Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-03-10
bills and resolves ordered printed un
der Joint rules.
THE Two CENT MILEAGE BILL.


der Joint rules. W :
THE 1wO-CENT MILEAGE BILL.
Mr. Leavitt from the committee on
railroads, telegraphs and expresses on
order of the Legislature relating to an
act requiring railroad corporations to
issue mileage books good to bearer. re-
ported that legislation thereon is mex
| pedient.
Mr. WEBB of Portland: From the
| early days of this session petitions
have been coming to this House from
all parts Of the State and bearing
| thousands of signatures, praying that
the railroads Of Maine be required to
| issue mileage books good for bearer at
a uniform rate Of two cents per mile
Now nearly all the roads already issue
book at two. cents a mile. but they
sell that book under such restrictions
that il Is good onlysin the hands Of the
purchaser. SO that what these petition
ers really wanted to do was not so
much to reduce the rate at which these
books should be sold as to require the
| railroads to remove the restrictions
which they had placed upon their sale.
In common with many other members
Of this House it seemed to me that this
request was reasonable one, and that
| ii was one to which the Legislature
| should give the most careful and palms.
taking consideration. and l accordingly
introduced, some weeks ago. bill
drawn to effect this result: but | never
said either in public or private, that
this bill ought to pass right or wrong.
or that the fact that so many people
desired it, was. in itself sufficient
reason for it's passage. On the con-
trary l have always maintained that
it was a question to which we should
give the most careful. the most PAINS
taking and the most thorough eXami
| nation, with a perfectly fair and i'm
partial spirit, and with a desire to do
justice to both sides. The question in
volved is not question of principle.
| One cannot say that one side is wholly
| right and the other wholly morally
wrong. 1t is question of policy, of
eXpediency, of what is fair and just
| and reasonable: not a question that
| appeals to the conscience but to the
| judgment. not to the prejudice or to the
passions but to the reason and the
sense of fairness.
| For the purpose of coming to some
conclusion as to what the effect of such
a bill or such a law might be on the
earnings of the Maine railroads. I made
a series of comparisons of the business
of the year 1897 and the year 1898 in
regard to all the railroads of the State.
l found that generally speaking the
average rate per mile had been slight
ly reduced with, IN most cases, a slight
| increase or no Change at all in earn
ings. In the case of the Maine Cen
| trail Railroad / made an unfortunate
| error. 1t seems that the table l used
| from the report of the commissioners
of 1897 was made up from the business
| of the road for the State Of Maine.
while the table used for the year 1898
was made up from the business of the
| entire line. Now a comparison of
| these figures shows an apparently large
| increase in the passenger earnings Of
| this railroad, and l naturally drew the
| conclusion, and had no hesitation in
saying so, that even If this change cost
| the road fully as much as it had been
| claimed it would the business of the
road was amply able to stand such d
| change Some of my friends thought
| that under the circumstances the error
| that I made was natural: some have
| said it was eXcusable. While / appre-
| ciate their kindness in being so ready
to excuse myself l do not find it so
| easy to excuse myself, and l do not try
to do So l think it is generally con-
ceded however, that the error was one
| that was honestly made. 1t was not
| called to my attention until the day
Of the hearing. and then under circum-
stances calculated to be peculiarly en-
| barrassing. j can only say now that
the figures used for the purpose of
| comparison being wrong. the conclu
| sions based solely upon them We're
| wrong also. AS matter of fact it ap-
| pears that the Maine Central Railroad
| in common with all the other roads
of the State. has lightly reduced it's
average rate per mile, with no sub
| stantial change in it's passenger earn
| ings-there being in point of fact. a
| slight loss, instead of. as / supposed a
large gain.
But this whole matter does not de-
pend upon any series of calculations
and is not disposed of by any single err
rors in any single table of figures. In
fact. one of the difficulties in the mat
| ter is that it does not yield to calcu-
| Iation. The exact results of this
! change cannot be calculated, cannot be
estimated. with any degree of ac-
curacy. The removal of the restric-
tons now placed upon the sale of mile
| age books would undoubtedly result in
| 4 larger sale of them. which would be
| accompanied by decreased sale of local
| tickets, resulting in the reduction of
the average rate per mile. This reduc-
ton would undoubtedly be the cause
| Of increased travel. and an
increase of the passenger earn
ings; but whether the increase in earn
ings would wholly make up for the loss
in the average rate per mile is some
| thing that we do not know: and the
| suggestion is made as to whether it is
fair and just to compel the roads to
submit to an experiment the results of
| which are SO uncertain Now the force
of this reasoning has appealed to all of
the supporters of the original measure,
so that. at the time Of the hearing be-
| fore this railroad committee, it was
suggested to the committeeman the
Ara Va D;I:~rcO