s" -Tl
i
ARCiUMRNT
OF
IN THE
HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES,
THURSDAY, SEPT. 15, 1887.
CONCORD, N. H.:
N. II. Democratic Frebs Company.
188.7
CTe„,*
*T' "*
ARGUMENT.
Mr. Speaker: If the distinguished gentleman from La-
conia, who stands the peer of any man in New Hampshire
in the depth and clearness of his thought and in the ability
to deduce sound and logical conclusions from the great
.mass of dubious and conflicting testimony and argument
which has been placed before us during the last twelve
weeks; if he, as he told us at the beginning of his speech,
experienced a feeling of diffidence in addressing this House
upon the merits of the two bills now pending before us,
you can imagine something of my emotions at the present
moment; and were it not for the fact that I am a member
of the Railroad Committee, and one of those members who
signed the minority report of that committee, I would not
presume to appear before you. For I Hold this principle
that the minority of the confmittee should always quietly
and gracefully acquiesce in the findings of the majority of
such committee unless there are very grave reasons for not
doing so ; and having failed in sucli acquiescence it becomes
their duty to define their position and place before the
House the reasons for their disagreement. I shall not at¬
tempt to enter into an exhaustive argument upon the
merits of these bills, but in addition to what lias been said
in the minority report, as briefly as I may, give you a
few facts bearing upon this subject and the conclusions I
have drawn from them. I think you will believe me when
I state that I have tried to divest myself of all emotion and
all prejudice and to examine this question solely with ref¬
erence to its bearing upon the material interests of our
state. I confess when I came here at the beginning of this
session I did entertain a profound admiration and respect
for the management of the Boston & Lowell on the one
band, while on the oilier I was somewhat imbued with the
4
prejudice which, whether rightfully or wrongfully, has quite
extensively prevailed against the management of the Con¬
cord.
If I understand the situation we are here to legislate
primarily for the people, and incidentally, it may be, for the
railroads, and not as some gentlemen seem to assume,
primarily for the railroads and incidentally for the people.
Now if that is the true position for us to take, the first
question to be considered is, Do the people of the state
demand any railroad legislation at our hands? And if so,
then, the next question of course will be, Do either of these
bills provide such legislation ? I think it is conceded on
all sides that the policy inaugurated by the Act of 1883,
known as the " Colby bill," should be the settled policy of
the state. That much being granted, it then becomes our
duty to remedy whatever defects time and the experience
of the past four years have shown to exist in the law so
that its true intent and meaning can be carried out with
• °
justice towards all and discrimination against none.
Now the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has, in the
opinion rendered by him in the somewhat famous Dow case,
pointed out one very serious defect in the Colby bill, and if
you will examine the two bills before us you will find that
each one of them contains a provision remedying that de¬
fect in substantially the same manner. So far then the
bills are alike and there can be no controversy on that point,
and I submit, gentlemen, that that is the only point in either
bill which can, by any reasonable construction of language,
be considered as an amendment to the Colby bill which is
general in its character.
Now if that proposition is true,—and I challenge any
gentleman in this House to disprove it,—then we must seek
for the cause of disagreement in the special legislation con¬
tained in each bill. That there is special legislation in the
Atherton bill, we not only do not deny, but we stand ready
to defend and urge the same before this legislature to the
5
best of our ability. You will find it in the first six sec¬
tions of the bill which provide for the union of the Concord
and the Boston. Concord A Montreal in one corporation
and the leasing of such other lines as physically connect,
not for a term of 99 years, which would virtually wipe them
out of existence as independent corporations, but for thirty
years or one generation.
But there is more special legislation in the Atherton bill
to which I wish to call your attention. You understand I
am speaking of the amended bill which the minority of the
committee recommended.
