The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-07-09

Maine, SO that they could not profitably
carry the freight to Halifax. LII Eastern
Maine ports could not get this freight, then
shut the Canadian roads out and let some
other transcontnental line bring the Irelgnt
to Portland, Boston or New York.
Mr.. James r. Furber.
Mr.. James T. Furber, general manager of
the Boston and Maine system. covering 1000
miles Of territory, next addressed the COM
mittee. Said he: We have large popula-
tion to serve, and we are quite anxious that
these people should be served as properly.
promptly and as cheaply as possible. We
do think that any disturbance Of the Cana
dian lines would seriously interfere with the
people whom we serve.
The Chairman-What do you mean by dis
turbance?
Mr.. Furber-Such as taxing cars that
would come through this country, such as
undertaking to stop their freight at the line
and not permitting 1t to be transported In
here. In the matter of disturbance, believe
that the interstate commerce law has dis
turbed us more than anything that has been
done.
Mr.. Furber, continuing said: We are all
hnding, know we are finding, very large
amount Of business coming to us from all
points, both East and West and Northwest
az SOAbdiu oCdoOuo VI lilo year, tdluC tuut VIC
cannot accommodate and that we cannot
takelof them; in fact 1t is difficult to findsuf-
fent power and cars to move 1t.
The Chairman-How did you get along
before the Canadian roads were built?
Mr.. Furber-Well, sir, the Canadian roads
have been built for long time, and the traf-
nc of the country, since the building of these
Canadian roads, has rapidly increased: 1t
has more than doubled certainly. The
Grand Trunk road has been rapid growth,
hac1 1.anr hn~n fnro w
receive traffic from the Grand Trunk at
White River Junction through the Central
Nermont,and at Portland through the Grand
Trunk itself.
The Chairman-Well. the substance Of
your statement is that you don't think you
ought to be regulated by the American gov
ernment, and the Canadian roads ought to
be let alone? That is about the size of it,
isn't it?
Mr.. Furber-well, no, sir; to a certain ex-
tent it is proper and right for the American
government to regulate commerce among
States; at the same time, when you under
take to regulate commerce among the States
and to regulate the tariff at which 1t shall be
great deal Of trouble; and do not know of
any way In which it can be done, unless the
government is prepared to take control of all
the railroads and have one system, and the
people can accept the rates or not.
We have found that 1t becomes necessary
to aid and assist considerably in building up
towns along our lines. We are not believers
in the theory of getting very much money
out of freight. We thing the common car
rier Is developer of business developer
of the country, and should be. think it Is
perfectly right for the common carrier who
has one town on its line to do everything
that it Is possible to, do to get as many more
as possible, and when he has established
them and when his line is dotted with a
local traffic, he has then and there local
traffic which will support his railroad and
pay its stockholders fair rate of interest
for their money invested and at the same
time enable him to bring to them from
foreign points goods at very low rates. Low
freights always build up territory. most
ought to be developed in any way, shape or
manner possible.
The matter of the cutting of rates, Mr..
Furber continued, had generally been inau-
gurated Dy the American lines In order to
get business from the Canadian lines. The
latter lines were doing good service, and the
people in New England wanted all the ad-
vantages which God, nature or man could
give them, Ii an Englishman could give
him do it. He thought that when an Ameri-
can stood up and said he could not compete
with an Englishman on American territory
he was crying baby.
The Chairman-You have patriotic ideas
though, and believe in things American?
Mr.. Furber-l do. and l am willing to
stand up and compete with any man in any
business. t.s -a
An extended controversy followed be-
tween the chairman and Mr.. Furber as to
the workings of the Interstate Commerce
bill, the latter taking position against 1t
because of the interference of the long and
short haul clause with local business.