The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-09

mitted to remain in control of the
 Boston & Maine system there will ex- iSt an almost exclusive monopoly of the transportation facilities by rail- road in the greater part of New Eng l land. It would seem to be perfect ly apparent that if this monopoly IS suffered to exist there must be some where a power of regulation which is co-extensive with the monopoly. In 1 other words, the Federal Government must assume Jurisdiction over the
 maintenance and operation of these
 railroads in so far as may be neces- sary to secure to the public a proper l service. This investigation enpha- 1 sizes the fact that service is often l of even greater importance than the 1 rate itself.'
 As criticism of both freight and
 passenger service developed. both were 1 considered To both the New Fia- ven and the Boston & Maine the re-. l port gives credit for promptitude and | general excellence in their passenger
 service. although it is distinctly noted
 that safety of operation has not been 1 considered
 Summing up the passenger service, l Commissioner Prouty says:
 l Upon the whole the record shows l that the performance of the passen- 1 ger trains of the New Haven is good, 1 distinctly better than that upon any i
 New York; while that upon the Boston
 & Maine is fully equal to that upon
 any New York system. While there 1 is room for improvement, New Eng l land should be well satisfied upon the whole with the passenger performance l of these lines under investigation" I. Adverse criticism is made of the I passenger train equipment of both the l New Haven and the Boston & Maine. | It is said by statistics to be not up to l date. Both roads lack steel cars and | vestibu1ed cars, both of which make
 It is shown that other lines, in these
 respects. are far better equipped than 1 the New England roads.
 I The serious complaint of the freight l service, particularly of the Boston & l Maine, tdemonstrated.'' the report
 says, beyond question that in many I cases there had been a most serious
 short-coming in the quality of the I service rendered. It raised a pre-
 sumption that the service of the Bos- T ton & Maine, as a whole, and that of the New Haven to a more limited ex- I tent, should be vigorously condemn
 ed.''
 Records of thousands of shipments
 from variouss points and at verious
 seasons were examined and compared. I In many instances it was found that l apparently there had been inexeusa bIe delays and Commissioner Prouty re- .l ferred to much of this service on the Boston & Maine as decidedly bad''
 and ''indefensibly poor.'' a The report 1 continues:
 s"The statements furnished by com parison show that the service of the Boston & Maine is much less reliable than that of either the Pennsylvania or Baltimore & Ohio, while that of the
 New Haven, is slightly inferior to the Pennsylvania, but about on a par with the Baltimore & Ohio.' Special reference is made to the excellent freight service on the Maine
 Central, and Commissioner Prouty de- cIares that when the cther two mem
 bers (the Boston & Maine and the } New Haven) of this family equal il there will be no more complaint of in ] ferior freight service and there is nc [ good reason why substantially this
 service should, not be accorded to al
 New England In summing up thad
 phase of the inquiry, the Commission 2 says:
 ! 'fOur general conclusion is that freight service upon the New Haver Railroad is inferior to what it should be, although fairly comparing witt . that in other sections where condi :, tions are substantially the same; tha- ] the freight service upon the Bosto1 = & Maine during the period covered = was extremely poor and justified il
 great measure the criticisms it re e eeived. No satisfactory condition cal s be brought about at many points ol s the Boston & Maine, however, unti . improvement has been made in tn e facilities at these points. There mus t be a betterment in the physical con r: dition of the property before ther = can be an altogether satisfactor l. freight service.
 = An extended inquiry was made b q Commissioner Prouty into the rat V situation, although increases in rate
 and fares were only incidental to tn = generea investigation. The repor