Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-02-09
The Western and Boston and worcester
IsaIlrond ContrOvcrsY


The Western and Boston and worcester
Railroad Controversy.
TO the Editor Of the Spy:-~Do the people
Of Massachusetts, desire to put themselves
under the control of a mammoth corporation,
with capital of sixteen millions Of dollars,
managed by INSCRIPTIONS men, to corrupt the
public sentiment, and control the politics of
the state, after the manner in which the Dean
Rchmonds and Peter Caggers of New York,
and the Stocktons and Walls of New Jersey,
control, not only the local but the general in
terests OF the people of those states? DO the
business men Of Massachusetts wish to place
the carrying trade between the great west
and our commercial metropolis exclusively
in the hands of a gigantic monopoly, with the
power to arrange its tariff of freight and pas
senSers so as to deprive them Of the benefits
Of all competing lines? and make all compet-
ing lines, at present existing or contemplated,
their subjects and vassals? Do those persons
interested in the prosecution Of an enterprise
which contemplates at no distant day more
direct communication between our tide waters
and the Hudson river, desire to see their plans
frustrated and hopes crushed forever, by the
concentration Of any additional power and in
Huence against them, in the hands of
Chester w. Chaplin and his associates, after
the taste they have already had of their ma
chnatons to deceive the people and subsidze
the legislature, by means of paid agents and
well-feed lobby? Do citizens of Worcester
and OF Worcester county, who have felt the
heavy hand OF this corporation upon their
business interests and prosperity, wish to con
Ter upon 1t any additional powers for oppres-
sion, by change in its charter an increase of
It's capital, and the removal Of the only CON
seryative influence that has any power to CON
troll Its arrogant assumptions and autocratie
rule, through the more liberal and public
spirited management of the Boston and Wor-
cester RAILROAD?
All these questions, Mr.. Editor, are now
pending IN the controversy which the Western
railroad has raised and kept alive, for years,
with the Boston and Worcester road, and
which has induced the former, once more to
attempt, by badgering the legislature, to exact
Tor itself by such Intervention compliance
with demands so unjust and unreasonable,
that repeated commissions to adjudcate be-
tween the parties have decided, again and
again, with entire unanimity, are unjust and
unreasonable.
Ostehslbly, the claim set up by the Western
road In this controversy with the Worcester
Is Tor few thousand dollars more or less, of
inc receipts upon the joint business in freight
ana passengers; but in reality, it is Il desper-
ate and INSCRIPTIONS struggle for POWER not
monetary alone, but political. If it were not
so, the Western would be willing to accept
the Tiers which have repeatedly been made
] by the Boston and Worcester, to refer tine
whole matter to disinterested commissions,
who should decide the questions in dispute
upon their merits or they would have been
content to abide by former decisions of refer
ees, and accept as binding upon both parties
the decisions Of impartial arbitrators. No, it
is not the dollars which the Western man
ayers are SO anxious to obtain through this
controversy, so much as POWER. With the
stock Of the Western road selling at 100, and
that Of the Worcester at 1856, the assumption
Of the former, that it does not obtain its fair
share Of the proceeds of the Joint traffic, is
an absurdity too palpabe to deceive any real
ly intelligent unbiased business man.
If the Western managers were sincere in
their professions for an amcable settlement
Of this controversy, they would not have met
every offer to refer the whole matter to arbi-
tration, with a fiat refusal, unless they could
be allowed to prescribe rigid rule Of their
Olcn IN making up the alcGrd, which would
leave out Of the case the most important
questions at issue, as regards the business
principles involved and thus virtually assure
them their whole case in advance.
As the matter seems not to be fully under
stood by the public at large, while it is at the
same time one i'll which the people are deeply
concerned, propose, with your leave, Mr.
Editor, to condense, from the most authentic
sources of information, some Of the impor-
tant points in the case, which 1 think will
show, that SO far as the Worcester road Is
concerned, no real cause of controversy ex-
lists, and that the purposes and designs of the
Western road are as above stated.
Everybody will admit, as was recently sug~
gested in an article in your paper that where
differences arise between parties, whether in
dividuals or corporations, it gives bad look
to the case of the individual or corporation
that steadiastly refuses to submit the Whole
question, in all its incidents and details, to
impartial arbitration. 1t is the natural pre-
sumption of every unprecedented mind, that
the party refusing such usual and just mode
of settlement, is conscious of having a bad
cause; and dlstrust of the sincerity and hon
esty OF the party so refusing is the most nat
ural result except to minds biased by inter-
est OF pre-eXisting prejudices.
There is no question at issue in this demand
for an alteration of charter, preliminary to the
construction of new road, that the Boston
and Worcester has not the capacity, as well
as the disposition to receive and deliver any
number Of passengers from and to the road
upon which it enters, with regularity and dis
patch. That point is conceded by the con-
testants but the claim on the part Of the
Western, is, for more than its fGir share Of
receipts and, unwilling, as we have before
said to have it decided i'll the usual business
like and fair mode which prevails among hon
est men, the whole community must be dis
turbed with its annual uproar; the interests of
stockholders must be jeopardized; the public
mind must be unduly excited, by alternate
hopes and fears and the precious time Of the
legislature must again be absorbed, at a cost
in money to the commonwealth far greater
than the sum in controversy because on the
part of the Western road there is no DISPOSE
ton to deal honorably and justly in the mat
ter.
These are not mere assertions, but sober
truths; as the facts to be recited in connec-
ton with this ten years quarrel will fully es-
tabliSh.
Passing over the disagreements of an ear
lier date in which upon two several occasions
the differences were referred to the arbitra-
ton of f. B. Crowninshield Esq, by mutual
agreement, whose awards upon two occa-
sions were in confirmation of the views of
the Boston and Worcester road, we come
to the year 1856. In that year the late Judge
Hopl1nSon, then president OF the Boston and
Worcester road, said in a written communi-
cation to the directors of that road, between
this date" Nov. 26, 1885, when notice was
given by the Western road of the determna-
ton of joint contract then existing, in the
following June ''and May of the following
year, constant eXertion was made to accom-