Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-02-24

people of Maine pretty well. and have
been pretty familiar with our legislators,
ana know that no pass or courtesy ex-
tended BY these railroads to the members
OF the Legislature OF the State OF Maine
has ever Influenced their action on any
public question which they were calleJ
upon to consider. That is all have TO
say about passes. We have had hearing
lasting nearly two days and the only OBJ
lection that has been brought against the
railroads Of this State Is this, that they
gallon of molasses than he thought he
ought to pay, and to put one passenger
or their railroad who was travelling on
his wife,s mileage. The impression was
Central Railroad was only paying abou.
mills tax upon $24.000.O00. How Is that
railroad taxed, gentlemen? Their bonds
are not taxable. not to the railroad. they
are in the hands of the purchasers. In
the savings banks they are paying a tax
on them to the State of perhaps u of a
cent. Then in the hands of individuals,
II they are found by the assessors. they
are paying the regular municipal tax. The
Maine Central Railroad is paying. today,
II you base the tax upon its stock alone
bonds, which are taxed to other sources,
they are paying a tax of per cent on
f I: s,s capital That Isn't however the
the basis and under the present law, the
Maine Central Railroad where it has a
building or land in any town in this State
Is taxed upon that building and land in
the town where It Is located. The as
sessment Is made by the assessors of that
town or city and 1t pays the same rate rs
any other citizen. In addition to that il
for the privilege of maintaining it's road
bed and running its trains through this
State. In. 1880 it paid $4,000 a year. In
1888 1t paid $1,000 and little over. in ad-
dition to the taxes 1t paid in new Hamp-
shire and Vermont and Canada. would
not have alluded to this except 1 though.
that the impression had been created that
it was actually only paying a tax of 5
was one complaint that the road was
charging too much for the transportation
of beef at Auburn. While that is not at
all material to this question of mileage
books, yet it may be well to say that the
low rate came from a contest over freight
between the Grand Trunk and the Maine
that contest ceased the rate went back
to a fair and reasonable compensation as
it had been before. WHAT do these petit
TONERS ask, what do they require? They
ask that certain law entitled IAN act
requiring railroad corporations to issue
mileage tickets at a uniform rate, good
for Nassage to bearer" and they never
have seen the act. What does it provide?
62. proceeds to condemn without any
hearing. When stripped of all its legal
verbiage it practically sets forth that
while we have no knowledge as to what
effect this law may have upon the cor
porations and the best interests of this
State, yet we desire free trade in railroad
mileage tickets, therefore we will pass
that law and IL II should turn out in the
future that 1t is detrimental to the int =
ests of this State, We will trust some
other Legislature to repeal 1t. They know
not what the result will be. they Go not
pretend TO know. And there is another
here: | don't know which one of these
the petitioners mean. The other act pro-
videS to condemn without a hearing, but
in the second Sapfion creates a 1rdOnifl.v
power in the railroad commissioners.
On petition of any railroad corporation
showing that its financial condition is in
Sufncient to meet the provisions of this
act pardon may be granted. or they
may be excused; showing lack of faith
in the proposition. showing that they
were treadinE on uncertain and danger
Gus ground
! repeat. what do you ask? This pro-
posed bill, gentlemen, not only attempts
to fix the charge that shall be made by
The railroads of this State, but compels
the company to issue Il negotiable ticket
10 anyone who applies for one thousand
miles or less transportation. That is the
provision of the bill. 1t compels it to be
issued not for the benefit of the
owner alone, not for the benefit of the
purchaser alone. not for his accommodate
of anyone who may borrow or hire it or
purchase any unused portion of the same
IL creates in the State a general specu-
iative agency for the sale of railroad
power of the corporation to control the
sale of its tickets or its business. l have
an Illustration producing a Boston and
Maine mileage book) 1t is not for the
benefit of the public and not for brokers
or scalpers. They sell a two cent mile
age ticket on the Boston & Maine. The
broker charges the public "a and 2l2. and
| paid "a cents yesterday for this at the
brokers' office. Legislation for the bene-
tit of the public. when the broker re-
ceives one-half Of the reward and the
.l,E,a h.. 1t
you, gentlemen, taking into consdera-
zion the situation and condition of our
railroads that this is an unfair and I'M
just proposition
Sachusetts does it: some other states do
It. but gentlemen you are not legSating
for Vermont or Massachusetts. You are
legisatng for the best interests of the
people of Maine and her industries.
Do those who advocate this proposed
legislation consider that Massachusetts
Of railroad while Maine, with the Wash
ingt0n County railroad has nearly nine
teen hundred to maintain: that Massa-
chusettS has population to sustain her
Maine has population of probably less
than 100000? Maine covers a territory of
more than 5000 square miles, Massachu-
:;etts with only about eight. Vermont
with less than one-half of the mileage
that Maine has, has more than one-half
of the population and only about one
quarter OF the area.
We hear much about the laws of Mas
sachuSettS and Vermont and New York.
The question here is not what MaSsachu-
sets can do, not what New York can do
but what what you can do under all the
circumstances in the State of Maine. We
are dealing with the situation at home
All, they say, Massachusetts carries at
two cents mile, why not Maine? | will
tell you why, gentlemen Because in
Maine the volume of business is less and
The construction and operation more. We
need no. higher authority than the Su-
rTeme Court of the United States which
lays down a rule, gentlemen. that is APP
plicable to this case when ii says: 1.-The
rates in Nebraska are higher than those
in adjoining states and the question is
asked: Are not the people of Nebraska en-
Titled to as cheap rates as the people of
Iowa? The court says: Relatively yes.
but the kind and amount of business and
the cost thereof are factors which deter
mine largely the question of rates. The
greater per mile while the cost of con-
struction and maintenance is less: hence
TO enforce the same rates i'm both states
might result i'm great injustice In one.
while in the other state 1t would only be
reasonable and fair. Comparison between
the rates of two states are of little value
unless the clements that enter into the
problem are presented. 1t may be true
that the existing legal rates in Nebraska
are 40 per cent higher than similar rates
in the State of Iowa, but 1t is also true
that the population in Iowa is greater
han in Nebraska In Iowa they have $50
people to each mile while in Nebraska
they have only about $780,"