The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-02-23


mo. SIR"
A. s.. Bean Of West Bethel. lumbar
man and merchant, testified ~ 70 the
mileage system Of otber::rosds. Mr.. Bean
would be satisfied with . mileage BOOK
good for family and the employees Oh
firms.
Ever had any passssi" asked Judge
Foster.
81 have had passes ON the Boston .
Maine and Portland = Rumford Falls"
Judge Foster-'Ths Portland b Rum-
ford Talls-thss poos roady" (LAushter.)
Mr.. Gardiner Of Pattsn, who introduced
the FIRST bill, MD he had difficulty In
getting lawyers to draft his bill. He had
offered them their price, but hsd got no
bill. Finally he bod drafted 1t In the
state library with the assistance Of the
librarian He hal siuos received letter
from the master Of the State Grange en-
dorsing the movement. He knsw the Pc
titioners to be reputable men. business
men.
n W. X. Hunnswell of Pittsfeld. . COM
msrcial traveller for Boston house, said
that the petitioners were generally busi-
ness men residing on the railroads Mr..
Hunnswsll said that this commercial trsv-
oilers did not want TO injure the railroads
and he did not believe IL would. There
was now great business in scalping
on mileage booka Business men In his
section who had signed the petitions
had done 90 without solicitation.
Mr.. Hunnswell said that he could
illustrate the way In which transferable
mileage book would help the roads. His
wife, he thought, would travel three
times Is much "a she does now. If she
could ride on his mileage book.
4. +. Lothrop of Leeds, an elderly
man. who served in the Legislature 80
years ago, desired to be heard and was
given . chance. He said the sentiment
In his town was strongly In favor the
law.
Fairfield, one Of the three young men,
bers of the town, who have been leaders
In the mileage movement. said that the
county of Aroostook owns t62s, 900 In
the preferred stock Of the Bangor q
Aroostook. He thought that book good
for families and firms would be acoep-
tale. MIR. Powers examined number
of the petitions from his section and said
the signers were business men and farm
ers.
Mr.. Woodward-Do you think, Mr..
Powers. petitions for one cent mileage
would have been signedf
Mr. Powers-I do not know.
Mr.. Wood wnrd-Do you think the peo-
pie who signed these petitions did 50
after deliberationf
Mr.. Powers-I think many Of them did.
MIR. woodward-Do you think this
question should be decided on the
grounds of what the people want or on
reasons of right and justices :.
MIR. Powers-On the ground of right
and justice.
Representative Webb OF Portland was
the next witness. Mr.. Webb said that he
had favored the two cent transferable
book, but II it should be shown that the
issue of such book would injure the
roads he would favor a book good for
families and firms. He had not from
his study Of the question, however, been
able to see that the Webb bill, providing
for transferable books. would injure the
roads Then Mr.. Webb went over his
figures to show that o reduction Of fares
in 1893 bad resulted In nm increase in
passengers carried, so that none OF the
roads had lost money owing to the re-
duction and In the case Of some the pas
senger revenue was increased. MIR. Webb S
figures have been already printed In
the papers Then the remonstrants
sprang q surprise.
On cross-exAwination, Mr.. Woodward
asked MIR. Webb II he did not think the
judgment Of picked r,en, trained to the
con sideration OF these problems, would
not be as good a. his own. Mr.. Webb said
he should. Then Mr.. Woodward wanted
to know II 1t could be shown that he had
made mistake in his figures Of $500. 0oo
or 400, 600 II that would influence his
Judgment. MIR. Webb said that it would
to that extent. Mr.. Woodw ard then called
MIR. Webb's attention to csrtain tables In
the railroad mmissioner's report to
show that Mr.. Webb had made mistake
In his figures by comparing statistics of
the Maine Central's Maine business In
1897 with the business for Its lines both
in and out of the state In 1898
MIR. Webb admitted this to DO the case,
the effect being to show loss In passen-
ger revenue in 1895 compared with 1897 of
$1,000 instead OF an increase Of about &67,
900.
Mr.. Gardiner WAS then recalled 10
answer questions about his famous order
calling for the number of passes issued
BY the Maine Central. He said he had in'
troduced the order to ascertain how many
passes were issued that compilation
might be made to show its bearing on the
finances of the roads. He had made an
exception of members of iths Legislature
because passes to them were issued only
every other year and he wanted to be fair
to the.raiIrosds. (Laughter.) The order
was withdrawn because OF the technical
objection that no committee could compel
the production of the facts called for.