The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-06-10
1t is Time for a Change.

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canal shipping to prove it. 1t is fact
that in the state of Maine the railroads
must convey goods at rates that will
take them away from water carriage,
since the greater part of the settled
portion of that state is so situated as to
have the option of either mode. Yet
the Maine roads are prosperous, and
increasing their lines and connections,
though their passenger rates are also
much lower than in Vermont, indeed
hardly more than half.
The legitimate work of a railroad is
to transport goods and passengers.
Doubtless many roads are built in adj
vance of the actual demands of exist
ing population and production. But
this should not and does not exempt
the enterprise from business conditions.
There is the road and its equipment.
Either the iron must be taken up and
the rolling stock sold, or the road must
be run to the best possible advantage,
and its value gagged by the results.
AS some farmers will pretty near (and
their live stock quite) starve where
others will make money, so it is with
the management of railroad. If
" freezing out stockholders and bond
holders, by all the various and devious
ways known to "smart managers,
whose interest in car companies, eX-
press companies and other outside
"syndicates " is far greater than in the
property they are allowed to control, is
the objective point (and it generally
will be, when such enterprises are on
FOOT, then it may be policy, at least for
awhile, for them to disregard the pub
lie interests, which the road was char
tered to serve and promote. Technical
ability, which keeps the road and its
equipment in good order and avoids
accidents every manager must have,
or he loses his grip. But broad bust
ness capacity is not so common.
Look at our Vermont roads as illus
trating these points. The productive
industry of the state is chiefly agri-
cultural, and the development of this
industry should be the chief object of
our railroads. But, as a matter of
fact, Vermont farmers are crowded into
almost exclusive dairying, which fur
nishes comparatively little freight, by
a prohibitory tariff on all other products
except when shipped in carloads, which
our small farming methods do not gen.
orally admit of. The railroad manager
practically says to the farmer: 6 You
are small producer now, and 1 will
hinder your growth in order to make
you great one. This carload bust
ness practically keeps the farmer and
consumer as far apart as possible. The
purpose has evidently been to make it
" easier for the road, and at the same
time to give as many middlemen " a
hack " at the farmer as ingenuity can
do. But the thing does not work. Our
business does not admit of so many in
termediary exactions, and so the pro-
duction of the state is held in check,
and makes little or no progress. The
farmer works to make a living in the
Old-style, rather than to make money
in the new style-or, if the latter, he
puts his money work into small COM
pass, neglecting all the products that he
must either ship by the carload himself
or admit of three or four shaves on.
The Vermont farmer who wants to
get close to the consumer of his pro-
ducts is shut off by the, as yet, ire
sponsible will of the common carrier
who says: "Ship by the carload, or pay
all the goods are worth for freight" II
the farmer says he cannot do that, ther
he is told there is no remedy. 1t is i'm
possible for an outsider to know the
reasons for such absurd conduct, judged
by the ordinary rules of business. Il
the farmers of Vermont could be assured
VI ihouCldtC uhllOlii ldtCo "
freight on small shipments they would
in our opinion, soon furnish Thousands
of carloads where now they furnish
hundreds, and vast amount of none,
would come into the state and sta,
which now they have no chance tt
get This condition of things has yer,
much to do with the steady drain o
population away from our state. I'm
less a farmer is skilled dairyman ther
is little or nothing that he can produc
to make any money on. When he ha
cut off his timber, and run out his Ian
in growing potatoes at twenty-five
forty cents bushel, there is no re
source left to him but to sell out and g
West Though eur farms lie at th
doors of scores of cities filled wit
hungry people, we can have no dire'
trade with these eager customers, b.
cause our railroads forbid it, exec
under conditions that their manager
know cannot be accepted. If yo
protest against such policy, you al
met with the calm, inscrutable smile
irresponsible power from the presiden
or with the scOrn of his sllbOrdin ate