It is urged that the plan proposed creates a large class of state
pensioners to whom the revenues of the treasury are pledged. They are
State pensioners in the same sense as any individual who leases
property to the State for a fixed rent, is a State pensioner. Every
railroad charter contains a provision for the acquisition of the
corporate property by the State, by payment of its presumed value. As
well say that all these charters are pension bills.
The minority bill simply provides that stockholders yielding their
property to the State, shall have a remuneration for the property
surrendered. It makes little difference to the individual whether his
compensation comes in the form of the payment of a fixed sum or of an
annual annuity. It does make some difference to the State, whether it
increases a debt to payoff these stockholders at once, or pays such
interest as the property acquired may be fairly presumed to earn. The
guarantee does not exceed the dividends which the property may be
expected to earn, and the advantage which a lease gives over a
purchase by avoiding the transfer and changing of capital should not
be overlooked.
In a word, these stockholders are pensioners only in the sense that
they become entitled to secure annuities from the State for which
they pay beforehand a full equivalent into the treasury.