on Letter. wou'.d rest one arm on his upraised knee, and, taking the Court into his confidence, proceed to demolish the argument of his adversary. Mr. Justice Brown, who was forced to abandon his duties for many weeks because of trouble with his eyes, was present at the short session which the Court held on the firs: day of February. On that day Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the Court in the case of the State of South Dakota v. the State of North Carolina, ct a/., the decree being in favor of the complainant. A dissenting opinion pre pared by Mr. Justice White was read in his absence by the Chief-Justice, who, with Justices McKenna and Day, joined in this opinion. The. facts as stated in the opinion are briefly as follows: In 1849 the State of North Carolina passed an act whereby the North Carolina Railroad Company was chartered with a capital of $3,000,000, divided into 30,ooo shares of $100 each. The State subscribed for 20,000 shares, and issued its bonds for a sufficient amount to pay for the subscrip tion, pledging as collateral security therefor its stock in the railroad company. Similar subscriptions for additional shares of the stock of this company and of the Western North Carolina Railroad Company were authorized and effected by a similar method. In 1879 the State of North Carolina ap pointed commissioners to compromise the State debt. In 1897 those bonds which had not been compromised matured, were not re deemed, and the holders thereof were unable either to induce or compel the State of North Carolina to redeem them at anything like their face value. One of the holders of a large number of these bonds had a friend who resided in the State of South Dakota, and was more or less prominent in the poli tics of that State. This bond-holder and his friend from South Dakota held a conference. Thereafter the State of South Dakota was
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also a holder of certain of the bonds of the State of North Carolina. The following let ter addressed to another citizen of South Dakota explains itself: "Office of Schafer Brothers, No. 35 Wall Street. New York, Sept. 10, 1901. Hon. Charles H. Burke, Dear Sir:—The undersigned, one of the members of the firm of Schafer Bros., has decided, after consultation with the other holders of the second mortgage bonds issued by the State of North Carolina, to donate ten of these bonds to the State of South Dakota. The holders of these bonds have waited for some thirty years in the hope that the State of North Carolina would realize the justice of their claims for the payment of these bonds. The bonds are all now about due, beside, of course, the coupons, which amount to some one hundred and seventy per cent, of the face of the bond. The holders of these bonds have been ad vised that they cannot maintain a suit against the State of North Carolina on these bonds, but that such a suit can be main tained by a foreign State or by one of the United States. The owners of these bonds are mostly, if not entirely, persons who liberally give char ity to the needy, the deserving and the un fortunate. These bonds can be used to great advan tage by States or foreign governments, and the majority owners would prefer to use them in this way rather than take the trifle which is offered by the debtor. If your State should succeed in collecting these bonds it would be the inclination of the owners of a majority of the total issue now outstanding to make additional dona tions to such governments as may be able to collect from the repudiating State, rather
