ELEVATED RAILROADS 
 
 TIIE 
 
 PUBLIC NECESSITY. 
 
 ARGUMENT OF 
 
 J. A. L. WHITTIER, Esq., 
 
 ' v 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 JOINT COMMITTEE ON STREET RAILWAYS, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE, 
 
 SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1880. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 GETCIIELL BROTHERS, LAW PRINTERS, 
 Nos. 4 and 12 Pearl Street. 
 
 1880. 
 
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 \AI£VS_ 
 
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 CLOSING ARGUMENT 
 
 r 
 
 OF 
 
 On Behalf of the Petitioners. 
 
 The Petition and its Signers. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee : 
 
 The petition which I represent here is a duplicate of one which was 
 called to the attention of the committee a year ago, and it is the first 
 effort ever made in Boston as to elevated railroads. The credit or 
 the discredit belongs to us. We first suggested — and we first asked 
 for a right to build — an elevated railway. 
 
 The gentlemen whose petition has had the benefit of our evidence, 
 and who have with us endeavored to convince you of the expediency 
 of granting a charter, are followers in our footsteps, and are imitators 
 of our endeavors. They make no claim which we did not make first ; 
 they offer no argument which we did not suggest first ; they are the 
 exponents of no theories that did not with us first find utterance. 
 
 If there is any reason why they should be chartered and we should 
 be repulsed, it has not been set out in evidence or presented in ar- 
 gument. Nor is it possible to advance any cause which, with you, 
 will have any weight, why they should take from us the advantage to 
 which we are entitled ; and there is every reason why they should 
 wait till we are chartered, and then, if they can, join forces with us 
 We will welcome them gladly, but we are not prepared to surrender 
 what we have earned ; and we by no means admit that they have 
 shown or can show any cause why they should have the precedence 
 and we should lie denied. 
 
 243?4 
 
2 
 
 The cry of "outside influences” or "foreign copitn l ” will have no 
 weight wjtli 3 r ou ; for in the very nature of things it is impossible 
 that such an attempt at argument should he found of substance. 
 Money is money, be it from a Boston bank or a New York source. 
 Enterprise will help the city, lie it local or imported. And there is 
 no Chinese wall around this metropolis of New England, not to be 
 crossed by any who seek to do the people good. Nor is there a dead- 
 line which marks and defines a region belonging alone to local capital, 
 on which the outsider may not trench. 
 
 If such were the case, it would be a disgrace to our civilization ; 
 and this committee would stamp it out of existence if its existence 
 were proved. 
 
 If such is not the case, then no reason exists why one set of peti- 
 tioners should claim advantages over another. 
 
 But as matter of fact, both petitioners are Boston men. True it is, 
 we arc not here, having behind us as many names as have our 
 friends, but it is none the less true that we represent Boston capital, 
 Boston brains and Boston desires. 
 
 And it is also true that we are desirous of constructing, as are the 
 other petitioners, a Boston road. Nor has it been denied that we 
 have the facilities which they have, and that our motives are as 
 honest as theirs. 
 
 These things being undoubted, the mere fact that the aggregate of 
 the capital on their petition seemingly exceeds that of ours, will 
 not lay this committee, composed as it is of men of intelligence and 
 of liberal views, be allowed to militate against us. 
 
 You have listened for so long a time, with such entire patience and 
 with such wise discrimination, to what has been offered you in the way 
 of reasons pro and con on this subject of elevated roads, that it would 
 be a very ungracious thing in me if 1 did not, before entering upon 
 what I had to say to you, express on behalf of those whom 1 represent 
 here, and on my own behalf, the sincere acknowledgments which 
 we feel for and the sincere appreciation which we have of the 
 manner in which you have attended to this important duty ; and it 
 involves upon me another duty of equal importance, and that is to 
 
3 
 
 • 
 
 he as brief as I can be in the saying of what I have to say; and I 
 shall endeavor to say what I have to present to your attention in as 
 i| few words as is consistent with the importance of the subject; for I 
 
 feel, gentlemen, that whatever may be the conclusion to which you 
 come as to the result of these hearings, whatever may be the con- 
 clusion to which you come as to the report you may make, we are 
 all agreed on one thing, and tl^at is, that the subject which has been 
 presented to your attention here during these past weeks is one of 
 great importance. 
 
