EXHAUSTIVE ARGUMENT
OP
: A. j. MULLANB, ESQ.
COUNCILMAN OF THE SIXTH WARD,
ON THE SUBJECT OF A ¡
j
RAILROAD CONNECTION ¡
Î
BETWEEN THE DEPOTS OP THE j
1
OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI RAILWAY COMPANY j
AND j
LITTLE MIAMI RAILROAD COMPANY,
' IN THE CITY OF CINCINNATI. '
I '
> CINCINNATI:
PRINTED AT THE DAILY COMMERCIAL STEAM JOB ROOMS.
X 8 e 7.
líx n A us'i' I vI : A i: Í ; n m e nt
OF
esq.
OPPOSITION TO CONNECTION TBJCK CEUSHED DOT
Fellow Citizens:—An attempt has been made to arraign me
before my constituents of the Sixth Ward for an alleged dereliction
of duty and violation of pledges, in my recent vote in Council In
favor of a connection between the Inttle Miami and Oino and Mis-
sisisippi Railroads. In what quarter this movement originated, and
whether it proceeds from a special interest adverse to the connection,
or represents to any considerable extent the unbiased sentiment of
the voters of the ward, is not yet apparent. But, however this may
be, I deem it proper to inform you, in the outset, what has already
been done in this matter, so far as it has come under my own obser¬
vation.
On Tuesday evening of last week a meeting of the Democratic
citizens of the ward was called for an entirely diftei'ent purpose. And
after that meeting had adjourned, the parties who are seeking to have
my vote on the connection censured, taking advantage of the crowd
in attendance, organized another meeting, and brought forward the
resolutions which you have heard read to-night. At my instance the
resolutions were laid over for consideration at a full meeting of the
citizens of the ward, called for to-night.
What, then, are the charges brought against me? It is alleged that
I was elected as an anti-connection candidate. But no such issue as
connection or anti-connection was maile before the people in that
canvass. I was the Democratic candidate, regulai iy nominated at a
Democratic primary meeting. My opponent wa.s a Republican,
nominated at a similar meeting of his party. No pledges were
exacted of myself, or of him, to my knowledge. In short, the elec¬
tion had only the usual incidents of an ordinary party cotitest.
It is true, I was aware, as every one else was that there were two
railroads in the ward having interests which, to a certain extent,
a. j. mttllane,
2
were supposed to be eonflietîng. And although I made no special
etfort to learn the fact, I knew, in part, the political sentiments of the
employes of these roads, and reasonably expected those who agreed
with me in opinion, on party questions, to vote in my favor. But I
had no reason to l)eiieve that tlie officers of either road would under¬
take to influence their friends and employes to vote tor me in viola¬
tion of their political opinions, upon tlie assumption that I, as a par¬
tisan, would sustain the interests of their road, in opposition to my
convictions of what tlie public good required. And if such was their
conduct, tliey acted upon a mere assumption, unwarranted by any
pleilgcH on my part. N or could I iiave given any such pledges, except
in violation of my duties as a public servant.
Neither was my opinion on the subject of a railroad connection en¬
tirely unknown. For, less than a year ago, when this matter was
tirought before (Joimcil, in a slightly different form, a paper was sub¬
mitted to that body, signed by tlie owners of more than tliree-fourths of
the property abutting on the street wiiere the proposed track is to be
laid, giving their consent to its construction. And, at the head of the
list of signers to that pajier, my name will be found. Could it be
presmned, then, that 1 would give my consent, as a private property
owner, to a measure which I believe detrimental to my own interests
and those of other owners of property and citizens of the ward? Or
would not the inference rather be, from that signature, that I favored
the connection ?
But it may be said that shortly after that I voted for a resolution in
Council, reipiiring the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company to
remove their track from Front street within six months. There were
certain matters, however, then at issue between the city and the then
existing Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company, which I thought
requireil adjustment ; but most of these have since been settled by
the decision of Judge Swayiie in the United States Circuit Court.
