The Portland daily press., 1868-04-04
The Portland and ogaensburg Railroad.

ue EOrttanu aud O8dehsour8
The people of Portland are probably salts
fed that the Portland and Ogdensburg route,
If tbe road can be built, offers greater advan-
tapes than any other. The only questions that
remain to be settled are of grades and expense.
We printed last week a communication adj
dressed to the Argus, and showing that the
heaviest grade in passing the Notch is only 90
feet to the mile, and that all that Maine need
trouble herself about is the construction OF
that portion of the line between Portland and
the Vermont border. In reply, yesterdays Ar
gus contains communication too long Tor re-
publication making three columns and halt
in the Argus-the leading points of which
however we reproduce so that our readers can
follow the entire discussion.
The writer claims
1. That when the citizens of Portland voted
to loan the credit of the city to the Portland
and Ogdensburg Railroad Company, mo one
suspected that it was in contemplation to
carry line through the Crawford Notch of
the White Mountains"
This is so great an error that we can only
suppose the writer was absent at the time
when the vote was taken and unfamiliar
hllh VIC uiSSuSStoA WulCA pEcCSu6Q IL. De-
sides, if the Notch offers the best gateway to
the West, why not go through, even if. some
other line had been in contemplation?
2. 1t is represented that the amount of aid
authorized by the act additional to the act of
incorporation, is not all the friends of the
road desired" to ask.
1t is at any rate all they do ask, and that is
all that the people of Portland are interested
in now. They ask simply that the loan voted
last year be now changed to an investment in
the stock of the road.
8. We are told that the road "naust cost as
much as the average of New England roads"
and that average, by putting in Massachu-
sets at $59704 per mile, is brought up to
$40 s32
This estimate can hardly stand against the
published proposal Of a responsible party to
take the contact at $4,000 1t would be in
teresting to know furthermore how far the
Hoosac tunnel has contributed to swell the
Massachusetts average.
4. 1t is said that the cost OF 2O7 miles at
$4,000 mile would be over six millions, and
Portland should not be asked to furnish this
amount
the kind. She is only asked to help build the
line to Dalton which is no farther from Port
land than Canaan on the proposed Rutland
line. If she can do the one she can do the
other.
8. The Ogdensbu2g road is described as "a
line which scales barren mountains to reach
country of limited resources without any
great city for Its terminus"
The West has not hitherto been supposed to
be a country of limited resources nor Chicago
contemptiby small city.
6. It is said to be 'as idle for Portland to
seek to divert Western freight from Montreal
by building new railroad to OgdeHsburg, as
it was for Boston to attempt it and fail fifteen
years ago."
But Ogdensburg acith the Niagara ship canal
will be very different place from Ogdensburg
without it. The Welland canal, % miles long
and only feet deep, is not the outlet which
the produce of the West, annually increasing
and immensely exceeding all thai was dream
ed of fifteen years ago, needs and must have.
z. We are told that it is simply absurd"
for the people of Northern New York to build
railroad along the Ontario shore from Oswe-
81 W uc NidSaId river, COnpetIuS Will the
New York canals and the New Yurk Central
railroad"
That is their own affair. We pave published
accounts of the progress of the undertake
ing from time to time, and it is understood
that the money has been raised. It may be
absurd, but it is fact
There are some further paragraphs repre-
ing the merit of the Rutland project, so
far as it would tend to draw in a portion of the
local traffic of New Hampshire and Vermont
and defending the management of the Grand
Trunk line. With these points we have at
this time nothing to do. The merits of the
Rutland line, as an Independent enterprise,
We cheerfully acknowledge; but it does not
appear after a careful examination of all
that has been said on both sides, that its
claim to rival the Ogdensburg route can be
successfully maintained. 1t will cost just as
much and will not do for Portland 1.-THE OF
what the Ogdensburg line promises. The
friends Of the Ogdensburg route inform the
public that the money is raised to build the
Ontario Shore road, that the towns in Yer
mont are taking stock in the line from Dalton
to Rouse's Point, that.the grade through the
Notch will nowhere exceed 65 feet to the mile
as they are assured by competent engineers,
and publish a proposal to contract for
the whole line from Portland to Dali
ton at $4,000 a mile. 1t is not a
satisfactory reply to these statements to
say that the idea of an Ontario Shore
road is absurd. that Portland ought not to be
asked to build the line through Vermont, that
the 65 feet grade leads over barren mountains
to country without resources, and that the
road must cost nearly $4,000 mile. Facts
are not to be SO conveniently disposed of