Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-02-24

Elsewhere in this paper we have reprint
ed, from the able and well-informed Boston
Commercial Bulletin, an article on the
boom which is now on in New England for
the construction of electric street railways.
Tn other leading papers this boom has at
tracted attention. Because the electric
street railway has proved a success and a
great public convenience in the larger cities
and suburban towns in which it has been
introduced, the general public has been
seized with fever for the construction of
such roads, and there is abundant evidence
that this fever is reaching well back into
the rural communities. One feature of
this fever is the formation of great fnan-
cial concern to buy up, control and manage
these New England lines as a speculative
venture, on the plea that one large concern
can buy operating plants and manage the
roads much cheaper that individual com
panies can do the same work. The espec-
| ial point of the Commercial Bulletins arti-
Gle, to which we wish to call attention, is
contained in the following paragraph:
"As yet most of these railway schemes have
turned out favorably, but there are good indica-
tions that the business is being overdone. An eX-
| traordnary desire for street railway securities
has seized the people and the promoting class
! know well how to make hay while the sun shines.
In order to supply the demand, it becomes neces-
sary to construct lines between two country
towns, where there may be a possibility of the
road becoming paying one, but where the ma
| jority of chances are against any such success.
In time, Massachusetts and other sections are like
ly TO be perfect net work of electric street rail
ways. Now, all of these cannot be supported, and
consequently We are likely to see the same events
enacted, which followed the abnormal and unrea
sonable construction Of new Western railroad
lines twenty years ago. 1t seems to be not in the
nature of things that such movements can be car
ried on in moderation. 1t must be overdone
everybody must make money aud the ultimate
crash is fastened"
In addition to this the Bulletin mentions
a fact, which is well known to those con-
versant with the subject, that the large
electric companies have had much to do
with setting the existing boom agoing. 1t
is part of their policy to act as promoters
of new street railway enterprises, backing
them, or advancing money for portion of
the construction fund when necessary. As
this fever runs its course, the Bulletin re-
minds the public, heavy losses are sure to
be entailed on somebody, and ''that some
body is invariably the contiding public, and
seldom the promoters of the scheme"
We call attention to this subject in this
definite way because The Phoenix has from
the first taken the ground that if a street
railway is to be built in Brattleboro, it
should be built with Brattleboro money and
managed by Brattleboro men in the inter
ests of Brattleboro. We have no wish to
see $15, 900 or $25, 900 of Brattleboro money
thrown into such an enterprise, only to see
the road taken in the end by an outside
concern and run for what there is in it with
out regard to local convenience, or not run
at all, as the case may be.
There is another consideration which the
heavy snow-storms of this week suggest
To begin with, it Would have been impos
sible to have kept a street railway open tC
. West BrattleborO and in running order al
any time since last Monday morning. A
time when workingmen and women, anC
, all other patrons of the line need it most
it would have been completely blOckadeC
and the company's only recourse woulC
have been to use sleighs and horses unit
the weather moderated and the tracks coulC
be cleared. But there is still another con
sideration. What would the effect be oil
! general traffic if, with two feet of solid snow
in the streets, the snow was cleared ava,
down to the railway tracks, leaving it higl