The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-12-03
Some Spicy Testimony by
Former President of New
Haven System
TRAFFIC AGREEMENT
FINALLY REACHED
And as Result Work on the Extension
OF Grand Trunks Line from Palmer
to Providence, R. L, Was Stopped,
Mellen Said.

NEW YORK, Dee. 3. - Charles s.
Mellen, former president of the New
York, New Haven & Hartford railroad,
admitted on the stand yesterday at the
trial Of the | former directors of the
road, that some $4,000 in New Ha-
ven money had been spent in efforts
to block proposed extensions of the
/ Grand Trunk railway of Canada into
New England He also testified that
after bargaining over period of four
years the two roads finally reached in
November, 1913, a traffic agreement
and that eoincidentally the Grand
Trunk gave up its proposed extension
/ from Palmer, Mass, to Providence, R.
/ l., and the New Haven abandoned on
the same day a plan to parallel the
Grand Trunk 5 lines IL Vermont.
This is the agreement upon which
the United States government scarce
/ ly a week after it was reached caused
the federal grand jury in New York to
investigate, with the result that Mel
/ len, Edscn J. Chamberlin, president of
! the Grand Trunk, and Alfred ".
Smithors, chairman. were indicted un-
i der the sherman law. The Indictment
+ was dropped. hut the charges contain
j ed therein form perhaps the most inn
! t'Qt Ati4At VI LA4t t'itA -dtioLlS d9IluSA tIit
defendants in this ease.
= What was the effect on the public
of shutting down the Providence ex-
| tension" queried R. L. Bats for the
government.
q told Chamberlin in the miIdest
manner possible, : replied Mr.. Mellen,
/ that it was going TO raise hell. He
had been told by Chamherhn, he said.
that the Grand Trunk had spent So
! 100000 on construction work at the
( time of the abandonment.
The real fight between the two
roads, it appeared from MeIlen 5 tes-
timony, began in 1910, after a meeting
between himself and the late c.. H.
Hays, then president of the Grand
Trunk, as the result of which Mellen
thought it had been arranged for the
Grand Trunk to sell the New London
Northern road to the New Haven and
for the New Haven to transfer the
New York, Ontario and Western to the
Grand Trunk and thus settle their
difficulties. HAYS without any warn
ing soon after ''delivered his manifes-
to = that he was going to build a Palm
, ! er-Providence extension, Mellen said.
The New Haven. it appeared, then
} took steps TO oppose the line. Because
r the Grand Trunk proposed, he said, to
. Htta Nt USE h1 NEW maven - Ia
cilities in Providence and to eliminate
grade crossings entailing expense to
the New Haven, he opposed the char
ter in the Rhode Island legislature
, He also got a loan from the New
Haven board of directors and spent
$4,000 in the collection and dissem
/ nation of information to show that
; the Grand Trunk was violating obhga
: tions to the Canadian government IL
building the extension. He got au
: thority also to seek a right of way TO
$ a line between Southbridge and Palm
d er, Mass, over the same route propos
> ed by the Grand Trunk, but failed.
. Mr.. Mellen told how he PERSONAL,
. bought farms that would be valuabl
to a railroad running from Palmer t
Il Providence, and finally sold them t
e the Grand Trunk for twice the price
n he paid.
d Between $4,000 to 100000 of Ney
a. Haven money also was spent, Nj
d Mellen testified, in opposing propos
tion by the Grand Trunk to extend it
IF lines from White River Junction, VT
IS to Boston. The Grand Trunk, he sal,
Y. was doing "a lot of newspaper wor
ii and hiring lawyers to promote tn
ar enterprise and the New Haven organ
a lied a INSTRUMENTATION
If The New Haven also, he said, too
steps to extend one of the subsidiar
lines of the Boston & Maine, near th
New Hampshire border, known as th
Sullivan County road paralleling th
Central Vermont, the Grand Trunk