The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-31
THE PASSENGER FARES FROM NEW
PORK TO WASHINGTON.

| more Railroads have submitted to the public
statement in relation to the fares charged
! for travel between New York and Washing
ton which reflects upon the policy of the
| Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and at the same
time points out a series of impositions to
which Northern travellers have too long been
subjected on their way to the national capi-
tai. The tendency of modern times has been
to consolidate lines running eastward and
westward, and every year witnesses q vast
extension of the direct ownership or aoknow-
ledged dominance, within their respective
spheres, of the great trunk lines. No pains
have been spared to avoid petty irritations
and detentions, to gain time, tosav expense,
and to close up gaps between the Northern
Atlantic seaboard and the great West, and he
who travels with the sun is subj jected to the
slightest possible inconvenience from the
time he leaves the waters of the
Delaware until he reaches the dis
tant coast of the Pacific. But
far different fate is reserved for the unfortu-
nate beings whom ill-starred fate dooms to
an overland journey from the North and
South. Different and frequently discordant
managements prevail, and it depends upon a
variety of doubtful contingencies whether
the traveller will be quickly and cheaply des
patched on his journey or be subjected to a
series of annoying losses of time and money
Some of the worst evils attending upon O
journey between New York and Washington
have recently been removed, and three of
the companies which cooperate in such
transportation, viz, the Camden and Amboy
the Junction Railroad Company, and the
Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore
Company, are making vigorous and hsrmo-
nious efforts to smooth the path of travellers
| journeying from the North to Washington.
| By a series of combinations, Philadelphia,
without serious complaint on the part of her
| citizens, has been reduced to the position
| of way-station in this through route, and
| the most that our citizens ask in return is
| good way-station accommodations (Which we
fear they do not always receive) and a grant
| of similar faciities to Northern travel in
Baltimore (Which there is apparently no
prospect of their ever obtaining by the vol
untary action of Maryland corporations and
Maryland authorities). Only q few years
| have elapsed since travellers were relieved of
the imposition of an inevitable tax for the
blessed privilege of travelling through the
mighty State of Delaware, and up to recent
| period a similar tax was imposed and uni
| formly collected as tribute money for an in
vasion of the sacred soil of Maryland. The
| abrogation of these relics of barbaric inius-
tice prompted the hope that the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which supplies
the southern link of the line between
Baltimore and Washington, would act in
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matters connected with the portion of the
route under its control; but this hope has
proved fallacious, and Messrs. Gatzmer and
Hinckley seem to have made their appeal to
the public mainly for the purpose of exposing
the selfish and extortionate policy of that
| corporation. The Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road Company makes a parade of its gene
rosity in abating that portion of the through
fare from New York to Washington which
was formerly based on the Maryland
| capitahon tax, but as it is now
happily abrogated by legal decision, we can
see no great virtue in abstinence from the
collection of q tax which is no longer exacted
either from the railroad corporation or ira
vellers. Meanwhile, as an offset to its gen.
erosity in not charging travellers for tax
which it is no longer compelled to pay, the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stubbornly re-
| fuses to abate its extraordinary charge of 25
cents on each passenger for transferring him
| by horsepower, for q distance of about q
mile, through the streets of Baltimore. 1t is
bad enough that travellers should be COM
PEELED to submit to the loss of time involved
| in such a transfer, and it is in
famous that they should be
roundly taxed for such subsection to the
real or imaginary interests of the city of
Baltimore and of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company. If that corporation insists
on pilfering the time of travellers, it should
rather pay them for such an imposition than
make it the basis of an extortion. At the
same time, the Baltimore and. Ohio Company
refuse to make to through passengers a de-
duction of their local rate of fare between
Baltimore and Washington, and we believe
they even insist upon charging more for
through than way passengers over that
portion of the line between New
York and Washington. The railroad
question involved in this dispute
deserves more than ordinary attention, be-
cause it involves an approach to the capital,
which every American citizen may at some
time desire to visit; and if the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company continues to act un-
fairly with the connecting companies and the
Northern public, we hope that Congress will
devise method for either bringing this re-
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