 Pecuniary Importance of the Subject. 
 
 1/7 
 
 I": 
 
 r) 
 
 It is important in the first place because it relates to the expen- 
 diture of a great deal of money and to the employment of a great many 
 men. If a bill is reported as authorizing the erection in the 
 streets of Boston of an elevated road, it will mean the transfer of a 
 great deal of capital from the present methods of investment into a 
 new channel ; it will mean the employment of a great many men in 
 the carrying out of a new industry : and to that extent it is a very 
 important matter, and it is one that should be very carefully con- 
 sidered. 
 
 It makes no difference whether the money that is to be spent on 
 an elevated road in Boston — and that money is going to be spent 
 some time, I have no doubt — comes from Boston or from New 
 York; whether the dollars and cents that are spent are Boston 
 money or New York money. The fact remains that a great invest- 
 ment will be made ; and the very fact that men stand ready, as they 
 do, to make this large investment is certainly pretty strong evidence 
 that they consider, as men who have studied and investigated the 
 subject, that the probabilities are in favor of large pecuniary 
 returns, and that it is a justifiable way of spending money because of 
 the promises of the future in regard to it. 
 
 The Saving of Time. 
 
 It is a matter, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, of great importance in 
 
4 
 
 another sense. It is a matter of importance to the people them- 
 selves. This subject of quick transit, which has been pretty thor- 
 oughly presented to your attention here, involves, outside of the 
 pecuniary question connected with it, some matters of exceeding 
 importance to the people themselves. It means quick transit, it 
 means saving of time to a great many people. I am not one of those 
 who believe, as did believe a gentleman who made the opening state- 
 ment for the remonstrants, that the people of Boston, and especially 
 the working-men, for those are the ones to whom he alluded, do not 
 care so much for time as they do for cheap fares. The argument, as 
 it was presented to you then, was, that it did not make so much dif- 
 ference to the working-men of Boston, to the people who most use 
 horse cars, whether they go quicker or slower if the expense of their 
 transportation is little. I don’t take that ground. I don’t believe it 
 is a sound or solid argument. I believe it does make a difference to 
 the working-man or to the working-woman or to any persons engaged 
 in avocations which take them away from home, whether or not they 
 have much time or little time to spend with their families. I can 
 remember the time, when 1 was a boy, when from one week’s end 
 to another, with the exception of Sundays, in the winter season, I 
 never saw my father’s face by da\ light, because his business required 
 him to go away so early in the morning that he was always gone be- 
 fore we children were up, or to come home so late that we were gen- 
 erally in bed before he reached his home. I believe that such cases 
 as those are very common throughout the community, and I believe 
 that anything that can be done that will give a working-man a few 
 more minutes in the morning, a few more minutes in the evening 
 with his family, is a matter of importance which cannot be disre- 
 garded, and which a committee of the legislature of Massachu- 
 setts, representing every interest of the community, will not put out 
 of account. 
 
 Suburban Homes for Working-Men. 
 
 It means further that a method of quick transit properly ar- 
 ranged and properly carried out will give to a great many men who 
 
now occupy residences in the heart of the city an opportunity to live 
 out of town. It was said to you here, and I have no doubt the 
 statement is correct, by the gentleman who represented property in- 
 terests on Washingou street, and who preferred to make a statement 
 rather than to deliver testimony, because he wanted to be uninter- 
 rupted — I refer to Dr. Moore — that in the heart of Boston the popu- 
 lation is thicker than it is in the city of London. I was surprised to 
 hear the statement, but I have no wish to controvert it ; but if that is 
 the case, if the people of Boston are congregated together in the old 
 part of the city to a greater extent than they are in the city of Lon- 
 don — which I always supposed to be one of the most thickly settled 
 cities of the world — then in that view, if anything can be suggested 
 or can be carried out which will result in scattering that population 
 somewhat, it will be a most desirable and beneficial thing. 
 
