Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-09-05

der the above heading the following eommun-
ication in relation to an item which has been
going the rounds Of the newspapers of this
State:
Portland, Aug. %, 1918.
To the Editors Of the Boston Journal.
In recent issue of the journal is the fol-
lowing item:
"EFfECr OF THE RAILROAD WAR ~ MAINE"
The refus Il ofthe Maine Central Railroad to con
meet with the Boston and Maine is proving ujuri-
to the interests of lumber and produce dealers
east OF Portland, who obliged to trans ship
all their freight destined for towns the line OF
the Boston and Maine l.aiiroad. One party in Lew
sion reports thot he will be loser this year 10 the
extent of $4,000 on account of his inability to get
his lumber to market. What is required by the
general public in Maine as elsewhere is a thorough
and systematic connection Of all roads which enter
the same place, by which freight and passengers
can be conveyed from one section to ano,heg With
out change of cars"
This statement throws the entire blame and
odium of the existing obstruction upon the
Maine Central Railroad with what u stice " i'll
appear from the following facts The Maine
Central Railroad brings freight from Lewiston
or any or all points on its line to Portland
Suppose portion of that freight is destined
to Dover or Iaverhil on the Boston and
Maine. If so ordered By the shipper the
Maine Central delivers the freight to the Bos-
ton and Maine at Portland. it is trans1pped
and forwarded, the Boston and Maine paying
the charges of the Maine Central according
to custom. But if the shipper, wishing to
avoid the cost of transhipment at Portland
orders the lot forwarded via South Berwick
junction, the Boston and Maine, although
compelled by law to receive it at that point
and carry it On, will not pay the charges
thereon. By refusals of this sort that cor
poration has suffered bill of the Eastern
Central line of 500, 900 to accumulate against
itself. OF course the Eastern. Central line
cannot go on doing business after this Sort
and is obliged, accordingly to decline freight
from interior Maine for the Boston and Maine
towns, except it be ordered to be transhipped
at Portland.
The Boston and Maine Railroad by It's poll
Cyl says to the farmers, manufacturers and
lumberers of this State ''You shall not reach
points upon our road except you have your
produce transhipped to our cars at Portland.
We do not care if it can reach our towns via
the Berwick Junction or other points of close
connection. We will not pay the charges on
its carriage to those points, and, by conse-
quence, will prevent its being carried to those
points" As regards towns on the Boston and
Maine east of the junction. every one of them
has been fully accommodated for thirty years
by the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth road.
The Boston and Maine Directors, by their
outlay of 81, 000, 900 on their extension, have
not opened single new town.
'The thorough and systematic connection
Of all roads, etc, of which you speak in your
closing sentence, is precisely what the Maine
Central begged and entreated the Boston and
Maine to make with itself, in conjunction with
the Eastern. Time and again conferences
were had, and committees met and agreements
by them were reached only to be frustrated by
the directors of the Boston and Maine. They
insisted upon two dollars per head for every
passenger using their line to Boston, while
the Eastern line accepted one and half dol
lars, for every through passenger taken from
or delivered to the Maine Central. On freight
they must have 50 so and IS per ton where
the Eastern was content with 81. Their fig
ures, if acceded to, meant paralysis to the in
dustries of the State and bankruptcy to the
Maine Central Railroad. For this reason the
Maine Central made arrangement with the
Eastern Line alone for the through business,
to and from Maine. Into this arrangement
the Boston and Maine is now endeayoring to
force itself What its claims are is evident
enough from the statement just made Ger
tainly the Journal did not speak with its usual
circumspection when it referred the troubles
here to the refusal of the Maine Central
Railroad to connect with the Boston and
Maine" That is small part of the case. IfI
the Boston and Maine will pay its lust dues
on freight, trouble will cease.