Section 9 reads :
Said new corporation may take stock, loan mon¬
ey, or guarantee bonds or notes, and take security by
mortgages of the railroads and their franchises, or otherwise
so far as it may be necessary to construct an extension of the
Pemigewasset Yalley Railroad to Fabyan's, and an exension
of the Boston, Concord A Montreal Railroad to Colebrook,
and thence to Canada line, and also any extension of the
Whitefield A Jeffersonville Railroad to Berlin, and thence
up the Androscoggin and Magalloway valleys, and also the
Tilton A Belmont Railroad, the Lake Shore Railroad, and
any other branch or extension of the Boston, Concord A
Montreal Railroad that is already or may hereafter be
chartered, or may be authorized by the general laws of the
state, and may unite with or lease the same in the manner
provided in this act for the union and leases herein spe¬
cially named ; and in case the Boston, Concord A Montreal
Railroad and the Concord Railroad corporation shall both
vote to unite under the provisions of section 1 of this act,
and the same shall be approved by the Supreme Court as
therein required, then, pending the subsequent proceedings
hereinbefore provided for perfecting such union, the Bos¬
ton, Concord A Montreal Railroad is authorized to take
stock in the Upper Cods Railroad, in the extension of the
Pemigewasset Yalley Railroad, the Lake Shore Railroad,
in the extension of the Whitefield A Jeffersonville Rail¬
road, and in the Tilton A Belmont Railroad, and to raise
money by bonds or notes to pay for said stock, or to loan
the same to said Upper Cods Railroad and the corporation
6
in control of the extension of the Whitefield & Jefferson¬
ville Railroad, the Pemigewasset Valley Railroad, the Lake
Shore Railroad, and said Tilton & Belmont Railroad, for
the purpose of constructing their respective roads ; and the
Concord Railroad is authorized to guarantee said bonds or
notes ; and the said Upper Coos Railroad, and the corpora¬
tion in control of the Whitefield & Jeffersonville Railroad,
the Pemigewasset Valley Railroad, the Lake Shore Rail¬
road, and the said Tilton & Belmont Railroad are author¬
ized to mortgage their respective roads, franchises, and
other property to secure and indemnify said Boston, Con¬
cord & Montreal Railroad and said Concord Railroad cor¬
poration therefor ; and when such new corporation has been
formed, it is hereby authorized to assume such liabilities
and obligations in discharge of such liabilities and obliga¬
tions of the said Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad and
said Concord Railroad corporation, and to take and hold all
securities held therefor. And the said Boston, Concord &
Montreal Railroad and the said Concord Railroad corpora¬
tion, or the said new corporation when formed, shall im¬
mediately proceed to take stock, or raise money, as above
authorized, to aid in the construction of said Upper Coos
Railroad, the Tilton & Belmont Railroad, and the Lake
Shore Railroad, and the said extension of the Whitefield &
Jeffersonville Railroad, or either of them, upon their re¬
quest and tendering the security above provided ; and in
case the said Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad and the
said Concord Railroad corporation, or the said new corpo¬
ration when formed, shall refuse or neglect to furnish the
aid above directed to be by them furnished, after the re¬
quest and tender aforesaid, so that by reason of such refual
or neglect there shall not be, at the end of two vcars after
such request and tender, a railroad completed and fit for
doing business thereon, extending from Groveton or North
Stratford to Colcbrook, and there shall not be an extension
of said Whitefield & Jeffersonville Railroad in like manner
completed to Berlin, and the Tilton & Belmont Railroad
and the Lake Shore Railroad shall not have been complet¬
ed ready for business, then, in either event, in case any
question shall arise as to the right of the party making
such request and tender as to the duty of said Boston, Con¬
cord A Montreal Railroad and the Concord Railroad corpo¬
ration, or said new corporation, to respond thereto under
7
the provisions of this section, or in respect to what any
party should do under any of the provisions of this
section, any person or corporation interested in any
such question may apply to the Supreme Court at
the law term, or at a session thereof in vacation as
hereinbefore provided, by a petition setting forth the
facts and praying for an order or decree that such things
be ordered to be done as he or it claims ought under the
provisions of this section to be done, and said court, after
due notice to the parties interested, and after hearing the
evidence and arguments on one side and the other, shall
make and enforce summarily such orders and decrees as in
their judgment will carry out the true intent and meaning
of this section.
Now the gentleman from Claremont says that doesn't
mean anything because it says " may " instead of must.
Through you, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the gentle¬
man from Claremont if he is ready stake his reputation as
a lawyer upon the construction which he put upon that
word " may " in his speeeh before this House ? When the
express language of the section is that if they neglect or
refuse to comply with 'its provisions within two years, then
the Supreme Court shall at once compel them to comply
upon the request of any individual or corporation ag¬
grieved by such non-compliance.
In Section 11 there is still more special legislation which
you will find noted in the minority report and to which my
Bro. Moore called your attention in his opening speech.
The bonded and floating debt of the Boston, Concord &
Montreal is, in round numbers, 81,000,000, none of which
draws less than 0 per cent., and over 81,300,000 is to-day
drawing T percent, interest. Nearly 81,000,000 of that amount
is floating indebtedness ; 8300,000 more will become due in
18S9, and a very large amount of the balance in 1893. I
don't think any sane man will deny but that bonds guaran¬
teed by the new corporation could be easily floated at par
, 8
at 4 per cent. The saving in interest, as has been shown
here, would amount to over 860,000 per year, and this bill,
which is so full of special legislation, provides, in language
which cannot be misconstrued, that 840,000 of that reduc¬
tion in interest shall be used to pay 4 per cent, on the old
and new stock of the Boston, Concord & Montreal Bail-
road, as a matter of simple though tardy justice to those
people living along the line of the road who put their little
all which they had accumulated by patient toil and self-
denial into that stock more than forty years ago, and who
have never received a cent in interest or dividends, and
have been sneered at on this floor as " old veterans," who
" wanted to feel a little dividend between their fingers."
