Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-04-17
St. JOhnsbury. Vt, April II, 1874.
CONGRESS AND THE TRANSPORT
TATlON QUESTION.

lation Of Interstate commerce, is a very
strong one. IL is, substantially, that rail-
road tariffs cannot he either legally or salts
factoriy regulated BY the Federal Govern
ment, and that the individual states alone
possess the power to settle what shall be rea-
sonable rates, and alone are capable of regu-
lating the matter so as to accomplish what
the public so emphatically demands.
While taking this view, antagonistic to
that urged by the western members who are
supposed to represent the demands of the
Farmers Movement, Mr. Willard disavows
most emphatically any sympathy with mon
opolists railroad or other. He says:
am arguing this casu with reference to
the rights of railroads, moi because | like
railroad management; for every instinct Of
my nature, every impulse Of my being IL on
the side of the people In any controversy they
may have with railroads win go rs far rs
any man in any measure which can be shown
to he safe and wise and constitutional, to put
limitations upon these railroads. But, sir,
supposing this hill is passed. VIII IT does it ac-
complishP Ii provides that these railroads
shall charge only reasonable rates of freight.
Now, how do these railroads eNistg They
come into operation, every one Of them, Tex
cept the few that have been chartered under
congressional nuthority,) by virtue Of some
state grant aud they have no rights or pow
ers except those conferred upon them by that
legislative enactment. A railroad chartered
in Massachusetts cannot do any act except
what the law creating it allows II to do. 1t
cannot even engage IN Interstate commerce
unless its charter allows IL to do so IL can
not carry pound at freight out of the State
nor bring pound of freight into the State if
the Legislature has prohibited ii rom doing
so. 1t is AN artificial person IN every sense
of the word. IL has no existence whatever
except the existence given tn it by the State
authority. The measure of its existence, its
stature, its dimensions, its powers, are de
rived wholly from the State Legislature.
You cannot by congressional enactment
give il any power nor take from it any pow
pr.
The above extract embodes, substantially,
the speakers position Oh the question. Of
its legal soundness we are not qualified to
Judge
But there is another poiut incidentally
brought forward in Mr.. Wizards speech
that Is intensely interesting to us here in
Vermont We refer to his statement of the
effect Of low through rates upon local rates
of freight Mr.. Willard claims that owing
to their better facilities and larger business
the Middle State railroads can force the New
England iues to carry freight at less than
cost, or not to carry it at all. Aud he fur
Their states that as matter of fact the Cen
tral Vermont railroad does carry all its
through freight 1t heavy loss, and makes
up that loss, so far as it is made up at all,
by excessive charges on local freight. He
says:
Gentlemen living in New England, espec-
tally those who reside in the vicinity of Bos-
ton, understand that the Vermont Central
line, which carries much of this freight
through my State to Boston, has been the line
largely relied upon by Boston merchants and
shippers as their line of transportation TO and
from the West. They have always felt II
strong interest in it, though not, perhaps, so
strong rs their interest in the Boston and Al
bany road. What Is the consequence They
have put their money largely into that road,
and they have not expected large. # any
dividends on their money so invested, and
certainly have not been disappointed in that
respect. They cared much more to get their
freight from the West to the seaboard cheap
ly, and from the sea-board back to the West
cheaply, than they did about getting divl-
each that they might hav" put into that cor
porItion. The capital that they invested in it
went out of sight within i've years after the
building OF the road, not by any dishonest
management of the road, but because its
business would not support il because these
Boston merchants insisted-and they insisted
rightly, and the managers of the road looked
upon the matter much in the same light
that freight should be brought over that lire
from the West to Boston AS cheapy AS il
could be- brought to New York by the Eric
aud New York Central roads. That road
has carried freight right past my town from
Chicago to Boston, month after month, al
twenty-five cents per hundred pounds, the
distance being more than thousand miles
while we have been charged for the same
classes Of freight from Montpelier, Vermont
to Boston, distance of two hundred miles
from seventy-ive cents To ninety cents pei
hundred pounds. Carrying through freight
in that way from the West to the sea-bOard
that road has helped 20 build up Chicago an,
other towns of Illinois and of states further
west. II has contributed vastly to their do
Velopment; while We at home have beer
charged upon our local freights as much fol
our short distances rs has been charged Il
those who live thousand miles beyond III
toward the Mississippi river for the long dis
tances which separate them from the sea
board.
And yet this railroad in my state wni
obliged to carry freight ut that rate because
the New York Central and the New York ant
Erie were carrying freight Mt that rate t.
Boston ard New York, and in order to hell
Boston trade, and Boston merchants whC
had put their money into that road, they car
ried these freights for "a good deal less thar
cost from the West TO the sea-bourd ant
made up In some degree their loss IN that re-
spect by~ohargng to us at home who lv
alongside that railroad five or six times "A
much, aye, ten or twenty times as much pc
mile, as they charged these foreign shippers
Now, sir, this is not right, but II Is mattel
which cannot be regulated by statute. |
will not be regulated by this statute. rha
road will have to carry frelghts at whateve
price is fixed by the New York Central o
the New York and Erie, or 1t cannot &c
them To carry. And II this commission
should fix freights at five mills ton pc
mile, or less, over the New York Centrr,
and the New York and Erie, the road in m
state VIII have to carry them ut the sam
rate, or 1t will not get the freights. Wha
will be the result? II will carry at that rate
and possibly less than that rate, and then
viii turn around and grind us Mt home be
tween the upper and neither milestone.
will put The burden upon our local freight
from town to town IN the state 1t give
these low rates to foreigners, to persons VIII
live thousand miles away from the line O
the road, but AS compe nsation for II II charg
es higher rates upon us. There is no re
dress. We could not have any redress If W
tried.
Now this is pretty kettle of fish Whs
does this fright claimed by the capitalist
Of Massachusetts who have invested none
in Vermont railroads amount to?
amounts, according to Mr.. Wizards stat,
ment, simply to this, that in consideration
those investments the people Of Vernon
shall, for all future time contribute heavi
out of their small wealth towards paying