The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-16
New Haven Railway May Get
Rutland River Line.
1t May Be FOrerunner of More
Important Change.
MILLIONS WILL BE Spent
Boston May Be Scene of Costly
Undertaking.
History of Similar Expensive
Construction lis Cited.


New York, May 16.-Unless injunction
or prolonged litigation in the courts in
terferes, the New Haven Railroad COM
pany will speedily purchase from the
New York Central and Hudson River
Railroad company $4,000 shares of the
capital stock of the Rutland Railroad
company. The public service commits
sion OF New York state, whose juris-
diction covers all of the state except
ing the metropolitan district, has af-
ter a full hearing, authorized the New
Haven people to buy this Rutland
| Railroad company's stock. The up
| state commission has never given an
| opinion in terms of more empnauc
| approval of a proposition submitted
| to it than it has in this case. The
| commission finds that the ownership
of the Rutland by the New Haven
does not conflict with the Sherman law
and is in violation of no principle laid
! down by the courts. The Rutland is
simply an extension of the New Haven,
! for nowhere and in no sense do any
of its lines parallel those of the New
Haven company.
The transaction is of vast conse-
quence not only to New England, but
to many parts of the west, and es-
pecially the northwest. This western
territory should be benefited to a great
er extent by this purchase or con-
solidation than even New England
for the Rutland railroad, by means
of the important water lines to the
great lakes controlled by it, is really
a trunk line reaching to the west and
northwest. The efficiency and economy
of management which have been char
acteristic of the New Haven compan.
since President Mellen took hold will
undoubtedly be carried over to t
Rutland system,
At last, then, curiously struggling
and inchoate railroad system, at least
so far as it's beginnings are concern
ed, becomes solicited and passes into
the control of the railroad system
which speedily is, with the single ex-
ception of the Grand Trunk, to be il
absolute control of the transportation
business of New England. The trans
action is more important than any
that has taken place in the east since
the New York Central absorbed the
Rome WATERFOWL & Ogdensburg rail-
way system, if exception be made OF
the strategic and inevitable advance
of the New Haven railroad toward con-
troll and absorption ultimately the
Boston 81 Maine.
There is. in Maine, a railroad run
ming from Bangor northerly into the
remote and primeVal wilderness OF
Maine which the New Haven system
does not control but it is regarded as
inevitable that ultimately the Bangor
q ATOOSlOOk TdllWdy SYSTEM VIII COhiS
into the New Haven railroad family.
Some Great Transactions.
From one point of view, the &C
QUESTION by the New Haven of the
Rutland is a trifling incident in com
parison with the momentous and far
reaching proposition now under con
sideration both by the Massachusetts,
legislature and by railway and finan-
cial interests. For if there be adjust
ment of the relations between the Bos-
ton & Maine and the New Haven sc
that the Boston G. Maine is complete
ly absorbed by the New Haven or,
at least, practically absorbed, what
ever may be the legal status of the
Boston & Maine as a corporation, then
some undertaking which, from the point
of view of engineering as well as OF
finance, can be compared with those
which have established the Pennsyl-
vania terminal on Manhattan Island
or which have made a new terminal
of the New York Central in the heart
of New York city or, also, some OF
those undertaken by the late e. H
Hartman, will be assumed by the New
Haven Railroad company.
What the Ffnanciers Say.
While there is not complete under |
standing in this city of the proposition
now under consideration in Boston, |
yet it seems to be the common view
that the New Haven railroad must ex-
pend as much as a hundred million |
dollars in the city of Boston so that
there may be as complete and adequate |
communication between the terminals |
of the Boston & Maine and the great |
terminal of the New Haven system at |
the South station as there now is be- !
tween Jersey City and Long Island by |
means of the Pennsylvania tunnel sys- !
tenn.
The engineers report that there is
no difficulty in th1 construction of an |
ad0nn9ta electrified tunnel DASSinR /
under the heart of Boston from the |
South station to the terminals OF the |
Boston e. Maine or the other side of
the city. The engineers have learned /
much through the construction of the
tunnels of the Pennsylvania system |
and the cutting of the great channels |
through solid rock from the Grand |
Central station to a point about a mile |
and a half north and the electrification |
of these approaches.
The great question is the financial |
one. One of the ablest financiers of |
New York said Thu morning that per-
haps this Boston proposition involved |
closer figuring and a more detailed and |
difficult terminal problem than did the |
construction of the Pennsylvania ter
minals on Manhattan Island or the |
new terminal of the New York Central |
at Forty second street.
There has always been some ques- |
ton as to the soundness, from a hnan- |
cial point of view. of the expenditure
of som ething like a hundred millions /
by the Pennsylvania Railroad company |
to secure unbroken entrance to Man /
haitian and also to the through ter /
minal of the Pennsylvania on Long |
Island. 1t is beginning, however, to |
be perceived that the marvellous and
statesmanlike forecast which the i'm
agination of the late A. ]. Cassatt,
president of the Pennsylvania, pic /
tured forth to him was an accurate
forecast of the future. For, in the !;
first place, the Pennsylvania railroad !
will secure greatly increased passenger |