The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-01
TELEPHONES, ,
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL Issued Thursday. One Dollar a Year.
THE NEw HAVEN RA11RoAD.

When Charles Sanger Mellen was taken from the presidency of the Northern Pacific railroad and was made president of'the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad com pany he was asked by an inquisitive newspaper reporter what his policy was. He replied laconically that he had no policy to announce, that he would take up the management of the property at once and meet each bridge as he came to it; beyond the application of well known railroad principles which long experience had made him familiar with he had no new ideas of railroad building and railroad management to try out.
 It is doubtful if MT. Mellen knew exactly what the demands were to be upon his ability as practical rail- road manager when he accepted the offer to make his home in the east It has been rumored that had he known he would have been less eager to take on the burden. Certain it is that almost immediately after he had taken command he began to realize that his was more a work of con- strution than management at least for a considerable period, He was called upon to undertake the control of piece of property, the demands upon which, by receivers and ship pers, were larger than they had ever been and which were growing day by day with the growing prosperity of the country. This task was rendered the more onerous by reason of the shortage of the roads equipment; tracks all over the system. It was at that moment that the Mellen policy began necessarily to develop itself whether he had ever dreamed of one before or not The story is told in a few words by these figures. Within four years the obligations of the conn pany have increased from $135,000,- 900 to $4OO,OOO,oOO. Hundreds of miles of trackage have been added, both steam and trolley, water rights have increased and the control of the transportation business of New fing. land has been practically secured.
 There is no reason to believe taat ell this miraculous expansion was dreamed of by President Mellen nor by the board of directors which elect cd him to succeed John M Hall There is no reason to believe that it could have been avoided even hal William D Bishop, the old conservative rec on the directorate, been alive and averse to the various and complicated expansion. Nor is it likely that it's in~ dependence would have been contln- ued had the railroad resisted the swift cuivent of new ideas which overlook oil forms of business enterprise coin cident with the election Of MT Nell len. Development along big lines was inevitable. Whether the lines followed were too imaginative is not to be concluded because the value of the stock has temporarily lost its charm for investors. History can alone decide that question; experience can alone enlighten the comprehension of men. It is easy for men who have not been active and responsible participants in the movement of expansion in all fields of industrial developn ont dur ing the past four or five years t. un- dertake now, when the stock "f the railroad is low, to explain how mis- taken the Mellen policy has been They are absolutely without the neces- sary knowledge to pass convincingly upon the situation as it presents it. self to-day. Calm and confident coun- sel is lacking altogether from their criticisms. They do not tell us how that could have been avoided which has overtaken every profitable rail- road in the country, nor do they tel us what is to be done now in order tc raise the stock again to its former un. speculative value. They simply take advantage of fact to air their no. tions, overlooking the fact that they at the same time convince the undis turbed multitude that st any rate they are not made of the stuff which make: for great performance. MT Weller may have failed, which we do not be Iieve, but it has not been proved tha another would have done better witl a policy less in harmony with prevail ing beliefs in the ,steadiness of th' country's prosperity.
 The reasons why the New Havel had to expend an immense amour
 of money to hold to what belonged t