Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-10-22
LITTLE FOUNDATION
To the Statement About New
 Haven Road Published in Wall Street Journal.

the New Haven company OH pelnS shown the statement on the per diem controversy in the Wall Street Jour- nal from an American Railway Asso- citation side,and on being assured that the statement was official and from responsible officer. of one of its con- necting roads, consented to comment on the same as follows, viz:
 The statement is largely made up of assertions for which there is little or no foundation in fact.
 The New Haven company has not freight car equipment comparative with that of it's trunk line connec- tions. It would be difficult to use anything of the kind to advantage if it had. It has sufficient for its local business, but that local business re- quires a somewhat different character of equipment from that of its connec- tions, in that it does not have a heavy loading for it's cars, it's freight being largely of high class manufactured product that does not load car heavily, although paying the highest rate of freight. The New Haven transports locally a class of freight that probably averages higher in classification than that of any other large road in the country. It has no use for forty or fifty ton car in it's local merchandise business and can only use such car in it's connecting road business when loaded with foreign freight, returning the same on it's home journey empty.
 It has been a sufferer through it's connections dumping their cars upon it many times when it had surplus equipment that it's own local business did not demand, and which, through the selfishness of it's connections, it was unable to put into service, for having a connecting road business that is 100 per cent eastbound and less than 40 per cent westbound, there is always a surplus of empty cars Of it's connections without load-a policy no one could justify.
 It would be foolish, wasteful and eXtravagant in the extreme for the New Haven to attempt to force its own equipment into connecting roads service under such circumstances,'and it has yet to see the time when those connections were willing in periods of slack business it should furnish the cars for the business to and from the stations upon it's own road, but 1t has many instances to recall when those connections have forced their cars i,+o fo ha ovn1,teinn nf fhn New Haven's for the major portion of all the business in the territory serv- ed by the New Haven company.
 The New Haven company is not seeking to have a graded per diem es- tablished for freight cars. It doubts if it is practicable to establish any thing of the kind. It believes, how ever, that the average rate per diem established by the American Railway association based upon the value oi the cars rendered to it by it's connec- tions is unreasonable in the extreme and expects to show so before a com, petent tribunal when the issue is drawn.
 The statement regarding the New Haven's earnings per diem per mile is empty assertion not founded on fact And is made for the purpose of creat ing prejudice. The New Haven com pany does not earn large rate per ton per mile on it's connecting roads business. Its average earnings on connecting roads business are less than eight mills per ton per mile. but the large percentage of high class freight it handles locally between the manufacturing cities upon its line and New York and Boston brings the average rate per ton per mile up to the amount stated in this years an- nual report, which is fourteen mills.
 The New Haven company is not in- debted to its connections for this high average rate per ton per mile. It is indebted to its location, the high class of freight produced upon its lines and the short haul and quick service that 1t makes upon the same. The local business of the New Haven road earns it very much in excess of fourteen mills per ton per mile. It is only through the volume of connecting roads business at the low rate per ton
  es to receive upon the same that its average rate per ton per mile for all its business is brought down to four teen mills.
 The New Haven road is a great switching yard for its trunk line con- nections. It does not receive for the character of business it does a large division of rates-no more of a divi- sion than would any other road sim ilarly situated and obliged to furnish the enormously expensive terminals that the New Haven does. as much for the benefit of its connections as for itself. for the average receipts of the New Haven road on connection reads business are only about twenty per cent of the total gross revenue. in other words. its connections receive eight per cent of the gross revenue of all business to and from stations upon the New Haven's lines and the New Haven receives twenty per cent and the New Haven out Of it's twenty per cent has to furnish the terminals.