It is true that the svndicate have bought two fifths of this
o
stock, just as it is true that the Boston & Maine syndicate
bought a controlling interest in the Manchester & Lawrence ;
but how about the other three fifths ?
Gentlemen, there are upon the books of the B., C. & M.
to-day over one thousand names with only one share stand¬
ing to their credit—8100.00—every dollar of which repre¬
sents more than a day's work. Why, gentlemen, I know a
laboring man who had accumulated 8700 from his toil. I
have often heard him say that the largest per diem he ever
received was seventy-five cents. Think of it a moment;
that 8700 represented the dew and vigor of his young man¬
hood,—seven shares of the old stock. Ah ! It was fresh
and bright and new then, expecting to have it as a staff to
lean upon in his declining years. To-day he is an old man,
just tottering on the brink of the grave, never having re¬
ceived a cent on his investment, and that stock which, had
the money been put at interest, would now have amounted
to a snug fortune, is to-day worth less than a single share
cost him. Gentlemen, that man is my father.
There is still more special legislation in this bill, to be
found in Sec. 12. Let me read :
Sko. 12. The rates for fares and freights existing at the
9
<iay of the passage of this act shall not be increased on any
part of the roads united or leased thereunder. The maxi¬
mum passenger fares on the several railroads of the State
shall not exceed three cents per mile, except the Mt. Wash¬
ington Railroad, the Profile & Franconia Notch Railroad,
the Wing Railroad to the base of Mt. Washington, and the
Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad between Bemis's station
and Crawford's. The maximum passenger fares on the
Concord Railroad and its leased lines and branches, on the
Manchester & Lawrence Railroad, on the main line of the
Boston & Lowell Railroad, the Portsmouth & Dover Rail¬
road, the Eastern Railroad, the Nashua and Lowell Rail¬
road, and the Wilton Railroad, shall be two and a half
cents per mile. Mileage tickets good for five hundred
miles, at the rate of two cents per mile, good to bearer,
shall be issued on all the railroads of the State, except on
roads used only for summer business. The decrease in the
operating expenses consequent upon the uniting or leasing
of any roads shall be met from time to time by a reasona¬
ble and just reduction of fares and freights.
The Concord Railroad have already u seen that and gone
one better." But you say that amounts to nothing,—that
was done to catch votes. Granted, for the sake of the ar¬
gument ; but have the Boston & Maine followed suit ? Nay,
verily! Why ? I will tell you why. We have got a little
clause in this bill which provides that fares and freights
shall not be increased after the passage of this bill. Do
they begin to see the hand-writing on the wall ? Do they
begin to see that this bill is going to pass, and they don't
want to be caught napping ?
One more little bit of special legislation in this bill to
which I will call your attention, and then we will pay our
respects to the Hazen bill. I will read Sec. 19:
Sec. 19. The owners, directors, or managers of the
Manchester & Lawrence Railroad shall not lease or permit
said railroad to be leased to or operated by the Concord
Railroad corporation ; and if the owners, directors, or man¬
agers of said Manchester & Lawrence Railroad shall lease
or permit said railroad to be leased or operated as aforesaid,
the charter thereof shall be thereby forfeited ; and it shall
IO
be the duty of the attorney-general to institute such legal
proceedings as may be necessary to obtain a decree of for¬
feiture by the court.
I had thought to say something upon this section, but I
am informed that another member of this House will speak
for the city of Manchester, so I forbear.
You know, gentlemen, that one of the main reasons why
you are urged to pass the Hazen bill is on account of its be¬
ing " general legislation." Let us sec how much ground
there is for that claim to stand upon. The first six sec¬
tions of the bill are general and provide a remedy for the
defect which the court has shown to exist in the Colby bill
almost exactly like the remedy provided in the Atherton
bill, as I have already shown you. But Sec. 7 reads as fol¬
lows :
Sec. 7. This act and the act to which this act is amend¬
ment shall be construed as authorizing the leasing of the
Northern Railroad and the Boston, Concord A Montreal
Railroad by the Boston A Lowell Railroad corporation.
Now docs any gentleman on this floor claim that this is
general legislation ?
The majority of the committe in their report (page 5)
say: "When the act of 1883 was adopted, it was
doubted by no one that the clear and distinct language
of the eighteenth section included the Boston and
Lowell Railroad."
