The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-24
MORE RAILROAD CONSOLIDATION.


From the NJ Y, World.
The New Jersey Central Railroad Company
is believed to have fallen under the ban of the
displeasure of the Pennsylvania Railroad
magnates by combining with the Lehigh and
Susquehsnna Railroad to break the deadlock
of coal transportation, and bring the Wilkes
barre Coal and Iron Company coal to market,
thereby compelling the Schuy kill and Scran-
ton companies to resume before they had
fully starved the miners association into sub
mission. 1t is reported that the Lehigh and
Susquehanna and the jersey Central compa-
nies are both to receive the punishment
which their wicked conduct merits-the
former by being deprived of its outlet to this
city, the latter by being absorbed into the
Reading Railroad. Wall street has it that the
Jersey road has been leased by the Lehigh
Valley road, under a guarantee from the
Reading Company; and, if true, the next step
will, of course, be that the Lehigh and Sus-
quehanna Company will build an independent
line to New York, making one more competi-
tor for a business which even now is INSULT
cent for those engaged in it.
New York city is, of course, largely inter-
ested in all these railroad combinations, since
they all originate in a struggle for the honor
of supplying us with coal. But large part
of New York has most particular interest in
this last-reported scheme. For several years
past the New Jersey Central has been the one
local road leading out of New York city that
New Workers could point to with pride as a
model road, conducted upon the principle
that the safety, convenience and comfort of
its passengers were the best guarantee of its
own financial success Under admirable
management it has built up village after vii
lage along its line, until from the Jersey
shore-line up to Somerville extends one vast
and beautiful suburb of our over-crowded
nit mill haa ,f,,i loxv Co. H. 80;
dents of Elizabeth, Plainfield, Scotch Plains,
and other lovely Jersey villages when the
Central road passes under the control of the
Reading or Lehigh Valley companies. 1t
will be worse than when the Morris and Essex
became mere tributary to the coal traffic of
the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western, for
the Morris and Essex management never was
good. Yet the change drove many people
| away from Orange and Morristown. What
will be the fate of Elizabeth and Plainfeld
| when Colonel Gowen, President of the Phila-
delphia and Reading Railroad, dictates it's
| timetable?
| The report is that the lease will guarantee
| per cent per annum on a capital stock
watered to the extent of 333 per cent, which
makes a very good thing to the owners of the
Jersey Central stock, especially if they have
| great confidence in the solvency of that worst
watered of all watered concerns, the Reading
| Railroad. But it can scarcely be satisfactory
to the public which uses the New Jersey Gen.
trail highway. For, since the object of
the lease is to drive the Lehigh and Susque-
hanna traffic off the road, and thereby largely
diminish its income from that source the
| general public will in some way be taxed
to make up the deficiency; and since the
earnings of the roads must not only be pre-
vented from declining, but must be largely
increased so as to pay the additional dividend
on the water put into the stock, the prospect
is that the residents along the road will have
to undergo system of extortion and oppres
sion of which their friends on the Morris and
Essex road can give them an excellent illus
tration. This whole business of railroad
consolidation is based upon the monopolist
idea of extorting from the public whatever il
can be made to pay, by depriving it of all the
protection which competition ordinarily af
fords. The public endurance has already
nearly reached its limit, but the appetite o.
the consolidators appears to be on the in
crease. What next?