Connecticut western news., 1890-12-31
PARALLEL PALLETS.
Interesting Contrast Between the Nau- gatuck and Housatonfc Valleys.

Interesting Contrast Between the Nan-
 gatuck and Housatonic Valleys.
 THE NAUGATUCK TEEMING WITH MANUFACTURE
 ING AND FILLED WITH A LARGE AND ENTER
 PRIsING PoPULATIoN-THE HoUsAToNIC Pos-
 SEISMIC BUT FEW MANUFACToRIEs, AND NOT
 INCREASING ITS POPULATION AND THE SIZE
 OF ITS vILLAGES.-THE LIBERAL POLICY OF
 THE NAUGATUCK RAILROAD AND THE SHORT
 SIGHTED POLICY OF THE HoUsAToNIc RAIL-
 ROAD LARGELY ACCOUNT FOR THE DIFFERENCE
 OF PROSPERITY IN TWO VALLEYS EQUALLY
 FAVORED BY NATURAL ADVANTAGES.
 The Housatonic and the Naugatuck valleys are parallel and 8 tract of country a few miles wide, largely composed of hills, IS all that separates them. Nature has favored both of them with pictures que scenery, and each valley possesses admirable advantages for industrial de- velopment. Each has water power that Is capable of turning the wheels of many manufactures, and throughout each valley extends well equipped railroad. Of the two valleys the Housa tonic possesses tine greater and better water power, and has equally good and numerous sites for the establishment of manufactures.
 Surely both valleys must, under such favorable circumstances, have made great progress their population must have greatly increased their river banks must be lined with factories their villages must be growing in slze to an enviable extent, and they must both show evidences of most gratify ing prosperity. We answer, no. The picture we have drawn should repre- sent the condition of these valleys but It is with much regret that we acknow- ledge that it actually represents but half of the truth. The half of the picture which applies to the Naugatuck valley is correct. The half which applies to the Housatonic valley Is for the most part strikingly inaccurate. Strange, IS It not, when we have been led to SUD- pose that the progress of the Housaton- lc, if either valley was to outstrip the other, should have been the greater
 The Naugatuck valley within the last few years has made remarkable progress. ton, Derby and Ansonia, has been inn mensely enlarged, until together they have the population of 8 city, until twenty thousand or more people live ln them. Manufacturing has done 1t. W htcltOWu 0uu Anbe0O AoVO 6AOWA and fourished, and Torrington has en- joyed 8 phenominal growth both ln population and manufacturing. It Is the only town in Litchtield county that has nearly doubled its population with in the last decade. -- On the contrary the Housatonic val ley has in most towns less, and in nearly all of the remaining towns no more population than it had ten years ago. We fear that statistics would demon strate that it's manufacturing in the aggregate has dwindled rather than in- creased. With the exception of Dan- bury, which enjoys better competing railroad facilities than most of the other towns there IS no town in the valley between Bridgeport and Pittsfeld which can be called manufacturing town. There are few manufactures in New Milford, Great Burlington and Lee, several small industries, like the Iron Works at Kent Furnace, and besides these enterprises little else except stores and houses and hotels for summer company Most of the villages and towns are very pleasant places in which to live, but they are not business cen tres, they are dominated by agrlcultu- ral influences, the inhabitants are bucol- ic in their tastes and habits.
 Why has the Naugatuck valley so greatly outstripped the Housatonic val. ley in prosperity ? Some will say that it's people are naturally more enterpris- ing, that capital happened to select it for field of operations rather than the Housatonic valley, that the Nsugatuck railroad has been intersected by other railroads more advantageously than the Housatonic railroad has been, and that there are doubtless many other good reasUus which are not apparent to the ordinary observer. We admit that there may be much truth in all of these claims but we believe that very i'm portant reason why the Naugatuck val ley has been so prosperous is that the managers of the Naugatuck railroad company have pursued liberal, far seeing and satisfactory policy as regards their local freight traffic, whereas the Housatonic railroad company has fol- lowed 8 directly opposite course, 2 course marked by short-sightedness and productive of much harm both to the interests of the company itself and to | the interests of the merchants and manufacturers in the towns through which the railroad passes. The Naugatuck railroad company has | encouraged the establishment of manu- featuring and of other business enter | prises by giving reasonable freight rates and in January, 1888, soon after the railroad passed into the control of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad and became division of the
 latter road, the rate on hrst-cla freight to Winsted was reduced from 21 cents
 to IT cents on each 100 pounds, and 0
 corresponding reduction was made at
 most of the other stations. Indeed, we
 are assured on most excellent authority
 that the policy of the managers of this
 road has been to give to it's local freight ! patrons the lowest rates consistent with
 a fair profit to the road. How the
 generous policy has been rewarded can
 be easily seen. The freight business has
 been enormously increased and today at
 Waterbury, where there are now two
 other roads to handle the freight, the
 New York & New England and the
 Meriden, Waterbury & Cromwell, the
 freight business of the Naugatuck, we
 are assured, Is as large as when it did
 all of the business.
 There may have been more enterprise
 ing men years ago in the Naugatuck
 valley than in the Housatonic, but we
 feel confident that the principal reason
 why there have been and are so many
 energetic and successful business men
 there Is because the railroad company
 by its liberal policy encouraged busi. | AL