The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-08-20
RAILROAD Tyranny"

To the Editor of the Prsse:
In your issue of Thursday, 14th inst, the fol
lowing statement appears, quoted from the
HdUerhal Gazette:
Joseph Symonds Of North Corrviile, Maine,
supplies Haverhill, in part, with sheep, lambs
| calves, etc. George w. Davis buys carload
of him per week. They are CARED at Show
hegan but when they arrive at Portland in
stead of being sent to Haverhill, they are sent
to New buryport, and Mr.. Davis is obliged to &c
there and take them from the cars and drive
them or draw them to Haverhill as best he can
Mr.. Symonds buys the stock of the farmers in
Maine for the markets on the line of the Boston
& Maine Railroad, but now must reduce the
price the amount of expense OF transporting
them from Newburyport or any other place
where it is the pleasure of the Eastern Railroad
to leave them. Now. how long do the man.
ayers of the Eastern Railroad suppose the peo-
die of Maine and New Hampshire will submit
to their tyranny? How long do you suppose
the people of Maine will submit to be deprived
of the markets on the Boston & Maine Rail-
road? The people are slow, but when they
move they move in force We already hear the
the people of Haverhill to be deprived of ten
thousand bushels of potatoes from Maine, ar
! nually, becausesthe Eastern Railroad refuses to
make connection with the Boston y Maine
Railroad? Are they to be deprived OF all the
products of Maine, east of Portland, because
spiracy with the Maine Central?
The facts in the case are as follows: The
Boston & Maine railroad intersects with the
Eastern Railroad at Newburyport by branch.
Upon that branch the live stock of Mr.. Davis,
the ''ten thousand bushels of potatoes" or any
other commodity from Maine can be forwarded
to Haverhill, in the same car in which shipped,
in as short time and at as low cost as by the
Boston & Maine road from Portland. Mr..
Davis, it seems declines to use the Boston &
Maine branch at all. 1t is not clear how the
Eastern railroad is responsible for that. Great
dissatisfaction has been felt, as is well known,
by business men in Haverhill and other towns
on the line of the Boston & Maine railroad,
with its charges and mode of doing business.
The truth is that neither in Haverhill nor at
any other point on the Boston & Maine line, will
any inconvenience or added expense be neces-
sarily incurred by anybody on account of the
break of connection at Portland. Freight can
be transferred at South Berwick Junction for or
from any and all points beyond the Junction, as
has been done for so many years. AS to towns
this side of the junction, the Boston & Maine
directors having spent $3,O0O,oOO and incurred
the necessity of expanding $1,0OO,000 MORE
have yet failed to open a single toaon that was
not accommodated before by the P. s. & p
road. To points beyond the junction and to
points this side, close connection at Portland is
a matter of no public practical concern. To
the Boston Il Maine railroad with lIs S4,ooo,-
600 extension on it's hands, it is no doubt an
important matter.
Not content with its misstatements in the
O. Mos,,
enters the general charge of tyranny and of
consplring against the people, in its indictment
of the Eastern and Maine Central line. 1t
NAV be we'll, accordingly, to recur to few of
the leading points in the history of the contro-
versy between that line and the Boston q
Maine.
The Maine Central road starting trains from
eight distant and far-remOved points brings to
the Boston railroads passengers and freight in
bulk. This it did for years. gathering up here
a few and there a little, upon such hard terms
as barely enabled them to keep its locomotives
in motion and to pay the interest on its bonds,
without netting single dollar on its stock. In
answer to its prolonged complaints and impor-
tunities the Eastern railroad at length acceded
to more just division of profits, such as
would in time, as was hoped, enable the Maine
Central to work clear of its embarrass-
ments. Nc such arrangements could be
concluded with the Boston & Maine Directors.
They demanded on every through passenger
received from or delivered Ito the Maine Cen
trail railroad, fifty cents more than was asked
by the Eastern railroad. Every citizen of
Maine going to or returning from Boston
over their line should pay thirty-three per
cent. more for the privilege than by the East
ern road. The rates demanded on freight
were in substance and in proportion the same.
The difference betwixt their terms and those of
the Eastern line, il madesgood at all, should be
made good at the cost Of the Maine Central
Railroad. In the meantime, while the Maine
railroad was struggling under almost insup-
portable burdens, the wealthy Boston corpora
capital as placed its stock at $143 for each 800
invested. This condition of affairs the Boston
corporation laid out to perpetuate indefinitely.
1t endeavored, as referred to on page six OF its
last annual report, to induce the managers OF
the Eastern road to enter into combination,
'sto form new contract" whereby in effect
and as the inevitable result, the very life blood
of the labor and business of Maine would con-
time to be drained to pay such extortion-
ate sums into their treasury as had been al
ready named in the demands of the Boston &
Maine directors. Their efforts, as confessed in
the report, were "vain', the Eastern railroad
wonld not consent to the project. 1t is well
for the State of Maine that the
efforts were vain. Their end and purpose
was to bind upon the Maine Central railroad
for all time the unjust and over heavy burdens
it had previously been constrained to carry-to
compel it if ever it mended its fortunes at all,
to mend them by heavier drafts upou the indus
try and enterprise of the State. Yet the Boston
g. Maiue railroad through its attorneys and its
newspaper paragraphists has the presumption
to charge upon the Eastern railroad 'leagues, :"
''conspiracies" against the people and the prop
erty'of Maine! The Eastern railroad, forsooth,
will shut out the potatoes, the apples, the cattle
and sheep, the hay, the lumber, the bark, the
leather, and the varied manufactures of Maine
from the Massachusetts markets by its froward
and hostile policy! This too, in the very face
of the fact that the Eastern road is to-day for
warding these and other products at lower rates
than the Boston & Maine railroad would ever
accord-at rates that will, directly, or indirectly,
save the people of Maine hundreds of thous-
ands of dollars per year in transportation, as
compared with what their OUTLAWS would have
been had the policy of the Boston & Maine rail-
road prevailed. These facts the people Of Maine
are interested to know 1t is their interest to
know who it is that has proposed to lay upon
them burdens grevious to be borne" The
people will not be slow to measure what is de-
signed in the present from what has been at
tod ;,, 81,