But it has been shown here that John IT. George and
Bainbridge Wadleigh appeared before the railroad com¬
mittee in 1883 as counsel for the Boston and Lowell
Railroad and in its behalf opposed the passage of the
Colby bill, 011 the ground that it gave authority for the
formation of a New Hampshire corporation in this
valley which would be too powerful for the interests of
the Boston and Lowell Railroad. They stated in their
arguments before the committee in substance that one of
the objects of that bill was to enable the three corpora-
II
tions in this valley to unite ; and they did not claim or in¬
timate that it gave authority for the Boston and Lowell
corporation to become a part of any corporation formed
under its authority or to take leases of any of our corpo¬
rations. General Marston and Col. Kent took the same
view of the bill on the floor of this house.
I read further from the majority report, (page 4).
" The Boston and Lowell Railroad has asked that it
may be specifically declared that under the eighteenth
section of the act of 1883, the company had the right to
operate, lease, or unite with New Hampshire roads. It
is not certain that such an amendment is necessary to
protect the Boston and Lowell Railroad in the exercise
of this right.
* * * * t- * *
To remove any doubt and to protect existing rights,
the committee recommends the provision asked for by
the Boston and Lowell road," that is to say, the seventh
section of the Hazen bill. So, you see, gentlemen, from
these extracts, that the majority of the committee have
admitted that this is special legislation.
I do not suppose any gentleman here, will question
the authority of the Manchester Union on all points
connected with the Hazen bill. A few days ago it pub¬
lished a few columns of extracts from Boston papers
entitled, ''Unprejudiced Views." I clip the follow¬
ing from its extract from the Boston Advertiser.
" But the railroad fight now in progress without ex¬
ception excels in bitterness any of its predecessors. On
the part of the rich Concord Railroad it is a struggle to
retain the strategic control of the railroad system of the
stat-c, while the Boston and Maine seeks to retain and
strengthen the combination of leases which came to it
through its assumption of the Lowell road. These
leases, if maintained, would give the Boston and
12
Maine road control of the chief routes between this
city and Montreal
That is the way they understand this Hazen bill in
Massachusetts. That is the way every unprejudiced
man understands it everywhere. That was the way the
gentleman from Franklin understood it when he advised
this House to pass the Hazen bill and crush the Con¬
cord road out of existence, simply and solely as the
"shortest way out of the present railroad difficulties."
I wondered how that concession on the part of the gen¬
tleman from Franklin would strike the gentleman from
Weare, after he had labored here for over an hour to
prove just the opposite ! To say nothing of the strenu¬
ous efforts of the gentleman from Claremont and the
gentleman from Haverhill. But there are other gentle¬
men in this house to whom, as it seems to me, this idea
must furnish food for sober reflection. I refer to the ma¬
jority of the railroad committee. Let me read from
page 8 of their report.
"It has been shown to the committee that the Boston
and Maine Railroad Company, under authority of the
laws of Massachusetts, has undertaken to lease the Bos¬
ton and Lowell Railroad, together with all the branches
and leased lines of the latter; and it has been strenu¬
ously objected that this control of so many New Hamp¬
shire railroads by one corporation, namely, the Boston
and Maine, will be detrimental to the interests of the
state; and the committee has been urged to recommend
interference in some way by the legislature. It is
therefore to be noted, that the committee, as its conclu¬
sion on this point, does not propose to make any enact¬
ment whatever directly applicable to the Boston and
Maine Railroad.
Now I am not going to say these eight men are not
honest in what they say in that report; neither am I
13
going to say they did not understand the meaning of
the language they used in reference to its application to
this bill. I am not going to say anything about that
whatever, but these are the facts, gentlemen, over their
own signatures, and over against them I place the un¬
prejudiced opinions of their own friends, and leave you
to draw your own conclusions.
I come now to the statement made by the gentleman
from Haverhill and reiterated by the gentleman from
Claremont, that no person along the line of the Boston,
Concord and Montreal Railroad had come here either
in person or by petition and asked for the passage of
the Atherton bill, but from Concord to the upper bound¬
ary of Coos they are unanimously in favor of the Hazen
bill.
This proposition I absolutely deny, because it is not
warranted by the facts. A fairer and truer statement
of the case would be that almost no one has come here
unsolicited to ask for the passage of either bill. It is a
notorious fact that hired emmissaries have visited nearly
or quite every town along the lines of the upper roads
soliciting the inhabitants to sign their petitions, and I
have in my possession affidavits signed by some of the
very men whose names have been paraded before this
house and before the people of the State, as being in
favor of the passage of the Hazen bill, in which they
declare, under oath, that they signed those petitions
under a misapprehension of facts and in answer to false
statements.
