Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-01
THE CATEGORICAL CONTEST.

Professor BaidwIn-GeneraA AeglsIa- tive Work-The Waterbury Judge- ship-New Haven Water Company Court StenograPhers - Washington Centennial. IN, oo | Especial Correspondence of the JOURNAL AND CouR- IER.l Arguments in the Housatonic's petition were resumed before the railroad committee at 80 to-day. Arguments to-day were on the main petition of the Housatonlc railroad for charter to parallel. the arguments upon the resolution of inquiry as to the illegality of it's recent bond issue having been finished yesterday. l Prof. Baldwin opened the arguments for 1 the petitioners by remarking that he was l glad the weary trial was coming to an end 1 and that an impartial committee was to de- ! eide upon the petition with all the facts be- 1 fore it. "The question" Prof. Baldwin con- l tinued, "has been discussed at length by the newspapers of the State without the facts and with opinions preconceived.. We are now to try the case not before newspapers whose editors or proprietors are stockholders of the Consolidated road" After this general and uncalled-for fling at | the Connecticut press the attorney pro- 1 ceeded to his first claim for the grant, ! ing of the petition, which was that "the | business of the road has increased so rapidly during the last few years that it requires a l better southern outlet At present it's south ern connections are first with tide-Water at Bridgeport and Norwelk (Wiison's Point) | and secondly with the Consolidated road. It asks for authority to build branches exceed- | ing the ten mile limit so that 1t can build one east from Bridgeport to connect with the | the Derby railroad in Orange and one west | from Bridgeport to connect with it's Danbury ! and Norwalk division, and running thence | to the New York State line to connect with 8 | road to New York city.
 Experience has shown that this provision I ia of no use whatever. The Consolidated road must itself haul according to it's own l schedules and rules all trains that run on it's I tracks. It docs not receive and haul our l cars, or ticket our passengers, or check their | baggage, or switch cars upon our tracks in | way to accommodate our business. There is | constant friction between the two roads. Where they use union depot the station ! agents try to throw all business over the ! Consolidated road, even though it naturally seek the Housatonic. We have a large
 passenger pass business between the North and East and New York city, which we wish to receive and deliver at South | Norwalk, but they will not stop their fast trains there for this purpose, thus forcing every passenger to travel IA miles further to or from Bridgeport, and pay 2S cents more,
 as the Consolidated road charges full local
 rates on all the through business that we
 bring it.
 They will not sell tickets over our system. l What prize this Consolidated road has drawn in this lottery of life. There is no territory in the world as rich as that between | New York and New Haven which has but one road No wonder they struggle to hold on.
 Only single rival and competing road; | but it is that great consolidated monopoly, ,,c hot hyT,kyo
 trolls the State of Connecticut. It is the gigantic trust that, since the consolidation act of 1871, has forced into its system the Shore Line, the Valley, the Air Line, the
 New Haven and Northampton. the Naugs- tuck and the Stamford and New Canaan rail- roads. It asks this legislature to grant it power to increase, without limit, capital stock on which it pays ten per cent. divi- dends from the fares and freights collected
 from the public"
 Prof. Baldwin explained that the reason 1 they did not build under the general railroad ! law was because President Starbuck and his ! cohorts from Wall street would scorn to se- cure benefit to themselves at the expense of the company.
 The managers of the road desire that all ! the stockholders should share alike in the
 benefits of these new branches. They want | them to be, from the beginning, part of the Housatonic railroad.
 Let no sophistry obscure the real question | at issue.
 cit is not whether special charter shall
 be granted to incorporate company to build
 a parallel road from New York to New Ha- ven. It is whether an old road, largely owned in Connecticut, which has grown into importance within the last few years, carry- ing now over a million of passengers a year, shall be allowed to build branches in order
 to transport freight better on the shortest and
 best routes, free of limit of ten miles which | @Nh < I,o
 State"
 | Prof Baldwin then indulged in another fling at the newspapers, and charge that the
 papers were under the domination of the Consolidated road, and incorrectly charged
 that they had not dared to print the Houss- ! tonic's bill, but everything against the peti-
 tioners was printed and sent out by Isaac Bromley's Literary Bureau" He then said \ the Consolidated road was making money by l charging two cents mile and putting into
 construction account and charging it to ope- rating expenses so that the people couldn't find how much they were making.
 He had presumed some testimony would have been offered by the Consolidated to l break the force of the testimony which he
 thought the petitioners had put in. Why had not Charles P. Clark, than whom there
 is no better witness, nor more ready speaker
 in the State gone on the stand!
 | "I know" said Prof. Baldwin, "that the Consolidated road is no mean antagonist.
 AS I speak before this committee I feel the invisible, tremendous influence against us. | That something we feel but cannot see, like the breath of heaven. When you go to your
 homes, you are visited by their agents in the
 guise of neighbors and friends. They have ! bled all the rival roads until they have at l last sucked them into the vortex of the great l system and forced all to accept their own ! terms and lease to the Consolidated. Look I at the railroad map of New Haven and vicin- ity. spiders web, stretching out over the
 state with the spider on the second floor of
 the New Haven depot. But only one web
 is to be built by New York capitalists. ! Where the money comes from is of no con- l sequence.
 | Judge Harrison made the first argument for the opponents of the petitioners. The l speech which was telling effort was listen
 ed too with the closest attention by the big | audience and the members of the railroad ! committee. Among other things he said: There were three things particularly mo- ticesble in Prof. Baldwins arguments of yes- ! terday and to-day which were similar.
 One thing they contain, and two things ! that he has forgotten to speak about with
 his accustomed ingenuity. The thing they 1 both contain is an attack ou the Consolidated road, all outside of the evidence in which he
 has rehearsed much ancient history, and 1 more fiction culled out of few newspapers ! bought by Wall street gamblers, in tue in-
 
 1 tackled the management of 8 road which is 1 the pride of Connecticut, because it is honor-
 ably managed and has never been in the
 hands of stock gamblers; such well man
 aged road that for 20 years not person on it has been killed who was in his place. It
 has never come to the State and begged to
 have it's taxes remitted, has every like ! corporation for which Mir. Baldwin has been | the attorney. It has never failed to pay
 dividends honestly earned to people who re- ! side in Connecticut and are its stockholders ! and you cannot find an honest man on any ! one of the branches who will not say that the leasing to the Consolidated has benefited
 the people on the leased line with other fa- | cilities and the stockholders of the branch road. It is 8 good thing for the public, l this leasing of lines. Other roads
 have asked to be leased by the Consolidated time and time again. The New I England road which MT. Baldwin represents ! with it's immense overcapitalization, and ! which never paid dividend excapt nnder