Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-02-24
Vermont Farmers aud Railroads.

state, and that although in the West, wher
II had its origin, it has raised some stron
issues with the railroad management Q
that section, here there is no evidenc
Of discord between the grangers and tn
railroads This is the more remarkable, sine
some disgruntled individuals in the north
west part Of the state, thinking they saw ii
the movement q club with which they might
thrash the object Of their anger and jealousy
made a strong effort to use the grangers foi
the overthrow Of the management Of our
principal railroad. Their mdicrous failure
is a matter Of notoriety. The attemp. to
bring up the matter at grange convention
was met by Kisses and earnest protests, and
the party who made the attempt was only
allowed to complete the reading Of his dia-
tribe under the earnest plea Of courtesy on
the part Of his friends. The subsequent
attempt to carry anti-railroad legislation
through a Legislature Of farmers, many Of
whom were grangcrs, was an equally ignoble
failure.
We have no doubt that the defeated clique
have an explanation Of the case satisfactory
to themselves, il not very complimentary to
the intelligence Of the farmers. But it is evil
dent that so thorough a discontinue, such
AN utter inability, after months of oratorical
and editorial appeal, of drumming and fling,
to raise even a corporal's guard of followers
in the legislature, can not be satisfactorily
explained byrehections upon the intelligence
of the major part of the population Of state
whose people stand so confessedly high in
that respect as Vermont. The united far
mers have not shown themselves unable to
discern their real needs, to recognise those
business relations in which they were put at
a disadvantage, compared with otherclasses,
nor have they hesitated to take every neces.
sary measure to rectfy the evils of which
they have become conscious. If they have
not made an attack upon our railroads, if
even the most active exertions have failed to
make them conscious Of any serious griev-
ances in that direction, there can hardly be
any doubt that it is because no such griev-
ances exist.
In saying this, we do not mean TO be UNI
derstood as believing that all the arrange
ments of our railroads are in such perfect &C
cord with the interests of our farmers as
they might be. On the contrary, we think
some of them could be very much bettered,
but SO long as no farmers organization has
yet framed any bill of complaint, or pre-
scented, by delegation or committee, its wishes
to the managers of our railroad lines, and so
long as these managers profess, as they do,
an entire willingness to make any reason
able concessions and changes looking to the
advantage of their agricultural customers
we can see no grounds, and it is evident
that the farmers generally see no grounds,
for any hostile feeling or action. As regards
such an effort towards a conference and a
good understanding, we cannot avoid the
feeling that there has been even toomuch in
difference among the grangers and culpa-
bic remissness on the part of the state
grange in taking the matter in hand, study
ing the case, and preparing to treat with the
railroads for such changes as are desirable
and likely to be mutually advantageous.
But on the general management of our
Vermont railroads we believe there is an al.
most universal concurrence of opinion, that
in attention to the safety and comfort of
their passengers, and desire to accommo-
date the business public in all matters per-
tanning to the local freight traffic, they are
unsurpassed, if not unequalled, by any rail
ways in New England. The principal Off
cials are accessible and courteous to those
who have business with them; complaints
are listened to with attention, with an evident
desire TO rectify errors or overcharges, or TO
satisfy claims for loss or damage; and we
have hardly known an instance where even
the humblest complaint, if made in a civil
manner, has been met with a rude reply.
Such being the character of the chief man
agement, it has extended downward through
all ranks of subordinatesi conductors are
polite and attentive, brakemen civil, baggage
men careful, and station officials almost uni
versally courteous and obliging. There may
be, and doubtless are, occasional exceptions,
since railroad men are human, like the rest
OF us; but any one who has ridden much
over the railroads of the country will agree
with us, that on very few lines do they meet
with so little that is disagreeable, as in Yer
mont.
In all those points OF management upon
which the travelling public depend for safety
TO life and limb, the record of Vermont
roads is singularly clear of fault, A serious
accident is of the rarest occurrence in this
state and when we consider the nature of
the country, the long distractions of snow
and ice, and the dangers of intense cold in
our climate the almost innumerable bridges.
trestles, culyerts, high entertainments and
deep cuts; the uncertain and furious nature
OF our mountain streams the dangers from
falling rocks, land-slips, and the hundreds of
other sources Of disaster in so rough a coun-
try as Vermont, we consider all these,
1t sounds almost incredible when we hear
that, Tor instance, the Passumpsic road,
(Which with its leased lines is now over one
hundred and forty miles in lengthy has in
its more than twenty years of operation
neper killed a single passenger, and has injured
but very few and that on none of our lines
has fatal accident ever occurred where the
cause could be traced TO faults of manage
ment, and in but few instances 10 any un-
faithfulness Of subordinates. We think the
people of Vermont are fully justified in the
confidence they evidently feel, and the re-
spect they entertain for the men upon whom
these enormous responsibilities have rested,
and who have so faithfully discharged them.
That the farmers Of the state share in this
sentiment, Notwithstanding every effort to
mislead them, is creditable to them, while
it entities them to high consideration, as
regards all their legitimate requests of those
in whose hands our railroad administration
is reposed. 1t was in the power of the
farmers of the state, at the last session of
legislature, had they been so disposed, or
had they suffered themselves to be misled
by the specious and ad captdndun argumen- |
tation addressed to them, to have utterly