Perhaps you noticed that, some time since, the Union
published an article under the caption of " Belknap
County Heard From," and in that article, by some
means or other, there was no mention made of the town
of Tilton. I inquired into the matter, and was told that
a certain man visited the town, but out of over 400 legal
14
voters, only three whom they considered reliable signed
the petition, and one of them was a resident of North-
field. Since then, it seems, the Union correspondent
himself has been there and got the endorsement of 32
men and firms doing business there, but who reside in
Tilton, Northfield, Franklin, and Laconia. He does
not give the questions he asked, but I suppose, in all
justice to himself and to them, he does give the exact
language of their answers, for he says, " here are their
words." Granted they were truly represented, which I
will prove to you was not the case. And what do they
amount to? Sum them all up ; turn them over in every
way, shape, and manner and you have got simply this,
that the business men of Tilton have always been satis¬
fied with the liberal and progressive service of the Bos¬
ton and Lowell Railroad, and want it continued. But
there is one question which the Union correspondent
did not ask the business men of Tilton, and which the
advocates of the Hazen bill are very careful not to ask
anyone, and that is this: " Do you want the entire rail¬
road system of the state turned over to the Boston and
Maine Railroad for ninety-nine years? That is what
the Hazen bill means, gentlemen, as I have already
proved to you out of the mouths of their own witnesses.
What the next step will be I will try and demonstrate
before I get through.
But right here I wish to say in justice to myself and
to my constituents, that of the thirty-two individuals and
firms spoken of in the Union as being solid for the
Hazen bill, about one-half were either not seen at all by
the correspondent or were entirely misrepresented. I
do not speak of this because I care anything about it
myself, but simply to show you that newspaper reports
and interviews with business men are sometimes colored
by the imagination and desires of the correspondent. I
i5
do not like to speak of myself, particularly, but there are
only eighteen members of this house who were here in
1885, and I am one of them, so I leave it to you to
judge whether I have the confidence of the community
in which I live, or not. There are some men there who
have a very strong prejudice against the Concord road,
but there are very few of them who believe in going to
extreme measures to crush it.
We believe in consolidation of roads which physi¬
cally connect, but we do not believe in the creation of a
giganticmonopoly which places nine-tenths of all the rail¬
roads in the state under one management. For nothing
is truer in history than that such power sooner or later
will be used to subvert the liberties of the people. Our
people do not believe the Boston and Maine and the
Boston and Lowell are one and the same thing or ever
will be, and no amount of sophistry will make them
believe it. We were married to the Boston and Lowell
Railroad and were doing all in our power to advance
her conjugal felicity, but she has run off with another
fellow and we do not propose to marry him for the
sake of securing our wife's old clothes. A fellow
went to an artist's saloon out in Peoria, 111., one day
and had his picture taken. He was so much pleased
with it that he wanted the artist to take a picture of his
brother from him. The artist explained to him the im¬
possibility of his doing so. But the fellow replied, I
don't see why you can't, for he looks just like me, only
he has got red hair. The Boston and Maine Railroad
has got red hair !
I wish to call your attention to a subject which my
friend from Laconia alluded to in his remarks the other
day, and which the gentleman from Claremont, also my
friend, exerted himself so strenuously to cover up, lest
you should see the striking force of the analogy between
16
the position which was taken by what is known as "The
Lake Company," in 1846, and that of the Boston and
Maine Railroad in 1887. Now, gentlemen, I do not in¬
tend to say a word personally against any member of
the Lake Company, they are very pleasant gentlemen.
Go to their office and their words are kindly and their
smile pleasant; but, gentlemen, behind that smile there
is an iron purpose and a grasp as cold and cruel and
relentless as steel. They came to us in 1846 and pro¬
posed to buy our water power, that they might develop
it—that was their plea—we told them we were develop¬
ing it ourselves as fast as our means would permit, for
we believed in "paying as you go." But they told us
that was an old fogy notion ; that we were entirely behind
the spirit of the age ; that we needed to broaden ourselves-
out. We ought to sell our mills and dams, with the
water power and right of flowage, to them, and they
would show us what could be done ; that they would con¬
solidate their capital and energies here in New Hamp¬
shire ; that cities and villages would spring up all around
us ; that where we could put in hundreds they would
put in thousands : that they were live men and meant busi¬
ness. This is no fancy sketch, gentlemen. I knew a man
who owned a water privilege and dam across the Win-
nipiseogee at Tilton, and was running a saw-mill there..
They told the old gentleman if he would sell out to
them they would build large cotton mills there ; the vil¬
lage would grow into a city and real estate would be so
enhanced in value that the people there who owned it
would all become rich of necessity, and that without any
exertion on their part. They won him over. They
seduced him into selling his mill and dam, with all the
rights appertaining thereto. Have they fulfilled that
promise? Have they built those factories? No! and
they never intended to build them. They took down
17
the mill, tore out the dam, and from that day to this the
site has remained barren and the privilege run to waste,
and the only dollar they have ever expended there was
in removing rocks from the river, so they could get the
water a little quicker into their wheels in Massachusetts.
