Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-15
The Road, Through Mismanagement
And Under Present Methods, Prac=
tically Bankrupt===A Substantial
Rate Increase Is imperative.

unjust and unreasonable transporta-
ton charges, and provided further that
some assurance can be given that the
money will be prudently expended in
the public interest" This is the dec
laration of the conference of railroad
commissioners upon the proposition OF
the Boston &c Maine Railroad to In
crease its rates. The report of the con-
ference was made public, tonight, as
follows, by the Public Service Commits
sion:
During the investigation by the Inter
state Commere Commission into the
railroad situation in New England it
developed that the Boston & Maine
was in financial difficulties. and the
representatives of that company earn
estly insisted that it must very ma
terially increase it's transportation
charges The ease SO presented was
sufficiently strong to persuade that
Commission that it should be further
inquired into.
The Boston & Maine Railroad ira
verses the States of Maine, Massachu-
sets, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
The greater part of its mileage is in
Massachusetts and New Hampshire,
but the other two states are material
ly affected by its rates Owing to the
small area of these states very con-
siderable percentage of the business of
this company is interstate, and the dif-
ferent parts of this northern section or
New England are so intimately con-
nected that it is essential that the en-
tire rate structure, both that subject
to the federal and that subject to the
state Jurisdiction, should be uniform.
An attempt to deal with this rate sit
uation by the independent action of
the several commissions could only re-
suit in confusion and discrimination.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
therefore suggested to the various
state commissions that the several
commissions interested should meet in
conference upon these matters This
suggestion was accepted by all the
state commissions, and series or
hearings and conferences has resulted
which have been participated in by a
single member of the Interstate Com
merce Commission, but by all members
of the various state commissions.
1t should be carefully noted, how
ever, that while the proceedings re-
ferred to in this statement resulted
from the above suggestion of the fed
eral commission, the matters herein
discussed have not been submitted to
nor passed upon by that commission
as a body nor by any individual mem
Der of the same except only the one
concurring in this statement.
No Authority to Advance Rates.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
has no authority to approve in advance
a schedule of rates, and can not there
fore permit an advance in rates. The
carrier must in the first instance file
its tariffs which are then subject to
examination and correction by the
Commission. The present powers or
the commission of Massachusetts and
Vermont are almost identical with
those of the federal commission in this
respect; the present commission OF
Maine has a more limited jurisdiction
still over rates, but the commission of
New Hampshire, under the peculiar
circumstances obtaining in that state,
must approve rates before they can be
established.
When the Boston & Maine leased the
roads located in New Hampshire the
legislature of shat state provided that
the leases should be upon condition
that no advance in rates, either state
or interstate, should ever be made.
Subsequently advances were in fact
made and proceedings We're begun at
lacking these advances. The Supreme
Court of New Hampshire held that the
obligation not to advance rates was
binding upon the Boston q Maine even
as to it's interstate charges. Assuming
that this decision is wrong as to in
terstate rates, and that the Boston q
Maine might, Notwithstanding the
condition upon which these leases
were taken, advance its interstate
transportation charges, still it is evil
dent that to do so might avoid the
leases themselves and therefore dis
rupt the Boston & Maine system. AS
a practical matter, therefore, the con-
dition is obligatory. The legislature of
New Hampshire, recognizing that pos
sibly in justice to this company us
transportation charges should oe IN
creased has provided that the commits
sion of that state may permit such ad-
yanceS, but that no advances sildh NC
made until they have been afflrmatlVe-
" sanctioned by that body.
1t results, therefore, that the Boston
& Maine can advance no rates, either
state or interstate, which apply within
the limits of the state of New Hamp-
shire without the approval of the
Commission of that state. Since that
state is so situated that the rates or
the Boston & Maine system can not
be revised without changes in the state
of New Hampshire. it follows that be-
fore the commission of that state can
intelligently determine what rates may
be established it ought to know in the
public interest what rates will proba-
bly, be acceptable to the federal COM
mission and to the various state COM
missions Under the peculiar eircum-
stances thus presented it has seemed
to the various commissioners who have
participated in these conferences, that
while no action could be taken which
would bind the several commissions, If
their interference is subsequently in
yoked, still the public interest did de-
mand that this situation should be
dealt with as whole and that they,
as individuals, ought to unite in some
expression of opinion as to what