The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-09
.RICH'S PLEA FOR
 RAILROAD BEFORE INTERSTATE BOARD

ceedings from their institution in July, 1912. He brought out that thez com missioner had desired a ta bulation as to time of shipments on the New Eng i land Lines at Bridgeport, Conn ., | Nashua, N. H., and Barton. Vt, F in 1 order to establish the basis of norma I service, which evidence will show to be fair standard. The: result of the l tabuIation was that at these three 1 points the percent age of, Eshipmerts
 which were normal or within one day l of normal, were at / Brid geport 94. 6
 per cent, at Nashua S1.53 per cent and
 at Barton 88.4 percent. Mir. Rich then went on to show that commissioner 1 had desired@as a real test of service comparison. of; other rates wherescon-
 dftions were similar and as a result I had selected certain other points. l Tabulations were made which showed
 that the local service on the New
 England lines was better than on the
 railroads selected for comparison. For
 example, the percentages are: If
 At Bridgeport, Conn. CNew Haven) 95.4
 York, Pa, Penn) 89.5
 Cincinnati O., (B. & O. s......... s6.
 Cleveland, O. Penn!).. 82.9 l Cleveland, Q..ACB. & O .--....... "A.
 This comparison is of local service only. The results of other service
 on the New England lines are even
 through trains from Boston to Chi I cago, carrying the products of the
 New England factories, travel at the
 rate of g miles an hour on the Bos- l ton & Maine, and only II g. miles per | hour on thetlow grade Lake Shore 6
 Michigan Southern. Furthermore,
 the freight service between Boston and l New York is the fastest and finest 1 in the country. It is distinctly an
 express service at freight rates.
 In passenger service the results are
 favorable both to the New Haven and | fn hn R- a aiT11f if,T- 5{
 taking the period from January, 1910,
 to August, 1912, it is shown that the
 service on the New Haven railroad in l comparison with, the service on it's
 neighbors, namely, the Pennsylyania. the New York Central, Erie, Lehigh 1 Valley and Delaware !Lackawanna & Yves tern is better than on any of isthese lines almost every month of the period. That on the Boston & Maine during substantially the same period the fpassenger Service Is better dur l ing every month than the average ser vice on all the railroads in the State fof New York.
 Continuing MT. Rich said: s"The de- duction which must be drawn from the, attempts at economy and subse- 1 service is that the public is demand 1 ing a service for which it is not pay 1 ing. Not 9 service for which 1t sis not willing to pay-fors we believe. tha t. | l vice performed for them as a charity but with more attention being given l to service, and with more agitation | about failures in service they have unconsctous1y come to demand an ex- press at freight rates. And all this l is happening. too, at time when a dollar cannot give as good a service
 as it gave a few years ago. So that
 with the demand for better service and with the impossibility of giving | the same service at the same cost, the railroad find itself not between the devil and the deep sea, but in the clutches of the devil in the deep sea-.
 Coming to the question of the fnan- cfal situation MT. Rich showed that the Boston & Maine Railroad is great Ky undercapitalized and in this connec- tion said:
 -S-'For many years the laws of Massa- chusetts and other. New England states. required that stock should be allotted to stockholders at the mar ket price. In consequence of this
 severely restrictive law the Boston &
 Maine Railroad has received. on the average. from the beginning. $14S for every share of stock which it has is- sued. Stock has been allotted at a price even as high as S190, by direc- ton of the Railroad Commissioners Furtherm ore, it's outstanding bonds, 1 bearing interest at from 1-2 to 1-2 | i the. aggregate, have been issued at a price which on the average is a little [ above par.
 In the case of the leased lines the under capitalization is even more
 marked. The stock of these lines even now has to be sold either at ! auction or allotted to stockholders at market price,, The F'itchburg Rail- road, Boston & Lowell, Concord G
 Montreal and Connecticut River Rail- road have, since their respective leas- es, issued about $6,OO0,O00 of stock, par value, and have received and de- voted to permanent improvements
 nearly s1O,0O0.0O0 in cash.
 The total par value of the outstand-
 ing bonds and stock of the Boston ts
 Maine Railroad and it's leased lines is approximately O,O00,0O0, and al-4 though the exact figures are not in
 evidence, it is a very conservative .es-
 innate. that they represent at least $225, 100000, which has been paid in,
 in cash, and used in the construction
 and improvement of the system
 It is most suggestive that in these days when the troubles that railroads find themselves in are attributed largely to watered stock, that the one great railroad which is suffering more severely than any other is the one road which not only has no water in it's stock, but which has a capita1iza- ton greatly less than the amount of money actually expended in the con- struction and improvement of the road.''
 Mr. Rich treated at length the ques- ton of the control of the'sBoston & Maine by the New Haven and showed how that had been more than ordin- arily generous. Continuing he proved | by comparisons with roads in other sections of the country that this con trol did not to any substantial degree 1 eliminate competition in as much as 1 the New Haven serves Southern New England and New York, while the Il Boston & Maine finds it's field in | Northern New England.
 Directly bearing on the subject of | rates, MT. Rich said:
 Soon after the New Haven con