The Portland daily press., 1901-02-09
ESPECIAL TO THE rREss.J ]

ESPECIAL TO THE PREss,l
Montreal, February S.-rhe business
men OF Montreal now fully realize that a
solar plexis blow has been dealt at the
shipping interests of this CITY by the
large sum in improving and enlarging
the terminal facilities at Portland and
concluding an agreement with the Do
minion company TO put on a weekly ser
vice between that port and Liverpool.
Many letters OF complaint have ap-
psared In the local press and some osustic
references has bean made to the Grand
Trunk management. 1t has h5en inti-
matsd that the late General Manager
CharleI NJ. Hays took the Initiative In
the movement baoause ne Is an American
and that Mr., Reeve was just carr ,aout
his scheme. These communications soalle1
forth today frank statement from MIR.
Reeve, who said: "The reason for our
deciding to make Portland an all the year
port is simply from the fact that there IL
no reason why we sh ould not use the line
between Montreal ana Portland during
the whole year, instead of only during
the winter months. In the past 1t was
not desirable to do so, because the road
more particularly the bridges, would not
permit our hauling traffic economically
and, therefore the lass business we had
the year round, via Portland, the better.
But now things are entirely changed and
it is our policy to make the FULLEST use OF
our entire line. There Is no reason why
the traffic to and from Montreal shoult
not bs maintained, but 1t rests entirely
with the steamship companies not with
us. 1 notice that last year there was
falling of in the numbsr of steamers via
the St Lawrence, but that certainly was
not on account of any action OF the Grand
Trunk. The trouble Is that for many
years past the steamship companies run
ming from Montreal have continually re-
fused to give US space for the trat1ic that
Is offering, not only from western states,
but also from Ontario. We are In conse-
quence compelled to take traffic via Phil
adelphia, New York and Boston, sharing
the inland rate with two OF mora other
companies, instead of securing the whole
of It, as we could have done II 1t had
gone via Portland.
10 put the matter in a nut shell, can
you give any good reason why the Grand
Trunk should allow three hundred miles
OF its road and its expensive terminals at
Portland to be left In comparative idle
ness during, say, six er seven months nf
the yearS Would any commercial insti-
tuition think of such a propositionS Then,
again, we lind Montreal an exceedingly
expensive place TO handle traffic from, be-
cause our terminals here are very much
over-taxsd 1t very frequently happens
that when we have placed cars on the
wharf, alongside vessels, we have had to
take them off again, on account OF lack
of capacity for unloading, and switch
them back onto the wharf. Sometimes
this operation is gone through two OF
three times, which entirely eats up any
profit there might havs been for the orlg-
inaI haul to Montreal.
''In order to do away with ali this OK
pense and delay, we have been trying to
increase our terminal facilities in Mon
treaI, not at the expense OF the city, but
at our own cost A little more than a
year ago we purchased, at great expense,
a block OF land on Albert street, upon
which to erect additional freight accom-
modations, but we Ca mot make use Of
the land, because the city will not give
us permission to lay an additional track
across one OF the streets Thus We are
prohibited from increasing our terminals
here. II this sort of thing is TO go on, we
shall have no option but to decrease the
amount OF work we are doing in this city
and the large number OF cars that are
now brought here for transfer win have
20 bs handled at some other port. This
would, OF course. decrease the number OF
men we empioy here to great extent,