The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-06-24
Portland and Ogdensburg. =.
PUBLIC MEETINGS IN FAVOR OF AND IN oPPo-
SITIoN TO THE ROAD.
The Affirmative Meeting.

cess of the enterprise. The audience was not
80 large as a call for political meeting would
have brought OUT still there were from 700 to
800 persons present, and there was very en-
couraging feeling of enthusiasm and determin-
alton manifested. Among the strangers on the
PLATFORM who did not speak were f. NJ Town
send OF Clarenceville, Can, President of the
Montreal branch of the western division of the
L. q o. r. R., Col. A. B. Jewett of Swanton,
dlrecor of the Vermont Division, and Waldo
Brigham of Hyde Park, President of the La
noble Valley r. R.
Inc meeting was called to order by Gen. An
derson, who nominated Samuel E. Spring, esq,
Tor chairman. Mr.. Spring, on taking the chair,
spoke briefly, referring to the comparatively de-
pressed condition of Portland the efforts that
are being made by her citizens to enlarge bust
ness by the introduction of manufactures and
the extension of her railroad facilities; all of
which had received the bitterest opposition of
class OF old-foggy capitalists, who inherited
thelr wealth from their fathers and had no in
terest In trade, or manufactures or railroads, or
anything else that requires the investment of
money or personal activity. He stated that the
existing lines of railroad had done all they
|
cultural districts yet unprecedented, and unit
these were reached the growth of Portland was
stopped After referring to the successful man.
ufacturing establishments of Portland, which
were founded and are owned by the friends of
the Ogdensburg road, Mr.. Spring spoke of the
great value of the lumber trade of Ottawa. In
Montreal, he said, there are now forty large
vessels loading with Ottawa lumber for a single
south American port-Buenos Ayres; and they
VIII carry from Is, 100000 to oO,OOO0 900 feet He
mad the honor of being the first American who
shipped cargo of lumber from Montreal to
south America; and two years ago the exports
from that city amounted to Is, 00O, 900 feet That
business can be done in Portland by the intro
auction OF new railway line; and it can be
done quite as cheaply here as in Montreal.
where the business is confined to five months
III 'ne year. He closed by introducing General
Anderson, President of the p & o. road Gen
Anderson said:
Citizens of Portland-I hardly know how to
appear before you tonight. / am under indct-
ment; charged by my fellow-citzens with con-
duct that, if true, would entitls me to your con-
| tempt and detestaton. The question which
has seemed to me for the past three wears to be
the most important ever submitted to the citi-
shall be the gateway through which the pro-
| ducts OF the great West are to pass to the con-
sumers on the other side of the ocean. say
to you that as President of the Portland and
Ogdensburg Railroad, have tried to set before
you the advantages of the enterprise, and the
press of Portland for the last six months has
abounded with insinuations against me eouiva-
lent to charges of dishonesty. The directors of
the road are daily charged with being specula-
tors; with having purchased lands and mines.
and concealing them from the public, for per
sonal advantage. Let me give you here once
for all, point blank denial of these falsehoods.
1t is asserted that the contract with Messrs.
Fuller u Harding is not honest but it is made
for purpose. Let me say to you the assertion
is lie am here as a criminal; and if the
charges made were true they would sink me as
deep as any criminal who ever occupied the
rallied box and was sentenced to State Prison
from yonder Court room. If / had ATTEMPTED
to impose on you straw contract would be
unfit to sit beside the meanest criminal that [
ever helped to convict when 1 was County At
torney Gen. Anderson proceeded to consider
the refusal of the City Council to appoint a
commission or investigate the feasibility of con-
tinuing the road through the Notch, at the re-
quest of 160 of the most eminent business men
of Portland saying that when the directors eX-
pressed willingness that Judge Fox should
alone form that commissions man avowedly
opposed to the road-they knew they had SO
strong a case that man with legal mind like
Judge Fox's would have given report so over
whelmingly In favor of the proposition that it
would have carried conviction to the hearts of
the City Council
The General here turned to a large outline
map hung upon the wall in the rear of the plat
form, and pointed out to his hearers the con-
nections of the Portland and Ogdensburg road,
and the utter falsity of Mr. Henry A. Joness
printed assertion that it had no winter connec
tions with Chicago and the west. He spoke
also of the railway system OF Montreal as the
most magnificent one in the world Sir Hugh
10 coxyc fbo of portlon6
ton with the Canadian Pacific road rather than
with chain of roads south of the great lakes.
