The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1908-11-18
FRANK 3. COVE, Editor and Publisher
Trolley Road Franehlslna.

The appearance of the manager Of
the Rutland Railway, Light and Power
company before the board of aldermen
of that city asking permission to ex-
tend its lines to the southern limits
with the intimation that it is the CON-
pany's intention to build a trolley
road through Rutland and Bennington
counties to this village, provides an
appropriate and timely Illustration of
the need Of public service commits.
sion in Vermont 1t is plainly lntim-
ated by the reports from Rutland that
! this move on the part OF the company
having Its headquarters in that city
is believed to have been made for the
purpose of blocking the way Of an
other trolley road company which has
appeared before the legislature for a
charter to build line between the
two mentioned points
This deduction may be Incorrect
and may be unjust to the Rutland cor
poration but It will be noticed from the
report of the meeting of the Marble
City aldermen, in another column Of
this paper, that the trolley road man
ager did not give any definite assur
ances that even the section of road
within the city limits for which a per
NIT was asked would ever be built
To man with half an eye the request
for the franchise extension looks
much like move to keep somebody
else from obtaining an entrance into
the city
Whether or not matter of this ma
ture would come within the scope OF
the proposed public service commits
sion now in the initial process Of max
Ing at Montpelier is naturally un
known, but It would seem that there
should be some means whereby the
public could be protected from the
dog in the manger tactics Of cor
poration that on the face Of things.
is standing in the way Of progress.
The Rutland Railway, Light and
Power company operates more miles
Of trolley line within the state Of Yer
mont than any other corporation and
II It is willing to add fifty miles of
road to its trackage 1t is In far bet
ter position to go ahead with the work
than IS likely to be the case with a
new company that has not yet been
chartered, and the road could probab-
ly'not be put in operation one minute
too quickly to suit the people living
in the towns along the proposed sur
yey II its intentions, however, are
no more encouraging than the state
ments OF its manager before the Rut-
land city aldermen would seem to In
dictate the company should not be al
lowed to stand In the way OF men who
have expressed, through their appll-
cation to the legislature, the intention
to do something.
Down here In Bennington the people
have recovered from their skeptlcism
in relation to electric railroads. When
the Bennington and North Adams
company was chartered there we're
probably not a dozen persons in this
vicinity. outside OF those directly In
terested. who believed that the pres.
ent generation would live long enough
to see road constructed over the
route outllned-men we're talking
about rail connection with North AID.
ans forty years ago and would be
talking about the same subject forty
years henceAbut the unexpected hap
pened. and today residents OF Benning-
ton can quickly put themselves In
touch with the big avenues OF trans
portation over the finest piece OF troll
ley road In the eastern states.
The Rutland city council will do
we'll to carefully consider requests for
electric railway extensions that are
likely to be utilized to block the way
of any proposed new road. Under
present conditions the transportation
facilities through the towns between
that city and the small communities
north of the Massachusetts line can
never be entirely satisfactory because
the volume OF business Is not sufficient
to warrant much expansion In the way
OF steam railroads. but on the other
hand the Aupendous progress that
has been made In the construction Of
trolley lines throughout the country
gives some reason for the hope that
many now Isolated sections will In the
not far distant future possess facll.
tiles that are at present In the
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