The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-11

Maine Central, While separately man.
aged. is controlled by the Boston and
Maine, through ownership of a MAJOR
ity interest,
In such an intensive and remunera-
tive field 1t might be expected that
railway development would be CORE
spondingly efficient. This, however, is
fa- from being the case. President Mel
len. of the New York, New Haven and
Hartford, has graphically termed the
resent railway condition Of New Eng
land, as one Of suppressed develop
ment," and he calls 1t the most re-
markable and exceptional instance OF
the kind in the United States. In New
England, with all its wealth, all its In
dGstries and prosperous population, Mr..
Mellen, experienced in the wide horizon
Of the Far West, where railroading is
regarded from correspondingly wide
prospectives, sees upon his return 10
his old field most tempting possibilities
in the way of undeveloped resources,
practically boundless new wealth, vast
additional growth, and corresponding
advances in prosperity His policy ex-
empllfies the new idea in railway devel-
opment; vast expenditures for improve
ments that assure immensely enhanced
efficiency, with earnings to correspond.
What NIellen Said.
The very wealth and prosperity OF
New England, as of old England, have
impeded modern railway development
where naturally it might have been
first looked for. IA laggard conservatism
has thus been generated. In an old and
thickly populated country improve
ments are exceptionally costly; in the
West the field is clear and often vir-
gin; magnificent developments, aided
by the most effective modern resources,
are comparatively facile. The modern
policy, as applied to the Consolidated,
is expressing itself in colossal improve
ments in trackage, terminals, bridges,
renewal of rolling stock and general
equipment. electrifcation, development
of a vast auxiliary electric system--in
fact, charging its whole territory with
the most efficient instruments of trans
portation. Rates have been lowered,
services have been improved; for the
promotion of New England industries,
transportation of raw materials is Of
fered practically at cost.
The Consolidated likewise has enor-
nous navigation interests; besides its
Long Island Sound lines it has acqulr-
cd the Portland and New York line,
and controls the lines from Boston,
Providence and other New England
ports to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Nor
folk, and other southern ports. Under
former arrangements the Consolidated
fought the Cape Cod Canal project
tooth and nail; it now encourages 1t
for the sake of cheap coal and other
supplies for New England industries
and promises high-class all-water
steamboat service between New York
and Boston upon it's completion, When
the Morse combination, in its ambition
to monopolize the entire Atlantic coast
wise traffic. temptingly offered $20,OOO,-
900 for the navigation interests of the
Consolidated, the protest of Boston
commercial interests was needed and
the proposition declined
With expansion the Boston and Maine
has greatly advanced in efficiency. But
partly because Of rustic traditions,
partly because Massachusetts laws have
the effect of dIscouragng investments
in home railway corporations. its big
field has not been duly cultivated Per-
ceiving the vast possibilities of devel-
opment there latent, the management
of the Consolidated lately seized an OPP
portunity to secure control of the Bos-
ton and Maine, with the purpose Of
applying to that huge system the same
policy that is so magnihcently develop
ing its own properties