Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-01-23

| tons west of Boston for an absorption
OF that rate of II to Il cents to Bos-
ton. together with a rate of cents a
! hundred pounds for the transfer in
| Boston. The rate ultimately given for
| the shipment of these goods from
| Skowhegan, Bangor or anywhere else
to points west of Buffalo. and south
west of there, to the great cities is
precisely the same as a man who man
ufactures in Lynn, Brockton and other
places to other parts Of the United
States.
Now. we need not do anything of
that kind. We could take our rates IA
Boston and say to Maine manufac tur-
ers: Make your rates from Boston as
you plea se-we have no further inter-
est in it. ! say TO you again. his.
That what / have sometimes called
the fostering care is not matter of
, charity to the people of Maine-it is
business enterprise and business fore
SIGHT. The people of the railroad be
lieve that if they enlarge the opportu-
mites of their customers, they will en-
large their own opportunities for in
Creasing their business, because they
know that a great volume of business
done at small profit is as profita ole
as a small amount of business done at
a large profit.
/ simply cite these illustrations about
rates to show that as between the pub
lie and the railroad, community should
be the rule in everything. 1t is the
business Of the railroad to help the GUS
tomer-to give him the best transport
y tinp n tyit !, he l.,
rates; and ii is the business of the
states and nations through which the
railroads run to give to those rail
roads fair treatment in all the arbit-
trary charges put upon them in the
way of taxes and other excise charges.
Take the lumber in car loads-10 600
to 1900 feet in car load according
to its dryness or moisture-Asnland to
Boston. $3.50. Now. of this through
rate, over the Bangor & Aroostook.
Maine Central and Boston & Maine.
the Bangor & Aroostook and Maine
Central are given in the division $32 81
ard the Boston & Maine takes Sis;
50 that. in the arrangement Of this di-
vision the Bangor &: Aroostook and
the Maine Central. your corporations,
get 81 per cent. of the through rates
for performing y per cent. Of the haul
ing; and that brings me to a point
which | wish to state in the most pub
lie manner.
Years ago. when there was COMPETE
ton between the roads leading from
Portland 70 Boston-the Maine Central
Railroad and certain other roads in
Maine We're able TO make exceedingly
at ;GflF a. r., ;cin
of the through rates from points in
Maine 70 Boston and the West. which
gave to the railroads of Maine a very
large excess over their pro-rata pro-
portion ana many times over their
local rate. Some years ago the com
petition between the railroads between
Portland and Boston ceased: ana an
opportunity arose for these railroads
which finally became the Boston &
Maine. to say to the Maine Central:
We now will go back to the plan pre-
Vailing everywhere else and take a
pro-rata proportion. and let you live
upon your own earnings. They never
have done so. The rates today give the
railroads in Maine practically the same
large proportions which they made
when the competition existed.
II is that special division Of the
through rates which largely increases
the gross earnings of the Maine Cen
trail Railroad. Perhaps | may say. be
cause of the generosity of the Boston
& Maine Railroad in not enforcing the
rate in the matter of dividing its rates.
that it would have full excuse for do
ing if it did not desire to stimulate
the growth of industries in your State.
In 1872 you paid $3.50 a ton-if you
shipped any-to get hay from Houlton
to Boston. and 3214 cents a bushel for
potatoes. and within three years the
Boston & Maine. the Maine Central
and the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad
voluntarily. in order that the markets
of Boston and southern New England
should be opened to control by the
ArOostook farmer for his potatoes. vol
UNFAIRLY reduced the rate cents a
hundred pounds. or 81 ton.
Last year we carried from
Aroostook to Boston 100000 tons
of potatoes-and that reduction
means $4,000 a year in the gross earn
ings Of the Boston & Maine and the Ban
gor & Aroostook one hundred ana five
thousand dollars year net to those roads
Which would YOU rather haVe-that Sl05,-
600 added to your taxes, or would YOU
have the whole county OF Aroostook able
to meet all the demands of Western mar
kets for its potatoes and other products
in the city of New York? | think Sln5.pon
invested in that way is worth more to
the railroads and the State than would he
the granting to the State of an equivalent
of il.
On food products from the West down
into your section, by extension by con-
solidation of those railroads and by re-
ducing the rates where there is no COM
petition, YOU get your food products from
the West. so that the Boston q Maine
and Maine Central railroad. over that
whole territory from Portland to Lewis
cents a barrel. corn. 2.592 cents a buShcl.
oats, W. cents, and for stations between
Brunswick ANA Bangor. four at I3 ~
cents Il barrel. corn. 81 a buShel. cats at
= cents = bJShel--a less T& IL for hauling
that product from Bos ton 10 Bangor
about 1Jp miles, somewhere in that neigh
borhood-a less rate for hauling that bar
rel OF -four than YOU can get an express
man TO haul il from your station 10 tho
State House.
| want TO tell you something of what
q voluntary reduction of rates in a period
of years meant to the Maine &, atr3t!-
beca use that is the subject. so far IS you
are concerned. and because the reductions
that have been made have been given to
you, citizens of the State Of Maine. Eff
teen years aso-and tell you the last Il
years of my life have gone so quick that
| do not know where they are. and | pre-
the Maine Central received from its pas
Senger traffic it's uniform rate of 246I
cents. and for the year ending June 20.
1900 ii received 222S-a reduction Of .2A.