Edward H. Miller Jr. Deposition 2

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Deposition of Edward H. Miller Jr. dated May 15, 1876. Miller was the Secretary for the Central Pacific Railroad Company.

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Q. 259 You do not know that there were any other directors, then?

A. I do not.

Q. 260 Did Charles Crocker seem to have the whole control of the affairs of the Contract and Finance Company?

A. He and the secretary.

Q. 261 Do you think these other persons whom I have named could have been directors of that company all this time without your knowing it?

A. They might.

Q. 262 "You"[crossed out] How near was your own secretary's office to the office of the Contract and Finance Company?

A. About six feet.

Q. 263 Were you in the habit of going in there?

A. I was.

Q. 264 Daily?

A. Daily, almost. — I will amend an answer I made about the directors. I suppose Sam Hopkins was a director of the Contract and Finance Company, for the same reason that I suppose Charles Crocker was.

Q. 265 Mr. Cohen: Do you recollect the time when Charles Crocker ceased to be president of the Contract and Finance Company?

A. I do not.

Q. 266 Do you recollect the time when he

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ceased to be a director and vice president of Central Pacific Railroad Company?

A. I cannot fix the date. I remember there was such a time.

Q. 267 There was an interval of about two years when he was not an officer and director of the Central Pacific Railroad Company was there not?

A. My impression is, more than two years.

Q. 268 I am speaking now of the period between 1871 and 1873 or 1874: There was an interval of time between those years when he was not an officer or director of the Central Pacific Railroad Company

A. Yes.

Q. 269 About that time he left the state, did he not?

A. He did.

Q. 270 Was not that the time when he ceased to be president of the Contract and Finance Company?

A. I don't know; but I suppose so.

Q. 271 Do you know who became president of that company after the expiration of his term?

A. I do not know, of my own knowledge; but I think S. A. Hopkins.

Q. 272 Was it not Mark Hopkins?

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A. I never heard so, and do not know anything of it.

Q. 273 Did you never see the engraved letter heads of the Contract and Finance Company with the name of Mark Hopkins as president?

A. I never did.

Q. 274 Were not all the rails laid upon that portion of the Central Pacific Rail= =road built by the Contract and Finance Company furnished by the Railroad Company?

A. As I understand "furnished," they were not; but they were imported by the Railroad Company and sold to the Con= =tract and Finance Company. I think the Contract and Finance Company bought on their own account some of the rails, from other parties.

Q. 275 Was not the bulk of the rails used on that part of the road supplied as I have asked about?

A. It was.

Q. 276 Do you recollect the price at which you sold those rails to the Contract and Finance Company?

A. No; I do not.

Q. 277 Did the Contract and Finance Company charge you the same or a higher price, when they settled with you for the build=

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=ing of the road?

A. I do not think the Contract and Finance Company, as I remember it, charged any price for the rails. I think the contract did not read so much per ton for so many tons of iron. I think the contract for laying the iron on the road was so much a mile, perhaps: for furnishing ties and iron, and laying it, so much.

Q. 278 Why do you think it read that way?

A. I think I would remember, possibly, the details if it was different from that. That is my impression.

Q. 279 How much a month was it?

A. I have no recollection of that.

Q. 280 Why do you think the contract read that way, when you do not recollect that the contract was in writing?

A. That is my impression. I recollect some of the contracts were that way.

Q. 281 Mr. Sake: Are there any contracts, documents or entries in the books of the Railroad Company, of which you are sec= =retary, which will show?

A. There are.

Q. 282 Mr. Cohen: Was there any other ma= =terial used by the Contract and Finance Company in the construction of that part

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of the road which it constructed furnished in the same way?

A. They frequently bought material that the Central Pacific Railroad Company had in stock.

Q. 283 Did you charge them the rails and other material which you supplied them with at the cost price to yourself, or at a profit?

A. Well, we always charged a profit instead of the actual cost.

Q. 284 Did you make payment to the Con= =tract and Finance Company for the work it did and the materials it supplied, up to the full amount of the value of the work and material, as fast as the same was performed and supplied, or was there a percentage reserved?

A. We were constantly in debt to the Contract and Finance Company; so of course we did not pay them fully up to the amount of work they had done.

Q. 285 Did you keep an account on the books of the Central Pacific Railroad Company with the Contract and Finance Company?

A. We did.

Q. 286 Did you credit them the amount

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