St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1913-07-16
New England Railroads

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Important moves have been made
in the New England Railroad circles
during the past week. On Tuesday,
July s, Charles S. Mellen announced
his resignation as president of the
Boston and Maine Railroad company,
and today Morris Mcdonald, vice
president of the Maine Central rail-
road, will be elected his successor.
Last Wednesday, the day following
Mr.. Mellen's resignation, the report
Of the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion which had been investigating
the New England railroads for about
a year, made public its report. Mr..
Mellen's statement upon his resig-
nation was that in assuming the
presidency of the New York, and
New Haven, the Boston and Maine
and the Maine Central, he had taken
on himself more than one man
could satisfactorily handle with JUS
tice to each" The report of the
commission indicated that he had
failed to do justice to any. The
railroads being of such vital inter
est and so freely discussed by the
public, we give some space to a con-
sideration of the findings.
The investigation was largely the
work of Hon. G. A. Prouty and the
report was written by him. He finds
that the attempt of Mr.. Mellen to
establish a railroad monopoly IN
New England has been very extrav-
agant and wasteful. The New
York and New Haven had it confined
itself to railroad business, would be
a very profitable road and this last
year could have paid dividend OF
eight per cent on its stock, which
had been increased during the past
nine years $324,OOO,O 1000, and have
carried to the surplus account, ST.
$4,000 instead of showing a deficit
of S93O,OOO. The company has
expended in nine years, outside of It's
railroad sphere $2O4,000,OOO; $1S-,
100000 of which went for nothing.
The company has expended about
S24,OOO,0OO for trolleys which are
worth less than quarter of that
amount. After condemning the blind
and unsatisfactory methods of book
keeping the commission says: -
Our general conclusion is that
the outside financial operations of
the New Haven company for the last
nine years have been wasteful in the
extreme and that che methods by
which those operations have been
conducted are unnecessarily involved
and complex. The reason for this
is as apparent as the fact itself. The
present management of that COM
pany started out with the purpose
of controlling the transportation Ia
cilities of New England. In the &C
complishment of this purpose it
bought what must be had and paid
what must be paid. To this purpose
and it's attempted execution can be
traced every one Of these financial
misfortunes and derefctions."
So Mr.. Mellen's policies stand
condemned by the most capable
public tribunal Of the country.
The Boston and Maine-Caledo-
Man readers will be more interested
in the findings regarding the Bos-
ton and Maine system. The COM
mission finds that under Mr.. Mel
lens management the road has been
changed from a consistent dividend
payer to one passing dividends, that
the road is giving reasonable freight
and passenger rates, but that its
equipment is deficient and its
freight service very unsatisfactory
and it's passenger cars out of date
and comparatively unsafe. This
company has been very unwise in
taking leases of other lines and
agreeing to pay fixed rentals re-
Eardless of what the leased Zine
might earn. While it is more ex-
pensive to handle freight in New
England than in other parts of the
country the rates between the New
England states are lower than else
where and the long distance rates
are very favorable to the section
Regarding passenger rates the re
port says
To-day a passenger can purchase
1,OOO-mile book good to bearer
and good until used upon almos
the entire railroad mileage of New