The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-06
AN INTERESTING SESSION
OF THE GENERAL ASsEMBLY YES
 TERDAY.

l Iue luhuEahGS
 Eetts of This City Nominated-Dr. Smyth
 and MT. Thrasher Before the Temperance
 Committee-S. N. E. Telephone Company
 Gives Further Increased Faeilities-Bill
 to Protect oyster Beds.
 Hartford, Feb. 5-An important hear
 ing took place this afternoon before
 the railroad committee concerning three
 bills introduced in the interests of James
 l.. Cowles of Pennington. One bill
 provides for reducing passenger fares
 on the New York, New Haven and
 Hartford railroad to one cent per mile.
 Another bill provides that the fare
 between two stations grouped long
 distances apart shall be the same as
 for stations close together and another
 bill provides for a reconsideration of
 freight rates.
 The Consolidated road was represent
 ed by Vice President Hall, c. s. Mel
 len, general traffic manager, Hon.
 Lynde Harrison and Hon. Henry c.
 Robinson.
 MT. Cowles read a long speech, dur
 ing which he said: Tn the south the
 railroads have adopted freight rate
 that is almost prohibitory. For the
 past two years the Consolidated road
 has levied freight and passenger rates,
 increasing rates over those of two years previous. With a level track
 and few curves, this road can haul freight and passengers about the easi- est of any road in the country. The
 rate, however, is two and a half times higher than in the middle states and over double the average rates of the United States. In this we see one reason for the decline in our indus
 tries and the transference of our indus
 tries to the south and west. In 1874 the reduction of passenger fares on this road was 15 per cent and there was a similar reduction in 1880 and as a result, the company reaped increased receipts, To-day in many cases the passenger rates are greater than in 1850. The increase between New York and Boston is fifty cents and between New York and Hartford five cents. The lowest rate to-day for through points Is the $1.50 charge from New York to New Haven, seventy three miles. In 1S48 the average rates of fare in this state was two and one-half cents mile. In 1853 the roads of the state were largely for passenger busi- ness. In that year on the New York and New Haven road 1, 100000 passen- gers were transported. It is wrong for rich corporation like the Consoli- dated road to levy such heavy freight rates"
 After MT. Cowles had spoken three quarters of an hour Hon. Henry c. 1 Robinson, representing the Consoli- | dated road, said in part: Tt is sell dom that a committee of the Con- l necticut legislature listens to so lenghty | an argument. It has taken in the | people of the entire globe. For me to reply, is something like replying to an | entire orchestra. There are two bills | here: One is for one cent a mile on | the Consolidated and the other provides for regulating fares of the railroads. | the same rate between any two sta tions to apply to stations the longest NAoIciiCSo oAPoNA II InG JuuReS OI the | superior court are to report upon a change in classification in one case, they are to so change in other cases. Any changes in classification that I | have ever known has been for in- dividual cases. There is no sense in the law, for it puts the work into the hands of superior court judge, who knows nothing about It. The bill is the product of a man who has the conceptions of a good-hearted theorist. He wants to give us a Utopia, but this is impossible. He is a good-hearted and an intelligent man, but his ideas railroading are little con- fused.
 Now as to grouping of stations. You cannot annihilate distances as the hill proposes. The bill to compel the rail- road company to carry passengers at one cent mile is the most ridiculous )f all the bills Our railroad charges are not excessive. They are in most cases very low. The bill is utterly ab- surd. On the Consolidated road last year there were carried 725,0O0. 900 pas- 3engers at a cost of $12, ,656 So the cost is almost cent and half a mile 1 ] passenger last year. Now there Is your first fact. They can carry pas- iengers lower however, by half paying heir men, degrading their road and making things very unpleasant for everybody. Now, as matter of fact t costs us more to carry passengers han the rate the bill calls for. You n a certain sense are parties in this business, Of the state tax of $2. 300. 900 he sum of $772,000 is paid by the rail pads of the state, including $371, ,841 by he Consolidated road. Now if you re- ' luce the train mileage where would the | market value of the stock be? And I our taxes would be reduced. And your 'eople who are getting or 10 per cent. dividends would suffer. Here is a bill l hat calls us right back to barbarian. Y bill that would put our road on a I C iggardly basis with poor paid heIp and l
 rotten equipment. l c. s. Mellen said in part: "So far a S the grouping of rates on trans-con- c mental business is concerned I would k ay: The lowest rates are made be- a ween seaboard cities because of the t by water traffic. As soon V S you go into the interior the rates b re increased. There are no grouping g these rates as to distances. He quotes c n Yot taS in Gihnria Naur 5 ,,.,, l a