 If any of you have had occasion during the past winter, as I have 
 had, to read Sunday after Sunday the accounts in the '"Boston Courier” 
 of the tenement houses of Boston and the way in which poor people 
 live, I am pretty sure that you will agree with me that if anything 
 can be done to relieve that class of our people it is necessary that it 
 should be done, fori doubt if ever there was presented in the whole 
 history of Boston a set of circumstances, a continuation of details, 
 which involve more of suffering, more of real misery, more of utter 
 desolation, than is set out in those statements that have been pub- 
 lished in that newspaper. Hundreds and thousands of men, hun- 
 dreds and thousands of families, are living almost within the sound of 
 my voice this morning, in a condition of misery such as y^ou and I, 
 Mr. Chaiiman, cannot understand and cannot realize. If anything 
 will have a tendency to take any of that class of the people away 
 from that kind of living, then that thing should be done; and if it 
 should be said that the building of an elevated road in itself would 
 not produce that result because that class of people cannot go out of 
 the city, I should reply to that argument in this way, admitting it to 
 be a forcible one, that the building of such a road would have this 
 effect : It would take the next higher class of the people out of the 
 way. It would take out of town the working-men who are able to 
 
pay ho rse-car fares or elevated-railroad fares ; it will take that class 
 out and leave more room for the next lower class. 
 
 On this subject, since these hearings began, there has been pub- 
 lished in one of the Boston newspapers a statement signed by "a 
 working-man,” which expresses my views on the subject better than 
 I can express them myself. I read from the " Boston Herald ” of 
 Monday, the 16th of February. It is headed " Homes for Working- 
 Men,” and it reads in this wise : 
 
 " Homes for Workingmen. — Rapid Transit Is wiiat the People 
 
 Need First. 
 
 To the Editor of the Herald: — In a late number of your paper 
 appeared an article by Robert Treat Paine, Jr., on the importance 
 of providing cheaper and better homes for the working classes, and 
 he gives an account of homes built in Philadelphia, at a cost of $900^ 
 apiece, on land costing $400 a lot. It is probable that the land 
 alluded to was, at least, five or six miles from the centre of business' 
 in that city, or as far as from State street to West Roxbury, Brighton, 
 Malden, Melrose, and other places in the suburbs of Boston. Now, 
 there is land enough within the radius I have mentioned to make 
 thousands of house lots, not 15x60 feet, containing 9J10 square feet, 
 but 50x100 feet, containing 5000 square feet each, which can lie 
 obtained for $400 a lot, and even much less than that; and, at the 
 present time, good, comfortable houses, containing as many rooms 
 as those described by Mr. Paine, can be built on those lots for $1500 
 each, including land. That being the case, why don’t somebody 
 build them? Simply because nobody will hire or buy them when 
 built; and the great and principal reason for this is that no working- 
 man who can possibly live near his work wants to lengthen his day’s 
 labor and increase his family expenses by going out there to live. In 
 all other respects, except house rent, a working-man can live cheaper 
 in Boston than anywhere else in the state; and, if he can live within 
 five minutes’ walk of his work, he can have from one and one half 
 to two hours more leisure time in each day than if he lives in one 
 of the places I have mentioned. Suppose he lives at West Roxbury, 
 
7 
 
 which is as near as any, and as easy to get at, and that he is a car- 
 penter or machinist, and works, say, in Wareham street, or that 
 vicinity. lie has to be in the shop at 7 o’clock A.M., and leaves 
 at 0 o’clock p.m. If he depends on horse cars, he will have to 
 rise at 5.30 o’clock to be in his shop at 7 o’clock ; and at night it 
 will be 8 o’clock or past before he gets home, gets his supper, and 
 gets his chores done ; and out of this time he has not a moment of 
 leisure, except in the horse car, and that is of no use to him. If he 
 depends on steam cars, he is no better off. He will probably live half 
 a mile from the depot in West Roxbury, and walk from fifteen to • 
 twenty minutes’ walk from the depot in the city ; so the whole trip 
 will take as long as in a horse car. The item of expense is another 
 argument in his mind against a suburban residence. Fifty dollars a 
 year will probably get him to and from his shop, but his family will 
 spend half as much more in necessary or unnecessary visits to the 
 city in the same time. This added to the increased cost of fuel and 
 provisions makes up very near the difference in rent, leaving the 
 great item of his personal leisure and enjoyment solidly against the 
 suburban residence. In addition to this, his family all have the 
 same feeling. His wife and children see more of him, and lie has 
 more time to attend to their wants and minister to their enjoyments, 
 when living within a few minutes’ walk of his woik than when 
 living six miles from it. There is no need to enlarge on this. 
 Every one understands it, and the great problem is how to make the 
 suburban residence more desirable to him and them than a city one. 
 One thing absolutely essential in this matter, it seems to me, is 
 cheap and rapid transit. Give the working-man a chance to get 
 over the six miles to his country home as cheap and as quick as he 
 can now average to get home in the city, and he will go out there to 
 live. But, you will say, he can now go six miles in a horse car for 
 a very small sum. Yes, and lie an hour in going, and one half that 
 time is taken up in the first mile, waiting for people to get in and 
 out who are only going from a few rods to a mile on the way ; and, 
 with the present horse-car arrangement, that is unavoidable. What 
 is wanted is some mode of conveyance that will take him the six 
 
