The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-11
mercer QUESTION
FULLY Reviewed
The Actual Raclroad Situa-
ton in New Eng
land To-day.
FACED BY CONDITIONS.
Impossible to Serve the Com
munity by Lot Of
Short Lines.
FACED BY CONDITIONS.

SuOIL Lines.
IA well informed writer in the Out
look says that the New England rail-
road situation to-day is significant. If
the proposed merger, or consolidation,
of the two great systems-the New
York, New Haven & Hartford, and the
Boston & Maine-is realized, substan-
TALLY the entire section will be served
by one great company. The few excep-
items, although of considerable import
ance do not count as against this
broad proposition. In New England the
consolidating process has already pro-
ceeded further than in any other part
Of the country. To be sure, the devel-
opment of the giant systems all over
the United States has established mo-
nopolistic conditions for large sections
and populations. But in no other sec
ton with SO large a population and at
the same time such a density, such an
intensity Of Industrial development,
and such wealth, has the process gone
SO far. 1t is Appropriated, however,
both In New York and In Pennsylvania
New England has now a population
of about 100000. But with one-thir-
teenth Of the population of the United
States 1t has one-sixth of the wealth.
1t is the wealthiest community of its
size to be found anywhere. Its people
have the largest purchasing power per
capita of any in the world. 1t is a re-
gion Of large industrial and CONNER
clal centers Of prosperous factory
towns, all within comparatively easy
reach of one another, and united by
railway lines running in every direc-
tion-steam and electric; or better de-
fined, ordinary and secondary. The
population is chiefly urban; Boston is
the second population center in the
country, in metropolitan population the
fourth American city, and in foreign
and coastwise commerce the second
seaport in the United States. New
England built the first canals in the
country, and Massachusetts, aimed to
achieve by such means traffic eonnec-
ticns with the great West before the
railway epoch began All Of these can
ais have been abandoned, with the ex-
ception Of short one in Maine but
after an agitation of more than two
centuries, the Cape Cod Canal is soon
to be realized.
Original Makeup.
I The New England railway system
was originally made UP of numerous
small lines, for the most part very
shcrt operated by separate companies
Private and public enterprise shared in
their building. Towns and cities aided
literally to make them possible, either
by direct contributions or by lending
their credit In various Instances States
did the same, The stockholders custom
arily lived along the lines they We're
interested In, and had a corresponding
ly lively sense of proprietorship; the di-
rectors were customarily local mag
mates in their respective communities.
Little was heard of foreign capital
in those days. Proprietary conditions
were similar to, and at first largely co.
incident with those of the palmy days
Of American shipping, when everybody
in a community with money to invest
Joined in taking shares in this or that
vessel-say thirty-seeohd or a six
teenth part-likewise differed and man
ned from the home port The matter of
connections and of through service,
either for passengers or, freight, was of
a complexity that now would seem APP
palling; operation was correspondingly
inefficient; rates We're high, Twenty
five years ago nine Independent rail-
ways radiated from Boston, and there
were eight terminal s,ations--ll0t count
ing one purely suburban line, The Bos-
ton and Lowell was only about forty
miles long, the Boston and Providence
little over 49,; the former was one
OF many links in a great through route
10 Canada and the West. One of the
earliest of American railways was
built at the frontier on the Maine
coast, between Eastport and Calais.
The consolidation movement began
early, and very slowly gained momen-
tun. Late in the COS the state. for
efficiency's sake, compelled a reluctant
union of the oBston and Worcester and
the Western, thus forming the Boston
and Albany. Railway competition has
long since ceased in New England; in
it's six States regulated monopoly is the
accepted principle.
I25 Independent Railroads.
The Boston and Maine is now made
UP of what originally were 125 indie
pendent railways The New York, New
Haven and Hartford has a similarly
composite ancestry. Competition has
vanished; efficiency, good service, low
or rates, have increased corresponding
". These two great corporations now
share in the New England field be-
tween them-the one in the north the
other in the south, with their dividing
line in central Massachusetts. They are
not competitive in the least degree,
Three other great outside systems en-
ter New England on friendly footing.
The New York Central penetrates to
Boston by means of the Boston and AL
bany, with its narrow but rich belt of
contrlbutory country; it also controls
the Rutland in Vermont. The Crank
Trunk has the Central Vermont and