The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-10-17
Portland and the Grand Trunk Railway.

The enterprise and liberality displayed by
the Grand Trunk Railway Company under
its new management is ain turning the at
tention of our citizens to its Importance to
Portland and tending to restore the populari-
ty Il formerly enjoyed in this community.
Those among us who have been inclined to
criticise and ind fault with it's lack of enter.
prise, tardy movements and want of accom-
mediation are beginning to appreciate the
magnitude of the institution and to under
stand that while the Grand Trunk has moved
slowly it has moved and moved substantially;
81, we have often had good cause
7 its management, as reg ards
uuo of Portland, we ought to par
don much to corporation which has furn-
ished us such a magnificent line of railway,
connecting US with Canada and the West,
and, by its steamship connections. with Eu-
rope, and has lifted from our shoulders all the
burdens undertaken by us to secure its con-
struction. A corporation which has invested
fifty million dollars in a line of railway from
which they have received no dividends.
the advantages of which have thus far been
all in our favor, deserves not only our friend
ly forbearance for its mistakes, but our CO.
operation and material aid in whatever tends
to make il a success. The amount required
to change the gauge of the road and make
the other necessary improvements incident
thereto, is SO enormous that it could not be
readily obtained even with the high credit
and great resources of this powerful COM
pany. Since President Potter became con
nected with the road, in 1860, twenty million
dollars have been expended in extending, i'm
proving and equipping it, nearly five millions
of which were absorbed by the change of
gauge alone. 1t required time to bring the
English stockholders up to the adoption OF a
policy involving such vast expenditures in an
enterprise which had made no returns upon
previous investments, and to secure the
necessary loans after authority had been OBJ
tanned by the Directors.
President Potter, himself man of great
wealth and having the confidence of the cap
italists of Great Britain, after coming to this
side of the water and examining personally
into the condition of the Grand Trunk, its
necessities and capabilities, finally succeeded
in obtaining the means to change the gauge
and put the road in first class condition for
business. Not only has the gauge been
changed to conform to that of the New Eng
land and western roads but more than 800
miles of new steel rails have been laid, wood
en- bridges have been replaced by iron, loco
motives have been built by the hundred and
cars by the thousand, until tine road has
been made one of the best in the country,
in its permanent way and equipment 1t is
now capable of moving all the freight offered,
not only for transatlantic shipment but for
home consumption-and the only great draw
back to its success now is the want of termi-
nal facilities here in Portland tor the tran
shipment of freight destined for Europe. The
capacity of the road has been more than
doubled, while the facilities for transacting its
business at this port have been materially
diminished by the disastrous fire of last year
which destroyed the wharves and warehouses
of the company and the elevator and other
buildings used by it in connection with the
lines of ocean steamers at Galt's wharf,
The result is that the business which we
city and which the comparatively moderate
outlay of few hundred thousand dollars
would enable us to retain and increase ten
fold, is in danger, through our own apathy
and neglect, of passing from US to our more
powerful commercial rivals. Great railway
lines to the West can be sustained only in
connection with ocean steamers and ocean
steamers can be secured only by offering adj
equate facilities for the cheap handling of
freight Our city is fortunate In the pos
session of great natural advantages in geo.
graphical position; in the safety and capacity
of its harbor and in being the terminus of
one of the longest and best appointed railway
lines on the continent having an established
Hection with first class lines OF European
steamers. But all these great advantages
will not enable US to secure and retain the
q ,dsiness which we have so long struggled to
atain unless we supplement them by such
il -ovements as are needed to make them
available.
The Grand Trunk Company have built
and equipped great line for bringing to US
the products of Canada and the West. They
have ready to connect with them lines of
ocean steamers which any commercial city in
the world would esteem an acquisition,
They are interested in making this port the
Atlantic terminus of their road and have the
influence to create and direct business to our
city. But they cannot be expected to do all
this if our citizens stand by Indifferent and do
nothing to cooperate with them in making
successful line originally established for our
benefit. We can afford to do much in this
direction because what has thus far been done
has cost us comparatively nothing, and what
is now to be done will bring certain and i'm
mediate returns. the company has per-
formed its part in bringing to us the
products of the West and OF Europe. 1t is
our part to find the facilities for its storage
and transhipment. .e.
We understand that strong inducements
are being offered to proprietors of the steam
ship lines which we have heretofore regarded
as our own, to leave us entirely, as they al
ready have partially,a and to make Boston their
terminus. Such change of the ocean steam
ship lines would, OF necessity, carry with it a
change of the terminus of the Grand Trunk
Railway from Portland to Boston, leaving
Portland way station on the line. Every
effolt should be made by our citizens, not on
ly to prevent the possibility of such result,
but to secure for our city the full benefit 10
be derived from the great railway and steam
ship lines which we have been so fortunate as
to secure.
PERHAPS the annual report of the West
ern Union Telegraph Company affords as
good an example as can be found of the state
of business during the year. The fiscal year
ending June 80, showed falling off of S7O,-
600 in gross receipts, and $25O,OOO in net
profits, consequent upon the dizziness in bust
ness. The account since then, however,
shows an increase in profits amounting to
100000 month. This may be taken as a
strong indication of revival in general bust
durir fho1 ocf he