New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-07-10
The Collapse of an Experiment IN
Monopoly.

Interstate Commerce Commissioner Prouty draws
a perfect picture of the methods and results OF mo-
nopoly madness when he writes of the New Haven
Railroad Company:
our general conclusion is that the outside imam
cial operations of the New Haven company Tor inc
last nine years have been wastetul in the extreme
and that the methods by which those oPeratlo ,s
have been conducted are unnecessarily nVoiVeu anu
complex The reason for this is as apparennI as ,I
fact itself The present management OF mat COM
pany started out with the purpose OF controhe tne
transportation facilities of New England In the
accomplishment Of this purpose it bought what must
be had and paid what must be paid
In pursuance of this policy of buying everything
in sight at any price that must be paid the New
Haven Railroad expended in nine years S2O4OOoVoo
sin onerations" writes Mr. Prouty, "outslde It's ral-
road sphere" In some of these transactions vast
sums of money were lost In buying the Rhoue
Island trolley lines says Mr.. Prouty the New Haven
~paye S13.5O00OO for nothing" The New YORK.
Westchester & Boston road cost about S34'OVOooO'
"s12OOOOOO in excess Of the value of the propert!
on the New Ravens own showing
These were sample transactions in building up the
rnonopoy the result of which thus far has been 10
burden the New Haven system with an increase III
fixed charges vastly in excess OF its increase IN III
come. The cut in dividends followed lneVtaO9'
II Is 70 the credit Of the New Haven road tnat us
passenger and freight service-unless In point Vi
safetv-was not allowed to deteriorate whlle lhe
energies of its management were turned TO puhulhs
I'm monopoly and when the consequent increasing
fixed charges must have caused temptation u
starye the service. The usual result OF mohoPos
madness is skipping betterments and maintenance
but Commissioner PrOuty finds no evidence ol 'ni9
in tbe case of the New Haven, unless the scanV
s,,nnv of modern steel cars is an instance OF It.
MIR Proutv refrains from expressing an OPINION
whether the recent lack of safety in operation was
result Of devoting too much attention to buying
trolley and steamship lines and too little 10 rail-
reading hut on that point the public has areauS
made up its mind.
win, the pbvsical property of the road kept up as
Nj, proutv finds it has been, its future prospects
of ,lblic usefulness are good when its management
needs the advice Of the Interstate commerce Coin
mission and minds its own business or raiiroauins
The withdrawal of Mr.. Mellen from the preSidehc!
If fine Boston & Maine Railroad is sign that TINS
ryocess has begun The federal law which requires
the road 10 divest itself of its steamboat lines VIII
o,r, If forward State laws will doubtless assist
for New England has by this time got over the
notion that it was putting itself upon the map Oy
rrttipo, tbe erection of powerful transportation
,,oronoIv within its borders This case Of monopoly
,n,nia was singular in that the people became i'll
footed with it, They were cured when they saw
the monopoly whose growth they had cheerluis
watched as likely to benefit themselves prevent
Canadian railroad from entering New England.
Everybody else ought to be cured by the hnanclai
rosrIts as they stand revealed. Never were the
EMMY pretensions of monopoly worse exposed