Besides, the term of the original grant of the use of Front street by
that Company had expired, and it was desirable for both parties that
its further use should not be at sufferance merely, but rather upon
terms distinctly to be agreeed upon between them.
Thatre.solution, therefore, was merely a notification to the Company
that it must make some satisfactory agreement with the city for the
use of the street. Nor do I believe that any one expected it to be
literally enforced. The welfare of the community was too deeply
involved in the pre.servatiot) of the road to warrant the resort to so
rash a measure. And Council certainly did not indicate any willing¬
ness to press the matter to this extreme; for, although the notice
expii-ed about the liist of July, they took no subsequent action in
relation to it.
due reason why an adjustment of the questions between the city
iind the railroad was delayed, was the fact that the road was in the
hainls of a receiver, and was sold under an order of court ; and that
the sale was only (ionlirmeil a few weeks ago. The purchasers at this
sale are persons of undoubted pecuniary responsibility, and they have
organized a new company whicii can, and doubtless will, meet all its
engagements promptly. And as an earnest of their intention to fulfill
the obligations they have a.ssuiued to the city, they have already paid
ten thousand dotlais of the money they assumed to pay in four
months. There need be no fear, therefore, that ail they have agreed
to do will not be faithfully performed.
3
But aside from the present standing of tlie railroad corporation, and
from any actuai or assumed opinions ('(» inerly liold by me, tiie main
question for you to consider before adopting the résolût ions to censure
my vote, shouid be : Was the vote right in itself? P'or it is a matter
of iittle consequence to you whether I Itave been consistent or not,
provided my linal conclusion was in accordance with the public
welfare.
The vast and growing importance of railroads to the country at largo
I do not feel called upon to argue, nor their influence in rapidly build¬
ing up those cities which iiave been most enlerprising in sjueading
out these iron bands of commerce. Neither can any one fail to ajipreei
ate the advantage.s which Cincinnati h.as derived from her railioad
although, for some years, we have been falling ixdiind in the rai-o of
improvement in this direction. Indeed, what woidd be the eundillon
of our city at the present time—to .say nothing of fornn r beiuUils —
hut for the railroad faci 1 itie.s we possess? With the river ahno.st uu-
navigabie for the last live or six months, and the chances of its briuu
closed for the winter alarnringly great, without, our railroails the
business of the city would he utteily prostrated. ,\ud it has now
become apparent that we must look to them for a supply of fuel, not
only to keep our manufacturing establishmeuts in operation, but our
people from actual sutrering.
Neither are the benetits to be derived from the great through nudes
of railroads, and the necessity of keeping them open and unobstructed,
usually underestimated. And our citizens generally are well a ware
that much of the trade and travel to which we are legitimately enti¬
tled, has been diverted from Cincinnati liy the greal trunk lines north
of us, running from the .seaboard to tiie Mi.ssissippi, with bram hes
extending far beyond that river, and each striving after the busln(\s.i
of the great road wliicli is now rapi ily stretching toward t he I'aeilic
coast.
But it is claimed that our local interests will sutii'r by tilling the
gap which separates two of our most iiromlnent lailroads—the oim
extending eastwardly, and with its connections uniting us with the
great Atlantic cities,'and the otlier westwardly to iSt. lyouis, and there
connecting with her sy.stem of railroads to the West. Is this appre¬
hension really well founded?
Before we can answer this (piestion properly, it is important elearly
to understand the exact nature and extent of the connection proposcil
to be made. The connection is often spoken of as if it were a new
track, wiiich would extend the entire di,stance from the luttle Miami
depot, on the eastern side of the city, to the Ohio and Mississippi
depot on the we.stern side, and as if it were an experiment now to be
tried for the first time. But this is not the fact. Neither has the
policy of a connection across the city now first been pa.s.sed upon by
the City Council.