8 
 
 miles for six cents, and in fifteen minutes, and there is no reason 
 why It should not be done ; and, further, it has got to be done, and 
 will be done. The only question is: how? That I leave with those 
 who ought to understand it. I know, fiom experience, what the 
 working-man needs, and somebody ought to know, or find out, how 
 his wants in this respect can be supplied ; for, until that is done, all 
 experiments for bettering his condition, in the way Mr. Paine pro- 
 posed, will be likely to fail. W.” 
 
 Now, singular as it may seem to some of the gentlemen who 
 represent the opposition here, though that article appears in the news- 
 paper, and seems to be in favor of some of the points which I am 
 arguing, I did not write that article. I have been suspected of 
 doing such things heretofore, and so I want to make myself clear. 
 I would have written it if I had known how to write it as well as 
 it is written, but I did not write it. I found it in the paper, and I 
 present it to you, as I believe it to be an honest expression of an 
 honest man’s opinion, and, as I say, it presents our view of the case 
 better than I can present it myself, because it states briefly and 
 pointedly some matters which deserve your best attention, and which 
 I am sure will receive your serious consideration. 
 
 The Improvement of Suburban Propertv. 
 
 There is another point, of the same general nature, and that is 
 that the effect of the erection of elevated structures and the promo- 
 tion of rapid transit will be a great improvement as to suburban 
 property. There is no question, and it has not been denied in the 
 arguments on the part of the remonstrants — in fact it has not been 
 alluded to by them — that there is, surrounding the city of Boston, a 
 belt of property which, for some reason or other, has not improved 
 as it should have, or as it is susceptible of being improved ; for, not- 
 withstanding the fact that there are one hundred and eight or one 
 hundred and ten suburban railroad stations, and nine lines of steam 
 cars centring within half a mile of city hall, and notwithstanding 
 the fact that there are flourishing and beautiful towns all around the 
 circuit beginning at a point, say six miles from the city hall or a 
 
9 
 
 little further out, ami extending thence as far out as Worcester in 
 one direction, and almost to Fitchburg in another, — the fact exists 
 that there is a belt of property within three or four miles of city hall 
 which is not built up, which is not improved and which is the very 
 property that should be improved ; because it contains everything that 
 makes property desirable as a place of residence. That is to say, if 
 that property were properly served with means by which the people 
 who live on it could get to and from the city proper. It is no 
 answer to such a statement as this to say that a man can live on a 
 steam railroad and lie landed at the Providence depot within fifteen 
 minutes of his work ; or that another can live on another line and be 
 landed at the northern depots within twenty minutes of his work, or 
 be landed at the Old Colony or Boston & Albany depots within a 
 short distance of his work. The fact remains, that the people will 
 not use such accommodations. And another fact of equal impor- 
 tance exists that, notwithstanding all those facilities and all the 
 horse-car facilities also, the suburban district that I speak of does 
 not build up; and the increase of horse-car travel is out of all pro- 
 portion to the advantages afforded by the steam-car travel ; for when 
 I had the honor of addressing this committee a year ago I told 
 them that the increase of travel in the city of Boston on the hoi’se- 
 cars, as the statistics showed, was, on an average, two millions and 
 a half a year, and I predicated on this statement an argument to the 
 committee that, within a short time, the facilities fur horse-car travel 
 would be exhausted. Another year has gone by and another set of 
 statistics has been reported to the railroad commissioners ; and the 
 fact is to-day that, instead of the increase being two millions and a 
 half, it is three millions and a half; and we have no reason to doubt 
 that that increase will constantly continue in the same increasing 
 ratio for years to come, which presents to our consideration a prob- 
 lem that must be met and must be solved. 
 
