The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-17

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company to the question ask ed by the House of Representatives of the legislature of Massachusetts:
 To the House of Representative of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company respect fully begs leave to reply to your order of January 25, 1909, communicated to its President by your Clerk:
 Before answering the questions set forth in your order, this Company feels that it ought to call attention to the fact that the matters referred to in these questions are all involved in iiti- gation now pending in the courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 1t is true that a judgment of the Su- preme Court of Massachusetts in the suit of the Attorney General against this Company relating to the holding of securities of street railway comran- ies was entered on May 6, 1908; but an appeal from the form of that judgment is now pending, and moreover, by the express terms of that judgment this Company was granted until July l, 1909, to complete the arrangements which said judgment will require. This Company, not having as yet been able to fully complete said arrangements, W erence to the pending appeal. it should at least be allowed until July 1, 1909, the latitude considered just by the Court, without having to answer de- tailed inquiries about transitory sta ges of the large financial transactions necessarily involved, in which indi~id- ual third parties are also necessa sily interested,
 There has been no Judgment of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachu- setts against this Company with rela- tion to the holding of stock of the Eos- ton and Maine Railroad, but a suit of the Attorney General against this now pending in the Supreme Judicial Court and has yet to be there heard. Separation of the legislative and judi cial departments of Government being a fundamental. principle of American constitutional Jurisprudence, it has been generally recognized that legisla- lures would not interfere with the course of judicial procedure by an inquisition as to the matters pending in courts, and especially not by in uuiries about the subject matter Of a suit in which the State is plaintiff, di- rected to the defendant in such sait.
 It seems that it ought also to be called to your attention that some of the questions asked of this Compnny by said order relate to matters which now primarily and principally concern individual third parties, and that as to these this Company could not with propriety exercise the same liberty of reply that it may as to matters which concern itself alone.
 Greatly desiring to avoid misumler- standing, this Company, notwithsts nd ing the considerations above stated, makes explicit answer to all of the in quiries in said order, except sucf as I,rc o1 syo terests of individual third par ties, for the reasons above intimated, this Company asks to be excused from answering.
 The Rhode Island Company is cor poration of the state of Rhode Island. by The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company. The Rhode Island Company controls and operates the street railways in Plovi- dence and in it's vicinity. Prior to the acquisition by this Company of any 1n- terest in the Rhode Island Company, that corporation acquired an interest, which it still holds in earnings of h. terstate Consolidated Street Railway Company, a street railway company or- ganized under the laws of Massachu- setts. The Rhode Island Company also now holds the indebtedness of the Interstate Consolidated Street Railway Company.
 The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company formerly held in Connecticut, as corporation of Connecticut, under authority conferred by the legislature of that State, prac- tically all of the shares of the capital stock of the Consolidated Railway Company, a corporation of Connecti- cut.
 In 1902 The Consolidated Railway Company leased (with the consent of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the railways of the Worcester and Webster and Dudley Street Railway Companies, and acquired an interest in bonds, certificates of indebtedness and shares of the capital stock of said com- panies. Some years afterwards. The Consolidated Railway Company, which than owned and operated many miles of street railways within the State Of Connecticut, by means of acts perform ed iii the State of Connecticut under authority granted to it as a corpora tion of Connecticut by the legislature of that State, acquired additional in- terests in securities of street railway companies organized under the laws of Massachusetts and in associations holding such securities. New England Investment and Security Company acquired the Massachusetts street railway securities that had been held by The Consolidated Railway Company, with the exception of the in-