The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-15
STATEMENT FROM
 A. WILLIAM SHERRY

+S'AN1 DA4 Y tiieAt tAtsD ll htAH eL AlltLbACA VI necessity as an outlet for the immense quantity of products such as milk and farm produce brought daily into the 1 City of New Haven for the support of it's population, the present means of communication being unable to con vey the supply.
 There has been no lobby employed in its presentation to the legislature, there has been no money spent except | for legitimate expenses such as ad i vertising, etc, and the petition was presented by Mr. Sperry honestly and for the sole purpose of building the road and opening up the country af- fected, he relying solely upon the mer- its of the measure and the united sup port of the population involved, It may be well to state here clearly so that there may be no misunderstand- ing that Mir. Sperry made no alliance with any other person or persons, was not backed by any syndicate or clique nor was any other person directly or indirectly interested in the project. As 4 was necessary, MT. Sperry has secured the assurances of independent capital to finance the road but the capital re- lied upon is clean and independent of railway promoters schemes or fnan- Icial renegades or exploitors of high ] finance as the term is now understood.
 It may be well to state that in the years of 1905 the then owners of the East Haven and Morris Cove franchise in order that the road might be con- {. struated offered it to President Hall of the Consolidated railroad and re- quested that the Consolidated road should build it but President Hall re- fused the gift declined even 10 con sider it and turned the owners of the franchise away with the substantial statement that it was not worthy of consideration It was with this knowl- edge that Mr. Sperry took upon him self the burden Of the enterpr se and the Initiative for it's consumation
 In all its various appearances be- fore the legislature the East Haven and Morris Cove line has been praet- cally without opposition and with the knowledge of the contempt in which 1t was held by the then president of l the Consolidated railroad, the opposi- ton which the project this year met with was indeed a surprise not only to MT sperry, but 10 the residents along the line to be benefited thereby But it appeared in the person of the attorney and an official of the Consol- dated railroad at the hearing in Hartford, and It's opposition was the only diseordant note in an otherwise unanimous and enthusiastic gathering At that hearing and without the slightest scindlla Of evidence on which to base [, although it was demanded, the statement was made that the pro- ject vas rotten that 1t was a dirty deal' the biggest scheme ever con templated in the state' and other epthers were used to brand it before the committee as unworthy Of eonsid- oradon Then began an assault upon the project from the attorneys of the road it's paid agents in the lobby both in the capital at Hartford and in va rious newspapers throughout the stale to the effect that Paige and Young were behind t to build up a second 1 lConuectieut Railway and Lighting company filled with fraud wind and water for the purpose of selling out to the Consolidated road that it was a link in q scheme to build a parallel to ! the Consolidated road from New Ha- ven to Providence; that the requests for the amendments to New Haven and from North Brauford to Guilford were not asked for with an honest ln- tention to build but to add to the val tue of the franchise that is Intended to continue as a pocket charter to be ultimately sold Go the Consolidated road at an enormous price. These and many other assertions were put forth and in some instances the abuse and islander have gone so far as to att tribute to Mir. Sperry the iltigitjmate use of money in the furtheranee of the project In other words that he has attempted to Influence legislation by the criminal use of money All of these assertions in the lobby and else where, are untrue and are known to be untrue by those who utter them or cause them to be published The alle- cations that Page and Young are be- hind the project to build up a fraud, wind and water scheme, has long since been dispeIIed and abandoned by the Consolidated road and openly ac- knoWledged by it's attorneys to have been untrue. The parallel line scheme Is a myth as can easily be proven In order to accomplish g. parallel it would be necessary to throw a bridge across the Connecticut river, about 0ne-half @ mile long that would cost a million Tor more the constructing of a line 12 or I13 miles long to connect with the New l London X East Lyme road; the ac- lquiring of the Consolidated road trof- iley in New London; the throwing of a bridge across the Thames river at New London about one-thrd of a mile Hong. The acquiring of the Grot7u and Stonington road; the acquiring of the Westerly system owned by Andrew ! Radell; the construction of about 70 ImiIes of road through barren. l swampy country to connect with the | Consolidated railway lines some 20 miles outside of Providence all of which Is as impossible as it ls non ! sens.cal.
 The assertion that the East Haven , and Morris Cove proposition Is intend led for @ pocket charter for the pur- pose of bludgeoniug the Consolidated Iout of money is as untruthtul as the other assertions and this can best be shown by the fact that Mir. sperry is now ready to furnish bond to the state for its construction and to insure it, he stands ready and willing that a provision for such bond shall be in- serted in the charter making it obliga-