In lSf)3 the Council authorized a connection track to belaid between
the Little Miami and Indianapolis and Cincinnati líallmads; and
this track has been built and used for several years withoiil any com ¬
plaint that it has deprei-iated the value of jiroiioily or diminished
trade along its route. It is true it was only allowed to be n.sed in tbe
night, and that it has been thus used by steam power. But, a few-
weeks ago. Council gave their consent to the IVndleton ISIreel Bail-
road Company and the Covington Street Kailroad Company to run
their ears upon it in the day-time ; which action did not excite any
opposition or call forth any protests that I am aware of.
4
And Council did not intemi io limit the benefits of this connection
tjacU to the two companies to which the grant was originally made.
On the contrary, they reserved the right to authorize its use by other
radroad companies. And the action recently taken consists merely
m extending the advantages of the existing connection track to tli'e
Oiiio and jMissi.ssippi Eailroad Company. The use by steam power
has not lieen enlarged, but is still confined to the night. The compa¬
nies interested, liorvevcr, are permitted to run cars drawn by horses
or mules over the track in the day-time. And, to unite the Ohio
and Mississippi road with this connection track, Comrcil authorized
the bniiding of a sliort connecting link from a few feet east of John
street to a few feet west of Mill street, a distance of about two thou.s-
and feet. This passes the Gas works, and its inconvenience, if any,
will be as little felt In that part of the city as It would be in any
other. And, as before stated, the owners of more than three-fourths
of the adjacent property have given their consent that it may be built.
But it is alleged that this track would depreciate the value of prop¬
erty along Its line, and drive trade from that locality. This I do not
believe. And it is contrary to the experience we have had of the
eflect of the tiresent connection track in a much more extensive and
more important part of the city, in a business point of view.
It is further asserted that the busine.ss of draymen and teamsters
would be greatly injured by the making of this connection. Now, to
those of my fellow-citizens who are thus employed, I desire especially
to make a few remarks. Whether they are really taking any active
part in this movement against me, or their names are u.sed by others
to further their own ends, I am not advised. But I can say this of
myself, that I am not one of those who favor class legislation, or
believe it right to sacrifice the interest of a part even for the gooil of
the whole.
The present question, however, cannot be disposed of by a broad
a.ssertión, such as is made in the preamble to the resolutions, but
requires some reflection to comprehend It in all Its bearlnp. Besides,
I may be able to put you in posse-ssion of certain facts of which yim
may not he fiiliy informed. Your interests, if adverse to the connc-
tion, require tliat it should be defeated altogether. And yet yon may
not be aware that the real question decided by Council, was not
whether a connection should be made, but the nianner in which it
should be made ; for the connection was inevitable, whether Council
moved in the matter or not.
You may also imagine that the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Bail-
road Company was opposed to all connection between the Bittle
Miami and Oliio and Mississippi roads. But this, also, is a mistake.
They have at all times been ready to aid in the formation of such a con¬
nection over tlieir own track, for a consideration. At one time they
made a written offer to that eflect, but placed their price at a sum
which the other companies considered entirely unreasonable, namely,
titty thousaiirl dollars a year. And negotiations were earried ou
during a eonsiderabie part of the past summer between tlie Little
Miami and Indianapolis and Cincinnati Bailroad Companies, with a
view to the execution of a contract to accomplish the same object
on the basis of a tunnage tax to be paid the Indianapolis Company.
This contract would, in all probability, have been completed, but for
the continued absence of tlie President of the last named Company
in the East, and the belief on the part of the other companies, which
5
finally ripened into a conviction, that the change which was taking
place in public opinion, favorable to a connection, would finally
induce Council to adopt the course they have.
It may be proper however, for me to say that the Ohio and Misiis-
sippi Company did not ta vor a connection over the Indianapolis track,
although they would not have declined receiving business in that
way. And the Little kliami Company also thought this far less desi¬
rable than a direct connection down íAont street. The route over the
Indianapolis track would have been circuitous, being nearly or quite
double the length of the other. It would have required the passing
over of two or more short curves, and the descent of a steep grade to
come up another grade. It also involved the possibility, if not
probability, of interference from the Indianapolis and Marietta cars
when making the transit. And besides, it would have placed the
point of connection with the Ohio and Missi.ssippi track west of their
present depot, thus rendering it necessary that each train using the
connection track should have passed down Front street entirely below
the junction, and then up again, (backing in one or the other direc¬
tion,) in order to pass from the one track to the other ; none of which
objections applied to a connection by the Front street route. And yet,
with all the di.sadvantages of this circuitous ami expensive line of
connection over the Indianapolis track, it would doubtless have been
adopted in the absence of a better.
