The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-16

their governing bodies are concerned.
 s'.Fhe object was loot The object ley road insiders the gigantic wealth in the possession of the New England CTS who own the steam roads
 '"Tlle object was tue creation Of which could be used as well to take equities from steam road owners. as to search the pockets of the people for their hard earned cash.
 The object was frenzied finance.
 Millions in Loot. two millions of water; the eStabIlsh- ment of a great debt, whose foun da- tion should be in political corruption, and whose masonry should be wet in q scarlet stream from the veins of the dead and dying.
 Let the financial result be expressed by the Railroad Commissioners who said, in their report for 1907:
 F'The stock of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company (the Consolidated Railway Company masking under the steam road name) has been increased by merger and oth- erwise, $38, ,521, ,000. Seven of the nine companies included in this report increase of $155, ,353, ,200''
 All but a trif1ing part of this in crease was due to the great merger.
 They were aniable men, those railroad commissioners The most startling act of frenzfed finance In the history of the United States was pulled off under their noses, and they note of warning
 Wonderful tribute to the govern ment by Railroad domination were
 ''So it seems that from the hocus pocus of legislation and Railroad domination there sprang into being on May 431, 1907, as the climax of a con- spiracy that had been brewing since 1901, $152, 100000 of new wealth, wealth. almost entirely unrepresented by anything save the right to tax the people.
 *It was a big job. It was public robbery raised to the highest power.
 ''It was accomplished with scarcely a peep from anybody, much less from the General Assem- bly,.
 And the result, what of it
 The miracle was worked by prac~ tica1s men.
 Stock Prices Drop.
 'sIt, was worked on a gigantic scale. A few were richer.
 "But how of the many. were they
 'ATlle answer was not long in com ing
 'HThe New Haven stock, which had for years stood in the neighborhoOd of $200, dropped with t1ud.
 That was the markets recognition of what had been done to the steam road equities. It was water weight ing down the ship.
 Deficits began to appear in q the dividend accounts.
 That was because the steam road earnings wouldn't meet the demands made by the $15O, 100000 tucked on for '<other propertieS' when the rner- ger was made.
 Another thing happened, not more significant, but more dramatic, as af-' fecting directly the issues of life and death
 Casualties, which means deaths and injuries, doubled on the trolley lines of Connecticut in the very year following the merger, and have since steadily increased
 Casualties on the steam road iT- creased by 50 per cent in the year of the merger and have never since re- turned to the earlier and happier con- dition.
 ITO this fact also the Railroad com missiouers called attention from time to time, in an uninterested sort of way, very much as if they were afraid the attention of the people would be called to what was happening
 @tf3 Water Becomes Blood.
 Here is a table of casualties on trolley lines, from 1907 to 1911 It is taken from the report of the Rail- road Commissioners for 1911:
 The figures for 1906 represent the last year of operation before the troll ley roads swallowed the steam lines.