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THE NEW WESTERN LINE IN A PECK OF TROUBLE.I The Engineers Levy on the Property of the United States Construction and Improvement Company to Secure Their Salaries-The Contractors Treated Similarly by Their Employes -A Card from General Manager West.Sometime ago the Morning News announced the failure of the scheme to build the Birmingham and Atlantic Air-Line railroad, and the failure became a matter of certainty yesterday, when all the maps, plans, profiles and such property belonging to the United States Construction and Improvement Company as could be found, together with some money in hank, were attached, the engineer corps being the claimants in the case.Capt. R. A. Blandford, who has boon the engineer in charge, was the principal in the case, and last night he gave a brief history of it. lie said that his connection with the company began last September. In October he needed money for hia men and his department. He wrote to the General Manager for it, but received no reply. He wrote again, with a like result. He continued to write for some time, but could get neither money nor a response. He then wrote to the President of the comnny, telling him that his men needed clothes and some of them medicines; that he halt;I written to the General Manager, but could not get any money. Capt. Blandford waited long enough for the President to answer his letter, but receiving no reply, he wrote another to the same effect. Nothing more was heard from that.The correspondence lasted well Into No-vember, during which time the engineers received 110 money. They began to quit work, and the General Manager was repeatedly urged to give them something on account, but lie was deaf to their appeals. Lawsuits wore threatened, and Maj. WestSromised to pay off 011 Saturday, Dec. 3. le went away, however, but told the engineers that he would return on Wednesday and pay them. He came back 011 Wednesday, nut did not payoff. The claims of the engi neers were then placed in the hands of their attorneys. The amount of srlaries due up to Dec. 1 was $3,500. After the attorneys got the claims Maj. West legan paying oft. Up to Friday night he had paid the engineers $500. Then lie deposited the remainder of his money in the Merchants’ National bank. He went to the hank yesterday morning to get it and found that it had been garnisheed. He then went to the office of the company and found a constable in charge. Later the effects of the company were moved to Magistrate Molina's office. The value of the profiles and plans is bard to estimate. They cost the company a good sura of money, and they could not tie replaced for double the amount of the claims, and it is doubtful if some of them could be replaced at all. The engineers do not know how much money they caught in bank, as the officers of the bank refused totell them The office of the United States Construction and Improvement Company is now* closed The employes of the contractors, Carpenter, Grant, Mundy lt;fc Co., attached their properties, consisting of mules and implements necessary for the construction of the road, for money due them to the amount of $3,000. The contractors are fullv able to pay all claims against them, but they want to get something out of the construction company if they can. The construction company owes them about $100,000, and they do not want to pay out anything until they can get something from the construction company if they can help it.Maj. West was asked last night what the situation was and he wrote the following card, which includes all he would say uponthe subject:United Statics Construction and Improve- 1
Newspaper Details
Savannah Morning News
Savannah, Georgia, US
Sun, Dec 11, 1887
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
GA, USA 05 Oct 2020
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