Some persons may also have imagined that tlie Ohio and IMississippi
Company would ultimately have been compelled to remove their
track from Front street, entirely, and terminate their road in Storr.s
Township. This would have involved the destruction of a largo
amount of property, and I always believed that, if attempted, it
would be prevented by an injunction.
But there was one contingency that, probaVjly, none of you have
contemplated, but which would certainly have resulted from forcing
the Ohio and Mississipj)! Road down iiito Storrs Township (if that
could have been accomplished,) and would, probably, have resulted
from their failure to get a connection with the Little Miami Road on
reasonable terms. 1 refer to what is sometimes spoken of as the
Hamilton Cut-off. By building a track from Lawrenceburg to Ham¬
ilton the Ohio and Mississippi Company would save twenty miles of
distance in making their connection with the Atlantic and Great
Western Road. And by extending that track to Morrow they would
secure a connection with the Little Miami Road over twelve miles
shorter than the route through Cincinnati. If this track was con--
l)leted, all through trade and travel would go on it as the shorter
route, and because all causes of detention incident to a transit through
the city would be avoided. In that case Cincinnati would have driven
from her the only remaining trunk line from East to West which she
can reasonably expect will remain tributary to her commercial pros¬
perity : and would have become a place of secondary importance in
the railroad world—a mere way station, or rather a town to be reached
only by taking a branch road.
With either of the results which I have thus indicated to you—one
or the other of which must have ensued upon a failure to obtain the
connection on Front street—how much better off would the teamsters
of the city be than with that connection ? The connection by the
Indianapolis track would as completely have deprived them of their
hauling from depot to depot as that by way of Front street. And
6
from the ITamiUoin Cut-off they would have sustained much greater
Joss, for they would t¡ave shared, withtlie community at large, In the
general results of a diversion of trade from the city. Besides, this
hauling between the depots has not, for years, been participated in, to
any great extent, by the teamsters as a body, but has been controlled
by transfer companies.
But it is a nri.staken idea that, the teamsters of Cincinnati will be
less fully or prorttably employed with the connection on Front street
than if matters should remain even as they now are. It is a lesson
often repeated, and yet never fully learned, that each separate branch
of industry shares in the general prosperity ; and that all improve¬
ments which facilitate the operation,s of labor, or open the channels
of commerce, while they sometimes apiiear to interfere with existing
sources of employment, never really or permanently have that effect.
There have heen many striking iilnstratioirsof the widely erroneous
ideas entertained as to the results which would follow from the intro¬
duction of labor-saving macliines. As an example, some of you, I
have no doubt, will be surprised to learn at how recent a period the saw¬
ing of timber was done by hand. And that only one hundred years
ago, when a timber merchant in Fngland erected a saw-mill, driven
by wind, the sawers being apprehensive that, tJiey would be deprived
of their means of getting a subsistence, assembled in a mob and
pulled it to pieces. How little did tliey anticipate the v.ast increase of
employment, as well as the innumerable benefits to mankind, which
have since flowed from tlie ajiplication of improved machinery and
motive power in tiieir business.
So, in like manner, many disturbances occurred even witliin the
last half century among the operatives in tlie manufacture of woolen
and cotton goods, as well a.s in other hranclies of industry, growing
out of their oiiposltioii to tlie inlroduction of labor-saving macliinery
and the steam engine, to enhance the amount and improve tlie qual¬
ity of their productions. And, yet, to that very source are thousands.
If not millions, of them now indebted for their subsistence; while the
comfort and luxuries of life enjoyed by all classes, have been largely
enhanced.