In regard to the surveys through the Notch, the
speaker presented large and carefully drawn
plan of the valley with all the admeasurements,
grades and cuts accurately noted on it. The
narrowest place in the valley, he said, is the
Gate of the Notch-36 feet From the Wiley
House to North Conway the road can be built
cheaper than any corresponding length this side
of North Conway; less than it will cost the
Knox and Lincoln road TO build an iron bridge
across the Kennebec. General Anderson pro-
ceeded The only conscientious scruples l had
in making this contract was whether we were
not agreeing to pay more than we ought for the
work. From Frankenstein Cliff to the Notch
we had ten engineers employed six weeks. The
contractors have been through the route three
times with the plans and proiles in their hands,
and critically examined the work; and they
made the contract with as thorough knowledge
of the work as any of you do when you under
take to build a house. The speaker then sub
mitted letters from eminent railroad men in re-
spect to the ability and probity of Messr;. Full
Ter & Harding who built seventeen miles of the
P. & o. road to the satisfaction of the directors
and are now employed in railroad contracts to
the amount of three millions. The contract
was produced by the speaker, who invited any
of his audience who wished, to come forward
and examine it, saying, This contract is as
bond.fide an instrument as ever was drafted by
the hand of man." Can these men build the
road on the terms they propose? he asked Do
fbav I'M hot oil
committee, who spent five hours riding over
twenty-six miles, and came back and proclaimed
on the street that the road is an impossibility.
If the road can be built for the sum named, it
is for you to say whether the city shall exchange
her bonds for the bonds of the road-not to sub
| scribe stock-but to exchange bonds as she did
with the Atlantic & ST. Lawrence road.
We are told that if the city aid is accorded
we shall be overwhelmed with a sea of debt, and
overburdened with taxation. The estimated ex-
pendtures for the city for 1928, are $S14 60983
| If the city should pay all the interest on the
| bonds it will add but $S1 900 to the amount;
| which is an increase of one-eleventh, even if
the road did nothing to increase the amount of
taxable property. Has the Grand Trunk done
| you any good? Can you doubt that this road
will earn the scanty pttance of interest? The
Kennebec & Portland, and the Grand Trunk
| and the Androscoggin and kennebec from
| Danville to Bangor did that. The General
closed by brief reference to the tapping of the
road by the Great Falls and Conway at North
| saying That IL mad done It's worst. Here
after it will be rvulet to send its tide over
line to the west. In relation to switching Off
| freight for Boston, the speaker presented the
well-known facts that freight can be carried
through whole line at a comparatively cheaper
rate than it can be diverted at any point on the
| line; hence the natural gravitation would be to
| Portland as measure of cheapness
Hon. Julius SERVER, NJ P. from Hemming-
ford Canada, was introduced as railroad man
by birth. Mr.. SERVER sad:
The railroad schemes to which General An
derson has so forcibly directed your attention,
| do not exist merely on paper. Wde-spreading
and important as they are, they are as certain
of completion as anything can be. The Cana
dian Parliament last winter granted $50 200
and 50,000,000 acres of land for the Canadian
Pacific road, and Il scientific examination of the
territory, from British Columbia to the Sas-
| katchewan shows that the difficulties are not so
great as those encountered by the Union and
| Central Pacific lines. This road, when built,
| will become an important feeder to your road
If the projected road from Swanton through
Canada and Northern New York is built you
will have the best connections that any city en-
joys. You will have the shortest line from
Morrisburg Opposite Waddington, N. W to
Ottawa and its lumber traffic. The Vermont
Central is now carrying lumber to Boston which
your road can take cheaper to the sea- ac-
count of the shortness of distance and increased
facilities for transportation. After reviewing
the causes which prevented greater growth of
Portland during the last half-dozen years 1.-THE
chief of which was lack Of railroad commu-
| NJ Mr. r,ct Of nj