The Portland daily press., 1866-12-11
The asraad TrMah Eaiiway

The remarks of your correspondent '"r' in
last Mondays Press, censuring the Michigan
Central Railroad for not committing their
freight 600 bbls flour) to the tender mercies
OF the Grand Trunk, and complimentng the
latter for not having entered into complh'tion
| with other roads to advance their ia.ee' "oio
not appreciated in this latitude ihiie was
when Portland was proud OF the Grand Trunk
| under another name. IL WAS her pet child
horn Of ber tI,roes. Graded in her lap and rear
I'D IN voupc manhood by her parental care
Her enterprising citizens projected it, and
their indomtable energies and their money
carried forward and completed the Atlantic
division of it. Who does not remember that
gala-day, when amid the ringing of bells, the
| laundering of cannon and the joyous shouts
of a multitude which no man numbered, onr
honored fellow-citizen, the late Judge Preble,
threw up the first spade full of earth in that
mighty work? Our hopes then were high,
| and L am pleased to acknowledge that many Of
| them Though far too few have been realized
under the earlier management of this road
| 1t has done-would could say is now doing
much for Portland, but truth compels me to
| say it is not so; the promise made long ago by
| the Grard Trunk to the ear, is not being kept
| to the hope. Our wants, our trade, our bust
| ness and our interests are now utterly disre-
garded, nay trampled upon, by the present
managers of this same road, and yet we per-
| init their iron horses to snort defiance through
our principal business thorougfare, carrying
| the products of Canada and the West to
| freight their steamers for the Provinces, for
Europe, the West Indies and the rest of the
world; leaving Portland merchandise for
months to depreciate in value, decay and rot
or mayhap to be burned up, in their sheds and
broken-down cars, all along the line, from Sar-
| MIA to Portland. Was ever greater impudence
/ and ingratitude, ON the one hand, or greater
| indulgence of q spoiled child, ON the other?
Why, let your correspondent ST" go to the Of
flee of the Grand Trunk in Portland any morn.
ing Sunday excepted) and see our business
| men, many of whom have had twice the
amount of their whole capital locked up in
the Grand Trunk sheds for more than two
months with literally nothing in their stores
| to supply their hungry customers, let him, re-
peat, observe these men as l have done, anx-
| iously overhanling the way-bills, to find some
| thing for Portland few barrels of -four or a
few bushels of corn, just for the days necessi-
| ties,-and finding nothing for them, but car
loads by fifties for shipment and then let him
say, if he would rot rather bless than curse the
Michigan Central or any otherroad that should
take the respon. Utility of forwarding his flour
by some other route, rather than store it ON
the Grand Trunk. Promptness is sometimes
more desirable in public carriers than even
cheapness, as Ct" will probably learn to his
sorrow if his next car of -four should follow
his directions But my business is rather with
the Grand Trunk and its managers than with
ST." and l proceed to charge them directly
with now holding in their sheds at Port Huron
and Sarnia, and which has been accommodating
there since last August, more than half mil
lion dollars worth of Western produce belong
ing to the merchants of Portland charge
that what little produce has been forwarded
by them since August last has been most I'M
reasonably delayed, to the great damage of
Portland dealers, necessitating duplicate pur-
chases in the West, to be forwarded by other
more circuitous but more reliable routes; that
these last purchases have arrived in advance
of shipments made two months earlier by
Grand Trunk, but not in time to save our fall
trade, most of which has been diverted to 9th
er markets where their supplies could be de-
pended on Add to this loss of a seasons
business, the interest of the money thus locked
up for months, and the inconvenience mot to
say embarrassment it occasions Especially in
a city where banking capital is SO defcient),
and the depreciation in prices that has bean
going on,--and then superadd to all this the
fact that the road has been doing the greatest
through business between the Canadas and
the Lower Provinces the past season that it
has ever done, regardless of their contracts
made with us, last August and since, to bring
through our produce.-and We have an accu-
mutation OF losses that the courts alone can
settle, and of grievances for which some
speedy remedy ought to be provided
Let me ILLUSTRATE by supposing "a parallel
case on the passenger trains, as the major al
ways includes the minor, and the redatetio dd
absurdans sometim,s points a moral. s.l
Suppose then that the Grand Trunk trains
should be filed each day fol- three months to
come with Portland passengers, mot sap.
possible case," hear the reader say in its pres
ent condition--and suppose those passengers
all ticketed through to Chicago and the West;
when the ira insfreach the Canada line they
are stopped and Mr.. Bridges, or one of his
servants (as he calls all his subordinates), en-
tiers the cars and clears out all the passengers
literally unloads the cars into the Depot,--the
passengers protest, and in this respect they
have the advantage of mere merchandise which
could not speak for itself or it's owners-''ut
their protests avail nothing, the Grand Mogul
of the road replies, (ifh deigns reply) that
he wants all the cars for his Canadian friends
there and all along the line, and the Yankees
must wait in the Depot (months it may be)
till the Canadians and Provincials get through
their business and travel and the cars are at
liberty.
'What an outrage" everybody would ex-
claim, and yet this is precisely what
this same road is doing with Portland
freights at the other end of the line. Look up
on that picture and then upon this, as briefly
trace the parallel which my business readers
have traced for themselves The scene opens
in Chicago instead of Portland The Grand
Trunk agents are there and in Milwaukee,
Through these agents the Grand Trunk takes
our merchandise at those places, as it does pas
sengers at Portland. 1t receipts Tor IT'D be
detiUered an Portland. 1t takes it over the
American part of the route to the borders of
Canada at Sarnia and there unloa is it into its
depots and sheds-til these are filled, leaving
the balance outside exposed to the storms and
weather; and there the managers of this road
meet our produce and practically say to it,
wait there Yankee freight till our Canadian
friends are served-at present we require our
cars for their use; at some convenient season,
some months hence it may be, we will attend to
your case. This is no fancy picture but is virtu-
ally true, and as business man, speaking as be-
hsve the feelings Of business men, pronounce
this abuse of Portland Interests even more out
agreous than the supposed treatment of passen-
gers, for these, left at Island Pond, might take
leg-bail and get away, but our merchandise at
Sarnia must await the Grand Trunk resurrec-
ton day. 1t would have been far better for the
produce dealers of Portland to have been stop
ped by Mr.. Bridges at Island Pond ON their