Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-02-26
GOVERNORS AT FEAST
Executives of New York and New
 Jersey Attend Tube Banquet.
FORT PROUD OF HIS STATE.
Declares That Taken as a Whole In- dustriaI Corporations of Country Are In. Most Cases Honestly Conducted. Hughes Praises Builders of Work.

New York, Feb. 26.-"Over to Jer-
 sey" has given way to under to Jer-
 sey," ana while the despised ferryboats
 wend their laboriOus way overhead thousands of persons are being trans
 ported by subterranean route from
 shore to shore ill about the time that it
 takes the surface craft to warp into their slips.
 The Hudson river tunnel connecting this city and Hoboken by passage
 made far below the river bottom was formally opened when President Roose-
 welt pressed button and the govern
 Ors of New York and New Jersey made
 speeches, but it got it's real christening
 when the tunnel was opened to the
 public and regular service of eight car trains running under five minute
 headway was installed.
 The public opening was in time to catch the theater crowds bound for
 home in the sister state, but there were thousands of other passengers bent on
 having an early ride under novel con ditions. The early trains were operat- ed without hitch. From Nineteenth
 street and Sixth avenue, the present
 Manhattan terminal, to Hoboken was
 made in about ten minutes, the under
 the water section being covered in three minutes. Stops were made at the stations along the Manhattan side,
 but most every one took the five cents
 worth of ride from start to terminal.
 While the first nighters were repay ing the Hudson Tunnel company its initial return on the S60,000,000 invest ment, the promoters of the enterprise
 were dining the executives of New York and New Jersey at Sherry's and drinking toasts to the everlasting sue cess of the interstate all under the riv- CT route.
 The engineers and officers of the con- structing and financial companies were present as well as the heads of the diff ferent departments and officers of the various New Jersey towns affected by the connecting link. Members of the state and national governments were also present. The toastmaster was Walter G. Oakman, president of the Hudson companies which did the ac- tual construction work. The governors of the two states were depended upon for the principal speeches. Governor Fort said in part:
 Occasions like this are good times to n..1 talr~ thought that impresses us is that, not withstanding all our greatness as states and nation, our industrial progress is not due to that fact slt is due entirely to private capital and enterprise. The method of employing this capital has been by combinations-or, stated other wise. through corporate organization. Without corporations these great trans portation lines on land and sea could never have existed as private enterprises to any such extent as we find them today both at home and abroad. And 1t is equally clear that the nation or state never would have built them. My state is called the mother of corporations. We take no offense at this. We are rather proud of it. We may not be either proud or even pleased with some of the things that some corporations which were ere ated under our laws have done but that was not the fault of our laws. but of the management of the men operating under them or in violation of them.
 Private enterprise all over the country has developed under New Jersey corpora tions. Why have they come to our state? You may say because We have had the most liberal laws. I think that is not the reason. Other states have outbid us in this respect. They have found us a con servatiye state: they have found our courts free from any kind of influences: they found our legislatures not given to push strike" legislation; they found our people fair toward every honest enter prise and our officials ready 10 help and not hinder. What do the results show We have ll.000 corporations with united capital of $500. .00oOo. They have 44.0O0 directors and a million stockholders.
 Your corporation law has been abused and needs amendment. We are now do- ing it. The point want to make is this that. taken as a whole. the industrial cor porations of the country arc sound and fin most instances honestly conducted. Take the great corporations which have built and are building tho system of tunnels. a part of which we have seen successfully put in operation today. Some of these companies s-a incorporated with us. No one has questioned their action or what they have done or are proposing to do with the 50 0OO.oo of expenditure conten- plated. Would they have done this with out the eorporation7 It Is doubtful. Cor porations have come to stay. Those like the tunnel companies. which are quasi public possessing the states power of eminent domain. must be controlled un- der reasonable state regulation to see that the citizen shall get just and fair facilities in transportation and that there shall be no discrimination In the favor Of the one as against another and tO like wise see that the output Of capital bears some reasonable relation to the cost of and equipment. But in the main the mana agement and direction Of the affairs of the company sSouid be and remain in the board of directors selected by the stockholders.
 Governor Hughes told the Jerseymen that as be once lived in their state. but eas now a New Yorker in all his sym nathies. he felt he could make it clear to them that New York was not get ting the worst of the bargain in the opening of the tunnels He told them ] he knew how much happier they felt In having an easier way to get out of New Jersey into New York There was laughter and applause for this iccuIar reminder
 Governor Hughes told them also. as a former Ierseymzn. that New York ers did not fear the effect of the open 1 inE of the McAdo.o tunnels He said ] there Evss nothing for New Workers C . fear. becsuse Ne- York was te le in the future the rlsee of work and the ! easIsr If uss made te get serues the I river the better fer the people of l-oth states.
 Governor Hughes gave all honor to