Correspondence (incoming): Crocker, George, 1896-1899

THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.

RECEIVED at San Francisco, Cal. 1098

Ch. 329 Si. Br. 21 Paid/ 515 pm

New York Mar. 2, 1896.

Mrs. Leland Stanford.

900 Cala. St., San Francisco.

Accept my sincere congratulations in having your just rights conceded by the government success always to the Leland Stanford Junior University.

George Crocker.

Ans.

George Crocker, Mills Building, New York. Nov. 15th '99

Mrs. Leland Stanford Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York.

My Dear Mrs. Stanford: Mr. Russell J. Wilson, your Attorney, called on me today and asked if I would give you a statement as to the matters which have been agreed to, so far, between the Southern Pac. Co. and the Pac. Improvement Co.

On Nov. 1st it was agreed, - that the Pac. Improvement Co. would give its holdings of stock in the San Antonio & Arkansas Pass RR and in the Oregon & California RR Co, Preferred and Common, to the Southern Pacific Co., on the understanding that the So. Pac. Co. would pay to the Pac. Imp. Co. its claim for the monies advanced in the past to pay coupons on the S.A.&.A.P. bonds, amounting in round numbers to about $2,250.00.

On Nov. 6th, it was agreed, - that the So. Pac. Co. would pay to the Pac. Imp. Co. $6,100., advanced by the Pac. Imp. Co. in what is known as the Texas Railroad Commission Suit. At the same meeting it was also agreed that what is known to the Lackawanna Coal & Iron Co. Account (See Doubtful Accounts P.I.Co's Balance Sheet of General Ledger, Sept. 1 '99) could not be collected either from the Houston & Tex. Central RR Co. or the So. Pac. Co., as this account was contracted by the Southern Development Co. before the H.% T.C.RR.Co. was reorganized. For the same reason the accounts headed "H.& T.C.RyCo Suit" ($24,083.99) and "H.& T.C.Ry Co.Lands" ($21,244.66) were decided to be uncollectible: also the Note account of $13,987.50. But it was agreed that claims aggregating an amount in the vicinity of $65,000. should be paid by the H.&.T.C.Ry Co., being for money advanced by the Southern Development Co. After the reorganization of the H.&T.C.Co. This amount

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will be paid by the H.&T.C.Co. or the So. Pac. Co. to the Pac. Imp. Company. The Galveston, harrisburg & San Antonio Ry Account, amounting to $656,304.96, has been agreed to in this respect:- that about $240,000 of the amount was expended by the Southern Development Co. on the G.H.& S.A.Co's property which was not called for by the contract between these two companies. These expenditures were made in the years 1883, '4 & '5, and up to 1893, their total amount, with interest, is about the sum stated, $240,000. This G.H.&S.A.Account has been figured with interest compounded semi-annually up to the date of settlement (about Nov. 1st) and amounts to something in the vicinity of $600,000. The G.H.&S.A. Co. will give a not for the amount to the So. Pac. Co., and the So. Pac. Co. will pay it. This payment however will offset the claim which the P.I.Co. has against the Portland & Willamette Valley RR Co for monies advanced up to and including July 1893, in round numbers, $619,000. In other words one claim will offset the other, although the total amounts are not quit the same. This settles up the "Doubtful Accounts" of the P.I.Co. The rest are uncollectible.

The San Antionio & Gulf Ry Co's account (page 2) represents money advanced by the Pac. Imp. Co. to purchase from parties in San Antonio the property known as the San Antionio & Gulf RR. This amount was advanced in money, and notes for $50,000. additional were given at the same time. The Sc. Pac. Co. has agreed to reimburse the Pac. Imp. Co. for this money and to assume the notes.

You will rememember that at our last meeting Mr. Huntington announced that the So. Pac. Co. did not wish to purchase at this time, the stocks owned by the Pac. Imp. Co. in the different railway companies and that any negotiation for the purchase of the same by the S.P.

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Company, would have to be taken up at some future date. I wish to call your attention to this matter particularly, as I do not think the Pac. Imp. Co. is justified in carrying these railroad stocks in its treasury for an indefinite time. A certain period should be agreed upon between the stockholders of the P.I.Co. within which the So.Pac. Co. may have the option to purhcase the stocks. If the So. Pac. Co. does not avail of the option the P.I.Co. will then be free to sell to other parties. Some of these stocks will be valuable in the future, and it will be necessary for the So. Pac. Co. to acquire them. I am of the strong opinion that Mr. Huntington is trying to get them for nothing. They are worth money and money should be paid for them, the P.I.Co. having paid cash for them.

The only unadjusted matter now between the P.I.Co. and the So.Pac.Co., is the Real Estate owned in severalty in San Francisco by the P.I.Co., the So. Pac. RR of California, and the Central Pacific. This includes the property in what is known as Mission Bay, the property at Fourth & Townsend Streets, formerly used as railroad offices and still so used to a certain extent by the So. Pac. Co.: also a piece of land situated on Brannan St., near the Pacific Mail dock. This land is owned b y the P.I.Co. and would be very valuable to the So. Pac. Co. During your absence in Europe I purchased for the So. Pac. Co. a block of land, formerly owned by the Pacific Coast Co.(Successor of the Oregon Improvement Co.) and it is proposed to establish freight and passenger terminals as near the A.T.& S.F. Co's terminals in San Francisco as possible. To do this it will be necessary for the So. Pac. Co. to acquire Block 9, which is south of Brannan St. and on the Water Front, next to the Pac. Mail Dock. It is a very valuable piece of real estate and owned today by the P.I.Co. A map which is now on the way here from San Francisco will illustrate this question.

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As soon as these real estate matters between the P.I.Co. and the So. Pac. Co. are adjusted I see nothing to detain you in New York but I hope yuo will remain here until they are fully settled, as in my opinion they will be very hard questions to adjust satisfactorialy to the stockholders of the P.I.Co. and the (now) stockholders of the So. Pac. Co. You are in a position today to act upon these matters in a way more advantageous to the P.I.Co. than you were last week, having sold your holdings of So. Pac. stock. You are not now so much interested in the finances of the latter Company, but you are very greatly interested in the financial outcome of the P.I.Co., holding a quarter of its capital stock.

You will call to mind that the debts of the P.I.Co. to out side parties and to the three associates (C.P.Huntington, T.H. Hubbard & Co, and the Crocker Estate Co.) were discussed at the last meeting at considera le length. It has been agreed that the outside notes in San Francisco and new York, shall be paid first. These notes amounted July 31st '99, in New York, to $5,598,591.20 and in San Francisco, to $1,385,000. I do not know whether any have been paid off since July. Some of them are straight notes of the P.I.Co. and have no endorsements, but other notes, particularly those to H.W.Carpentier and his sister, Maria Hall Williamson, are endorsed by the associates. It has been agreed that the P.I.Co. will advance the money for these notes to the So.Pac. Co., and if Mr. Carpentier is agreeable the So. Pac. Co. will assume them:if not, the notes will be paid. After this indebtedness to outside parties has been liquidated the P.I.Co. will pay what it owes to the three associates. But jsut how to do this has not yet been agreed upon. I presume that property will be given, at values to be agreed to by the interested parties. After this I think the best way for the P.I.Co. to wind up its affairs is.