What is true of Tilton is equally true of Laconia and of
Lake Village, of Meredith Village and Ashland, of Bris¬
tol and Franklin Falls. These facts are matters of his-
tory, gentlemen, which can neither be gainsayed or
denied, much as we may dislike them. And yet the
gentleman from Claremont says this is the true policy
"We want to broaden ourselves out," "we want to be
neighborly." Why, he says he climbed up Bunker
Hill Monument once and looked out towards Concord
and Lexington, and sundry other places, and with head
erect and breast swelling with the proud consciousness
that he was an American citizen, he rubbed out the
state line of New Hampshire. I thought it a singular
coincidence, but on the very day the gentleman from
Claremont gave utterance to that outburst of patriotic
enthusiasm there was a certain phamphlet distributed in
this house which shows pretty conclusively to my mind
that Massachusetts has not rubbed out the state line, if
the gentleman from Claremont has. In regard to our
.water power we have pursued this broad, liberal, neigh¬
borly policy that the gentleman so much admires, till
there isn't a drop of water turning a wheel the whole
length of the Merrimack, Valley that does not pay trib¬
ute to the State of Massachusetts in some form or
other, and the gentleman from Claremont says he is
perfectly willing.
It is said, " History repeats itself once in about so
often." I have shown you the course Massachusetts
took to secure our water power and how admirably
she succeeded.
i8
Do you believe we need another lesson before we
conclude that 4,1 Experience docs keep a dear school? "
If you think you do, gentlemen, the spelling-book is
open, and these men who represent the Boston and
Maine Railroad are pointing with index finger to the
column.
The Boston and Maine Railroad come here and try
to hide the true intent of their coming, with the alluring
picture of dazzling promises. What are they? Term¬
inal facilities, better train service, cheaper rates and
freights, permanent improvements, internal and extern¬
al development. These propositions have already been
very fully discussed upon this floor, and their deceitful-
ness shown in a manner which none of these gentlemen
have even attempted to disprove. I wish to call your
attention to one very significant fact, however, which is
this: These promises have been made by counsel
and in the argument and testimony before the com¬
mittee, but have been almost entirely omitted from the
bill. The gentleman from Haverhill and the.gentleman
from Claremont, both have told you that if you intend a
law to mean anything, it is very easy to put it in. I
suppose, on the other hand, if you don't intend a law to
mean anything, it is very easy to leave it out; and, I think,
if you will study the provisions of the Hazen bill, you
will conclude they acted upon that theory when they
drew it. Alongside its very mild provisions I wish you
to place sections 9, 11 and 12 of the Atherton bill, and
tell me candidly, which, in your judgment, best meets
the wishes, and will best subserve the interests of the
people of New Hampshire.
The same golden picture was held up to our admiring
gaze in 1846, by the Lake Company, that is held up
before 11s today by the Boston and Maine Railroad.
The same dazzling array of promises. I have shown
x9
you the sequel in the one instance, while my friend
from Nashua has conclusively proved what must inevit¬
ably follow in the other. He has shown you from the
financial standing of the Boston and Maine Railroad,
and from the conditions of the leases she has taken,
that, even if her intentions are all right, her albility to
carry out those intentions will be inadequate for long
years to come.
It h as been shown here, and before the committee,
over and over again, both by paid counsel and by wit¬
nesses under oath, yes, and by the terms of the leases,
which have been printed at the expense of the state,
\
and distributed to every member of this house, that be¬
fore one dollar can be invested by the Boston and Maine
Railroad in permanent improvements in this state, she
has got to pay six and seven per cent, upon millions and
millions of capital and indebtedness created and invested
in Maine and Massachusetts.
There is one little incident bearing upon this railroad
question, which, while not very important in itself, will
help you to see how earnestly the Boston and Maine
Railroad is striving to build up the material interests of
New Hampshire. In August, 1884, we secured the
daily running of a milk car from Lake Village to Bos¬
ton, so that such of the farmers living along the line as
chose to do so might convert their milk at once into
money. As a result of that venture, during the three
years just closed, the farmers of Belknap county have
received over $100,000 in cash for milk. Well, sir,
since the Boston and Maine Railroad has leased the
Boston and Lowell Railroad, instead of reducing the
rate or extending the route up to Meredith, at the same
rate, which we think they might reasonably do, they
have been to the contractors and asked them to abandon
the route altogether, and go out on the Massachuesetts
20
Central, and I suppose the gentleman from Claremont
will say we ought to be broad, liberal, and neighborly
and let them go without a murmer, and if they are not
satisfied with that, why, give them a little something to
help pay expenses.
