New-York tribune., 1871-01-19
TIE RAILWAY PROBLEM IN MASSACHC-
TTC

The Report Of the Board OF Railroad COM
missOners to the Legislature OF Massachusetts
is "a document which deserves, and will doubt
less receive, a wide consideration and discus
sion. 1t viii be especially interesting TO the
citizens of this State, treating as it does ques
tons Of the very highest Importance to our
material and moral welfare, with dircctness
and freedom to which we have long been I'M
accustomed in official documents. While
our vast railway system 4, has fallen by
our own criminal apathy and the cor
rnption Of our judicial and legislative
authorities coupled with the weak conniv-
ance of the Executive, into one great engine
OF theft and fraud, there is something singu-
larly refreshing in the sight of an organized
board of officials in neiehboring State inyes-
tigating with fearless and impartial earnest
ness the thorny problem Of communications,
and suggesting tentative improvements, which
they frankly confess may fail, and in which 10
suspicion OF jobbery or political maneuver ap-
pears to be found.
The Report is divided into two parts - the
first treating of matters of local or temporary
character, and the other being devoted to the
consideration of general questions Of railroad
development, arising ont OF the relations exist
ing between the community and It's railroad
corporations. The first, though it contains
many iudicous and striking observations, has
its principal applicability to the State of Massa-
chusetts. There is, however, one noteworthy
fact developed in it, by comparison of stalls
ties, which would seem to indicate that the
excessive care taken in Europe to prevent acci-
dents to travellers is not justified by results.
l,1 iIiu
British railways in a given year wa6 one IN
$4,000; on the watchfully guarded Belgian
railways one in 1,GOO,O00 while in Massachu-
setts, our American recklcssness brought to
grief only one in 100000. 1t appears, on the
whole as if the people can take as good care
of their own lives as the administration pos
siby can.
The second part OF the Commissioners Re-
port c0nfronts resolutey the question OF the
relations of railroads to the community and
the law making power 1t adverts to the eyi-
dent truth that the prosperity of Massachu-
setts is bound UP in its manufacturing inter-
csts, and shows that the development OF its in
dustres is very largely dependent on the excel
lence of its communications. At the same
time n tabular statement of the principal
roads for the last ten years reveals the fact
that the tariff of transportation, instead OF
being reduced, has been positively increased
in that time. The reduction of this exhaust
ing tax upon the manufacturing interests of
the State Is matter to be striven for in
every practicable way but it is not reason
able to expect any such relief from the present
systems of competition or of combination
among private corporations. On the other
L. Al. i I a H.
rivalry of cOntending lines in reducing through
rates on routes leading ont of the State are
more than Deutralized by the assumed neces-
sity of recovering losses thus sustained by
raising the tariff on local transportation.
This seems to the Board and apparently
with reason, shOrt-sighted and suicidal pol
icy. 1t is not by raising, but by lowering
tariffs, that the business and the prosperity
of railroads is increased Even if they should
convey at a loss some articles of prime ne
cessity in manufactures the impetus thus given
to the general activity would react favorably
upon the roads. The Commissioners express
their conviction that an immediate average re-
duction of 10 per cent, with an ultimate and
not remote reduction of 30 per cent, could be
made in the railroad tariffs of the State with
out permanently affecting the net earnings.
Even if this should result in no great increase
of profit to the roads, it is the right of the
community to insist on the greatest utility of
administration in return for chartered priy-
leges The question then arises, How is this
necessary reduction of tariff to be best eff
fectede The ineficacy of private compet-
ton and of combinations of corpora
tiOns has been clearly demonstrated. The
assumption by the State of the control of the
roads, and the administration of them by Gov
eminent officers is so at variance with all our
traditions and prejudices that it would not
anywhere be locked upon with favor. The
only measure that occurs to the Commissioners
as being likely to lead to a solution of the
difficulty is avowedly tentative and expert
mental. Let the State acquire control of one
railroad, and carry it on, through trustees, in
the way that shall seem best calculated to
subserve the public interests, leaving the pri
vate corporations free to compete within the
limits of the law. And upon the result of
this experiment, fairly tried, let the future
regimen of the railroad system of the State
depend.
To prove the compatibility of private and
public ownership of roads in the same country,
they quote the statement of NJ. Fassiaux, Bel
gian Director General of Posts and Railways,
who says that there were in January, 1864,
1 ,247 miles of railway in Belgium, BAT miles of
which had been constructed and were worked
by the State, belonging to it without reserve
III were worked by and belonged to the State,
but paid q portion of receipts to the COM"
panies which had constructed them; $50 miles
were constructed and worked by private COM
panies, free from public control. NJ Fas-
siarx says: "The State railways thus (through