Litchfield enquirer., 1871-11-30

so k1nd AS to promise that If that com mittee should find objectionable features in the bill '-tnat is, if the committee whose duty 1t was to consider, not questions of lpuhhc policy, but only questions of law, shonld find in the bill some violation of the constitution or some concession to the new corporation Of lArgar powers than had lions aeverally-s'the roads would not press the natter; or, as another newspa- per summary of his speech represented him, the roads would bring no pressure upon the general assembly to secure the passage of the bill. !"
 Accordingly the bill WAS sent for con- sideration to the joint committee on the judiciary. What the mover desired was a report on the eonstitutionality and bear ings of the measure rather than a report and discussion concerning it's expediency as related to the railway system of Con- necticut; and reference of 1t to the com mittee on railways might have seemed as much ofa fsdiscourtesy to Mr. Bishop" as if the Senate had rejected his waggish resolution about ssspeckled trout" and the sshead waters of the Androscoggin. 5
 Thus far, there appeared in the pro- Nsedings no Indication of any opposition to the consolidation of the two great cor poratious. It was well known that among the people of Connecticut, more than in some dher States, there is traditional iealousy of business corporations control ling great masses of associated capital and that railway corporations with their mo- nopdy of transportation are especially. obnoxious to that jealousy. Probably the hopy was that by judicious management the measure might becarried, without giv- ingthe popular prejudice against great moneyed corporations any opportunity of expressing itself in the form of opposition But on the 14th of June, twenty six days after the introduction and reference of the AilI mthh en9eei iifdc,trssa ttrssa sdu--;cookeo 1iu the members "a remonstrance was pre- sented, the forerunner of many. In these remonstrances, subscribed to by hundreds of citizens, among whom were some of the most eminent in the State, it was set forth that the corporations to be consolidated were exacting from the public not less than 3, ,33 cents per mile for through pas sengers, and from to and even 10 cents per mile for way passengers, while rail roads in other States, which had been re- stricted by law to a charge of cents per mile for both through and way passen- gers, were yielding good dividends to their proprietors, and it was requested that the bill would not pass without some provision reducing the fares to such rates as would suffice to pay fairly remunerative dividends on the capital actually paid in. The remonstrance having been referred by the House to the judiciary committee, was under the rules, retained till the next day to be transmitted to the Senate for the concurrent action of that body. But be T. thn the Senate, that is, on the day following it's presentation iu the House of Represen= tives-the bill-although the remonstrance was we'll known to be on it's way to the committee-.was by that same committee reported favorably, and it was laid on the table to be printed. Of course the mem bers generally might be expected to re- gard it with friendly feeling, apart from the feed of speckled trout; for most of them were passing continually to and from their homes at the expense of the petitioners, and the chief petitioner-the representative not so much of Bridgeport as of the New York and New Haven rail road company and it's dependencies the most fluent and popular debater ill the house, the shrewdest manager, the only millionaire, and jolly good fellow.
 Connecticut has long'had its three rail- road commissioners, board whose eight eenth annual report was presented at the late session. By the laws of the State the commissioners must annually call for ac- curate and full returns and statistics from each railroad company, under the oath of it's president, according to a schedule pre- scribed by the statute. They are author iZed to summon and examine, under oath, all directors, officers or agents of said companies, and such other witnesses as they may think proper; and the refusal of any person to appear and testify, when summoned, Is punishable by fine not exceeding thousand dollars, or by i'm prisonment for term not exceeding year. The commissioners had presented their report, but the returns from the Hartford and New Haven and the New York and New Haven railroad companies were not satisfactory to MT. H. l.. Good win, one of the representatives from East Hartford. He found on the schedule as returned by the two corporations seeking to be consolidated certain blanks not fill ed-an omission that involved. the with holding of information which the law de- handed, and which he deemed important. He might have alleged that the commis- sioners themselves, in their report, had
 
 those returns Certainly, then, he was not out of the line of his duty when he moved resolution requiring the railroad commissioners to inform the house why those two corporations had not reported all the required details concerning their affair, and whether the neglect had been reported to the treasurer of the State, that he might enforce the law by the exacton of a fSro In fn 1pant was said by one of the representatives from Hartford ''that it was reflection on the roads" and the resolution was laid on the table Four days afterwards, the mover called up his resolution, and gave lcertain reasons why such an inquiry |shonld be made, one of his reasons being that the Hartford and New Haven compa- ny had reported 1,500, 900 'sof capital paid in since last reported" when only half that amount had been actually paid The president of the New York and New Haven Company made reply which, probably, was not very we'll understood by the reporters of the debate, and which therefore, as reported, seems little wide of the mark, though it may have answer ed the purpose of diverting the attention of the house from the proposed inquiry. He alleged that some items of informs tion required in the schedule are '.impos- sible" to be given. He showed that in some instances the neglect was only a neg lect to perform some simple operation of arithmetic, which. sany man of ordinary intelligence could easily perform for him self He took pains to deny (what had not been affrmed) that the continuous line from New York to Springfield was controlled by MT. Vanderbilt. He told how fortunate Connecticut is in that his corporation has perpetual contract with the Harlem railroad Company for the use of that road from Williamsbridge to New York, and expatiated on the two millions which Vanderbilt is spending for the ter minus of his railroad in New York. He expended some vftuous indignation on the wickedness of lobbyist" by whom, he said, such insinuations were given out, and who wanted to be bought of for $500. He proclaimed to applauding audiences that his road had no money to pay to the third house.. He paid 8