I come now to consider one of the most astounding
propositions which the gentleman from Claremont made
to this house, last Thursday. I read from the report
of his speech in the Union of Sept. 2 :
" My theory with regard to railroad matters is this :
Let the railroads unite if they please. Give them free¬
dom to build roads, freedom to unite or consolidate
with each other, but make them observe their duties as
common carriers ; compel them to discharge to the pub¬
lic such duties as the common law and the statute law
lays upon them."
Now, gentlemen, if that statement or that "theory"
means anything at all it means this, that the only way
to manage the railroads is to give them every thing they
ask for and then let them do iust as they please. Why?
Because his first proposition once granted the ability to
enforce the second is as absolutely destroyed as though
it never existed. I want you to remember, gentlemen,
that the true intent and meaning of the Hazen bill,
stripped of all its legal verbiage and of all the sophistry
which these learned gentlemen have thrown around it
to cloud our vision, is purely and simply to turn the
railroads of central New Hampshire into the capacious
maw of the Boston and Maine Railroad for 99 years,
which in connection with their Eastern system would
embrace substantially nine-tenths of all the railroads in
the state. Well, what then? I will tell you what then.
I read from page 24 of a pamphlet, entitled "Argument
of Hon. Stilson llutchins before the Railroad Commit¬
tee, Aug. 3rd, 1887
21
"It is ridiculous to say that subsequent legislatures
could, whenever they chose, curb or regulate its action
or inflict a penalty for any violation ot law. When the
Boston and Maine or any other corporation controls and
operates every mile of railroad in the state it will itselt
be the legislature. It will elect almost every member of
the legislature it chooses to elect, and keep out of that
body every man who has sufficient ability and independ¬
ence to see through its schemes and oppose them. The
sure result will be-the fastening upon the state of a dan¬
gerous monopoly, perhaps a very odious and damaging
one, and the only way the state can free itself from it
may be by revolutionary means. Such monopolies
never surrender any power, and are sure to contest any
opposition with all its forces, money, influence and dis-
. *
crimination."
Do you think such bondage will be pleasant? Are
you ready to go' back to your constituents and say to
them you have been free men, and you sent me, a free
man, to the legislature to guard that greatest boon which
any people can enjoy, and which has come down to you
as a perpetual inheritance sealed by the blood of your
ancestors; but I have been recreant to that trust, and
have sold you into bondage for ninety-nine years.
The gentleman from Claremont was confronted with
this proposition last Thursday afternoon. You, gentle¬
men, through the workings of his face, saw something of
the terrible struggle in his soul, as, for an instant, God
and his conscience plead with him. Did he deny it?
No, gentlemen, he could not! Did he try to meet it
with argument, and reason it away? Gentlemen, in
that awful momemt he was left with absolutely no argu¬
ment but the miserable subterfuge, "once I used to be
frightened at such things, but now I am a philosopher."
There has been a good deal said with reference to the
22
splendid terminal facilities of the Boston and Lowell
Railroad, and if the Hazen bill was defeated, and the
upper roads left to the tender mercies of the Concord
road, they would be practically shut out from Boston.
In answer to this vague threat, allusion has been made to
the inter-state commerce law. Now, while the inter-state
commerce commission has the power, and undoubtedly
would exercise it if there was any occasion, I do not
wish any one for a moment to be deluded with the idea
that there ever would be. The terminals of the Boston
and Lowell are the finest in Boston, and cost a very
large sum of money—that, no one questions. But ter¬
minals are valuable only as they are used for the pur¬
poses for which they are constructed, and the more
they are used the more valuable they become. If I
understood Mr. Mellen correctly, he testified before the
railroad committee that the only real legitimate compe¬
tition in business was with itself. If that is true, and
there are some of you who profess to believe it is, then
by this inevitable and inexorable law I ask you if these
terminals must not necessarily be thrown wide open to
all the business that can by any and all means be in¬
duced to reach them?
Another question, bearing upon this case, as it seems
to me, is, its relation to the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Hon. C. C. Coffin of Boston, who, I understand, repre¬
sented the Canadian Pacific Railway here in 1883, made
an argument before the railroad committee early in the
session, with reference to the extension of the charter
of the Blackwater River Railroad. His remarks were
not reported, but some of them are prtinent right here.
