done. But to meet the deficiencies of the several companies over which he had control would have ruined the finances of any man. Only one thing was left to do. That was to take some of the money gained by the bonds and pay the interest on the bonds until the railroad became a paying proposition. The bonds had been issued in 1870. The road did not begin operation until 1872. For two years then, nothing could have been obtained from earnings. This would have amounted to about a million, six hundred thousand dollars, or closely approximating the amount de-