The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-02-17

wires of the electric motors are so wound,
 Having determined that we had the speed; having determined that electric ity is capable of doing serious work, as we did by the granite experiment; haV- ing found that it is economical; and having found that its application by third rail was at about one-fifth of the cost of trolley line, then another field of duty was opened.
 As the custOdians of these great rail- road properties if We could serve the public better by four tracks we have invested our money in four tracks. If better served by two tracks where there is only one, we have put down two tracks, and the Consolidated rail- road has spent millions and millions of dollars fop the purpose of doing busi- ness more satisfactorily and at cheaper rates, and everybody seems satisfied with one or two exceptions, both with the method of administration and with the charge for it.
 Now this electric problem is not sim ply one between New Britain and Hart ford, but a living one all through this country. We have more women stock holders in the New Haven road than men. Nearly one-third is held by peo- pie who have less than twenty shares each, and if ever an officer or a direc- tor of a great corporation was more especially a trustee than a manager, every one of the nineteen men who con- trol the New Haven interests are trus- | q the development of the electric prob l lem. Because having found that elec- 1 tricity affords the force, and the econ omy, and that it is practicable to run cars with tWo-minute headWay as we'll as under two hours with trains and | that accommodation could in many ! places be afforded, we concluded that the | time had arrived when We ought to op- crate on a larger scale, and we pre- | ferred to do it where everybody could see it. We found a place where the roads cross as I cross my hands and | that is Berlin. If it goes on as we have
 tried it, there is no more question as to what will be soon done on the steam roads than there is of another day. You shall see it before you ad- l journ. We were held back a few weeks
 and are so much behind our calcula- | tions. We had hoped that cars might | be run in this month of February. The | experiment is pertinent to Hartford ! and New Britain and I present it here. | The New Haven road has no quarrel with electricity; on the contrary elec-
 tricity has harneSsed itself in it's ser
 vice and Is more highly appreciated by the New Haven road to-day than by the managers of any other steam railroad l in the country There is no malice about our experiment. Our locomotives
 may go into the scrap heap, as the
 old stage coaches had to go. We must keep up with the times or else we shall
 be left in the rear.
 l Gentlemen, you may tell everybody
 who is engaged in investing their own l or anybody else's money in lines com
 petitive with steam lines that they can- not long prosper when the day comes | to lay down third rails in this country.
 There is neither malice in this state
 ment nor a desire to injure anybody. | The New Haven road is owned alike | by rich and by poor in Connecticut and out of it, seven thousand stock | holders, who trustsJudge Hall, Henry
 c. Robinson, MT. Brainard and the rest ] of Us to take cares of their affairs. | There is no mistake about this use of
 electricity so far as we can see. If | there develops something that we do
 not know, the exhibition will be made
 you will be able to judge for yourselves. | Al, rjoy, T
 road and about this particular busi-
 ness If New Britain and Hartford | were all that were involved in this l question there would have been no 1 building at Berlin. Hartford has sev- enty thousand people. New Britain has
 say twenty-five thousand, but the busi- ness between New Britain and Hartford
 we know is 350,000 people year. That | is hardly enough to maintain a power
 plant and all that it involves. It is the first in this part of the state, although | it is number three. It is an eXperi-
 ment in the line of the duty and obliga-
 tion of steam railroads to serve the public better by frequent communica-
 tion by car service than by train ser
 vice The power house is located
 
 town, to Meriden, run the entire street
 railroad of Meriden, go up to New Britain, west to Plainville, we know
 not how far The transmission of
 power by the third rail has gone far
 ther than the electricians thought How far it will answer without commercial loss nobody yet can tell But the in-
 vestment is not a large one. A power
 house costs the same whether put up by street railroad or a steam rail-
 road The charges that have been paid by the steam railroad for lighting its
 different stations, when the lighting is
 done as an incident from this same power, will pay the interest upon it.
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