I shall not pretend to give you his exact language, but,
as well as I can, the substance of it. The shortest
route, by 134 miles, between the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans is through the Merrimack valley. Concord
23
is two hundred and fifty-two feet above tide water,
White River Junction 369. On the Central Vermont
there is no grade exceeding 40 feet to the mile. , At
Orange summit, it is only 990 feet, descending very grad¬
ually to Lake Champlain, which is 258 feet. Lake
Champlain, as you all know, is part of the St. Lawrence
valley proper. From there to the westerly end of Lake
Superior there is no grade exceeding 40 feet to the mile.
Superior is just 600 feet above tide water. The Cana¬
dian Pacific runs along the northerly shore of Superior,
strikes west over the marsh and swamp lands to the Red
River, which at Winnepeg is only about 600 above tide,
thence due west 1000 miles in round numbers, over a
plain with almost no grade. At the base of the moun¬
tains it is only 2000 feet, while at the summit of Kick¬
ing House Pass it is less than 4000 feet elevation. It is
the one line across the continent which can take tea
from China and lay it down in London ten days quicker
than by any other route. It is already taking the
traffic from the Suez canal and is evidentiv destined to
take the cottons of Nashua and Manchester to China.
Of the transcontinental lines in the United States the
Northern Pacific has by far the cheapest and easiest
line, with no grade between Superior and the Rocky
mountains of over 65 feet, and only here and there does
the grade reach that maximum. It has grades of about
100 feet in crossing the mountains going west, but less
than that eastward. The highest elevation is about 5000
feet. The Union and Central Pacific have grades of 116
feet to the mile and no less than seven mountain sum¬
mits to cross, the highest being 8260 feet above tide.
For more than 1000 miles that line is 4000 feet above
tide. I think the greatest elevation of the Southern Pa¬
cific is 6000 or 6200 feet above tide water. So you
will see at once that the great highway of the future be-
24
tween the Atlantic and Pacific is the lines of the great
lakes, the Canadian and Northern Pacific roads, and that
from the valley of the St. Lawrence, the winter route
must of necessity be by the Merrimack valley. There
is great activity in the construction of roads in Northern
Michigan and Minnesota which will contribute to the im¬
mense amount of traffic to the sea-board at Montreal in
summer and either Halifax or Boston in winter. The
Canadian Pacific is a political road. It was designed as
such by British statesmen to consolidate British power
on this continent. It has been largely subsidized to
that end, and I noticed only last week an additional sub¬
sidy of 45,000 pounds sterling per annum had been
granted to it for carrying the mails to and from the east.
The present government of Canada is committed to that
road and holds power through it. By constructing the
international line through Maine by the way of Moose-
head lake, where several thousand men are at work this
summer, it is hoped that the great tide of trans-continen¬
tal traffic will take that route when Montreal is closed
in winter.
That it is the aim of the Canadian Pacific Railway to
monopolize the trans-continental business of this coun¬
try, no man will question, who has given the subject
any consideration, just as history demonstrates, that
English ambition stops at nothing short of the com¬
merce of the whole world. But, in order to be com¬
plete masters of the situation, they must have control
of the Merrimack Valley system, with Boston for its
objective point. Given that, and they can defy all the
railroads in the United States. This point was touched
upon (by the counsel for the Ilazen bill) when Mr.
Mellon was on the stand, and very summarily dismissed
as absolutely impossible, because their charter contained
a provision, that they should not lease, own or operate
25
a road outside of Canada, and he read a letter from Mr.
Van Horn of the Canadian Pacific, substantiating that
statement. But, he did not tell you what is a fact, that
the Canadian Pacific applied to Parliament last winter
to have that clause repealed, and it only lacked eight
votes of passing. Parliament sits every year in Canada,
and that clause is as certain to be repealed in the near
future, as anything is certain which is not already ac¬
complished.
I repeat, gentlemen, the control of the Merrimack
Valley system is what they are after. They are already
practically at Newport, if not at White River Junction,
and something more than the provisions of a charter, or
of the constitution of Great Britain, or even an amend¬
ment to the Hazen bill, is necessary to deter these Eng¬
lish magnates from their purpose, when that purpose
means wealth and power for themselves.
I can easily understand how they can afford to pay
the Boston and Maine Railroad the magnificent sum of
$3,000,000 to pass this Hazen bill; but I cannot con¬
ceive of how any man in this legislature, who has taken
a solemn oath to bear faithful and true allegiance to the
constitution of the state, can consent to become a party
to such an infamous transaction.
No one would be more pleased than the friends of
the Atherton bill to have this great trans-continental
business traverse the whole length of our state, but we
do not believe in laying every material and political in¬
terest of the state under tribute to accomplish that end.
We stand ready to throw our doors wide open and
hold out both hands to them to meet us upon just and
equitable terms; but when those terms are made, we
believe the state of New Hampshire and not the Boston
and Maine Railroad should be the party of the first
part.