The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-11-04
The Central Vermont.
WHAT 1T HAS DONE, is DOING, AND IS GOING
TO DO.

Very few Of our citizens or of the in.
habitants ofNew England generally, have
any idea how closely connected is the
combination Of railroads known by the
general name of Central Vermont, with
the commercial and agricultural interests
Of Central and Western New England,
and also with the business interests Of this
city. 1t operates eight hundred miles Of
road, in lines that reach from Ogdcns.
burg and st. Johns on the west and north
to Bellows Falls, New London and Chat.
ham -Four Corners toward Boston and
New York. Thus ono can see at glance
that it belts the entire part of middle and
western New England. 1t is its chief
avenue for imports and exports, its main
dependence for the development Of all its
great industrial interests, while with the
Grand Trunk and the Great Western,
and the shore lines which unite the Con.
nectiout River and Boston, it forms one
OF the direct connecting and competing
lines from Chicago and the farther and
greater West and Northwest to the sea.
board. Of this competing line our city
is the natural and inevitable terminus.
When the Georgian Bay Route now in
the process of construction is completed,
route uniting Duluth, the terminus Of
the northern Pacific and the Grand
Trunk, an enterprise the management of
the Central Vermont is doing its utmost
to help forward, Boston will be hun.
dred and twenty-five miles nearer the re-.
gion Of the Pacific, "the great granary of
the country" as it is already called, than
New York city, and two hundred and
twenty-five miles nearer than it is at
present by the route around Lake Michi.
gan, through Chicago. AS citizen of
Boston, solicitous for its material pros.
perity, and jealous ofanything that prom.
ises to place it under the domination of
persons or cities or corporations whose
interests are hostile or antagonistic to it,
would like to have our city realize what
the Central Vermont has done and pro.
poses to do for it, and that at all hazards
it should insure its preservation in its
present form aud under its present man.
agement. By sturdily and utterly rerds.
ing to combine with the other routes.
whose natural .ermini are New York,
Philadelphia and Baltimore. it has saved
Boston from prices of western products.
and saved her from such tariff upon the
goods she freights West as would have
put her at the mercy of these other cities.
People wonder at the low price of Cen.
trail Vermont stock in the marke. and
that no dividends are declared that lust
now the interest on the bonds is passed.
The stand the road has taken against the
monopoly business, fighting such railroad
kings as Vanderbilt and Tom Scott, is one
and very good reason. Another is the
bitter and conainuous litigation the man.
ayers. who for twenty years have had the
confidence of the people and the support
OF the courts OF Vermont have been forced
to enter upon would they keep the road
from falling into hands unfricndly to the
interests of New England and Boston
another reason is that the managers have
determined to keep up first class road
through second.class country, and they
have done what they intended to do. In
all the eight hundred miles the road runs
through but one city Of over 10000 in
habitants, that is Burlington,Vt. 1t isa
road through farms, hamlets and villages,
yet in rolling stock. in all manner Of rail.
road equipment, in road bed, in the safety
and dispatch with which it carries passen.
gers and freight,.lt challenges comparison
with any road in the country. Another
reason is found in the general depression
OF business. If short road through q
denselY settled district feels it, how much
heavier must be the burden upon long
length Of road through sparsely settled
country? While such roads as the Bos.
ton and Lowell and the Eastern are under
the cloud, the Fitchburg, Boston and AL.
bany and the Old Colony declare less
per cent. on all bonds under the pressure
OF the hard times, it is not to be wondered
at that the Central Vermont, lowering its
tariff of through faressand refusing to in.
crease that Of its local traffic and still
keeping itself in tip.top running order,
should not find much money in its treas.
ury just now over and above what is re.
quired to meet running expenses. But
the cloud is breaking; better times are
awaiting the stock and boDdholders, with
all conflicting interests harmonized as
they are in the rapid process of being
with the annoying, distracting, ruinously
expensive litigation at ON end. As it is,
with the business Ieviving in oil parts Of
the county, with the confidence OF tho
business men along the road in the man.
agement unabated, with the rigid yet rot
parsimonious economy now put in prac.
tice in all the departments kept up, the
long suffering old Central, Vermont's
best friend and Boston's protector from
the monopolists, will continue to be the
well operated road that it is, and soon
will be good paying one as we'll. Ipre.
dict that within two years from the first
OF next January, its price will have quad.
rupled. base this prediction on the
facts just mentioned; harmonized inter.
ests, lawsuits ended, the management
enabled to turn their individual attention
to the development Of business, the sup.
port and confidence of the entire country
through which the road runs, and the
practice of economy. Also in these 9th.
or facts: The road has in the person Of
j.. Gregory Smith. its president, one Of
the most honest, fearless, enterprisiug
railroad men in the country, and odb
who acts on the true business principle
that road run 10 the real interests Of
the public in the long run, will pay the
stockholders the best. In j. Il. Lang.
don, Vice.President. it has one Of the
ablest financiers that New England has
ever furnished, and she has done pretty
well in the article of fnanciers, as every.
body is ready to allow. As one worthy
Of the responsible place he occupies, aud
able to second ell the efforts of his chiefs,