But to come down oven to our own time. It was believed that the
invention of the power press would be disastrous to the trade of those
employed in the practical operations of printing, and its introduction,
for tiiat reason, was strenuously opposed. The re-sult, on the contrary,
lias been that the number of persons immediately dependent on the
press for tlieir employment has been multiplied twenty, if not fifty
fold ; and tliat the means of knowledge have been greatly clieapened
and diffused.
Another illustrai ion, of a similar character, will he found in the
history of the sewing machine. The inventor of that instrument.,
when he had so far succeeded as to be able to demonstrate its practi¬
cal utility, and endeavored to .secure its adoption and use, was met
with the objection by ttie tailors of Boston, that it would deprive
them of their means of livelihood. Finding his efforts in his native
country fruitless, he renewed them abroad wifli no better succes.s; and
for years suffered tlie privations of alijeet want before his genius wa.s
finally rewarded. If Flias Howe, ,Tr., had been endowed with less
enthusiasm of temjierament, or iiidomitalile energy and perseverance
of character, tlie world might have missed for generations, and pos¬
sibly forever, one of the most brilliant and beneficent results of
mechanical ingenuity.
7
But reference may be made to occurrences even more directly in
point. Before the skill of the engineer had been employed in over¬
coming the obstruction to navigation at the falls of the Ohio River,
the location of Louisville was considered especially advantageous;
and, unless in the exceptional case of a higli stage of water, her dray¬
men found in the cartage of goods around the falls their chief source
of employment and proiit. The project of a steamboat canal was,
therefore, strongly opposed by them, because of its threatened injury
to their business, and also by many other citizens of the town, wlio
believed that its prosperity would be permanently checked by such
an improvement. And yet, since then, Louisville has grown to be a
large city, her trade has greatly increased, and lier draymen and
merchants have found abundant compensation, from other sources,
for all the business diverted from them by the canal ; and for some
years past her citizens have been engaged in prosecuting the work of
its enlargement, and have excelled us in the public spirit they have
displayed in the construction of railroads.
Again, you all have some recollection of what was known as the
railroad war at Erie, Pennsylvania, where a break of gauge gave rise
to that class of business which results from a partial or temporary
obstruction, and that the attempt to remove it by making the gauge
uniform, was resisted by the riotous tearing up of the track. But
what seemed to be the local interest of Erie, could not permanently
defeat a great public improvement. The lake-shore route, tlierefore,
was finally completed with a uniform gauge of track. And the subse¬
quent prosperity of Erie has shown how completely tier people were
mistaken as to wliat was for her real and permanent benefit. I can
attest, moreover, from my own observation, that the policy of atford-
ing the greatest facilities for railroad connections now prevails in
most of our large cities ; nor should Cincinnati liave delayed so long
in fully adopting it.
I have already shown that the employment which our teamsters
and others have derived from the break between the Little Miami
and Ohio and Mississippi Railroads has been, at most, only contingent
and temporary. When the connection is made the loss from this
source will be more tiian compensated for in other directions.
Through freight, it is true, will be transported by rail, and an occa¬
sional side track will be laid into a coal yard; but the business of
delivering and shipping freight between the railroads and all otlier
parts of the city never can be interfered with, and will be largely
increased in consequence of the infusion of new life into every branch
of industry and enterprise by our improved railroad facilities, which
should include a direct rail connection with the South. Besides, as
citizens of the Sixth Ward, I have no doubt we will soon have cause
to be proud of the spacious and ornamental depot buildings which
the Ohio and Mississijjpi Company will erect.
I hope, therefore, in this progressive age, that tlie teamsters and
draymen of Cincinnati will not be the last class of persons to perceive
that their interests, by tliis improvement, will not be impaired ; and
that our beautiful city, having awakened from the lethargy in which
she has so long slumbered on this subject, will, with renewed energy,
push forward aud perfect her railroad enterprises until she can again
proudly wear the title of the Queen City of the West.
Daily Commercial Print.