 The question of the improvement of suburban property has been 
 a subject matter of some force which has been presented here, and 
 the witnesses who have testified to you that suburban property 
 needs something of this kind to bring it up to where it ought to be. 
 
10 
 
 have boon, of course, charged, on the part of the remonstrants, 
 with having an interest in the subject matter. Mr. Chairman, I don’t 
 deny that every man who testified here in our behalf, if we except 
 two witnesses (they are Mr. Cowing and Mr. Shrive) had a per- 
 sonal interest in the subject matter. I don’t except Mr. Taylor, be- 
 cause Mr. Taylor had a personal interest in the question to the 
 extent that he was paid for his time and expenses in coming here to 
 testify, if that makes a man personally interested. But, notwith- 
 standing the fact that those witnesses did have a personal interest in 
 the subject, it must be offset by another fact, that every witness who 
 appeared for t he rcmonslrants had the same kind of an interest,- only 
 he looked at it from another standpoint. There has not been a man, 
 with the exception of two, who has come tip here before this com- 
 mittee and testified to you, who didn’t have a personal interest, and 
 from the necessity of the case it was not expected that any other 
 than such witnesses would come here. It is no derogation to any 
 man who has testified before you, that he is interested in this subject 
 matter; and it docs not reflect on the testimony of Mr. Williams 
 or of Mr. Hutchins, or of any other man who told you that the 
 Highlands needed an elevated railroad ; it has no effect on the testi- 
 mony of any man from Cambridge who told yon that Cambridge 
 needed.au elevated railroad, because those individuals own property 
 which may be improved by its erection, any more than it should 
 reflect on the witnesses for the remonstrants who testified that they 
 were property owners and that they thought their property would 
 be injured. 
 
 But the fact of the matter is, in considering a question of this 
 kind, there is one point which must be always borne in mind, that 
 the interests which are to be protected 'and are to be cared for and 
 are to be considered, are not the interests of one set of property 
 owners on the one hand, and another set on the other, and between 
 the two that you are to balance on the right hand the testimony of 
 men who want it because they own property, and on the other hand 
 the testimony of men who do not want it because they own prop- 
 erty, and that you are to settle the question according to the results 
 
11 
 
 of that balancing. You are to consider the greatest good of the whole 
 people. You are to find out, if possible, what our people will be 
 most benefited by, and when you have come to a conclusion as to 
 that, your conclusion as to your report will be very easily slated. 
 
 The Effect on Real Estate Generally. 
 
 The next question, as to the importance of this subject, is the 
 effect that an elevated road will have on real estate in general. 
 As to that, there has been testimony of a varying nature, and it has 
 been, I think, substantially settled by the evidence that in certain dis- 
 tricts there will be decided improvement, and in certain other districts 
 there will be decided disadvantage. I said to the committee when I 
 opened, so far as I did open the case for these petitioners, that the 
 parties whom I represented before you did not desire to go on 
 Washington street between Dover street and Cornhill, and I repeat 
 the statement. Under no circumstances whatever do we propose to 
 ask fora charter to go on that street between the points that I have 
 mentioned. But I am met, in regard to that statement, with a very 
 singular point which was made and presented clearly to you by the 
 counsel who closed for the city last Monday — I refer to the gentle- 
 man who is permanently employed at the state hou%e to take care 
 of legislative matters in behalf of the city of Boston. Mr. Stack- 
 pole told you as he closed his argument — and if I incorrectly 
 represent him I hope I may be set right — he told you substantially, 
 as hisclosing point, that the reason why the charter should not be 
 granted by this committee was this: that the matter then would 
 come under the control of twelve men who compose the board of 
 aldermen of the city of Boston (these twelve men were virtually 
 his clients for the time being), and these twelve men were fallible, 
 and that undue influences might be brought to bear on them, and he 
 besought you not to grant a charter, in order that you might, by 
 your action, stand between them and temptation which might he 
 orought to bear, and so made the argument, that even if we com- 
 mitted ourselves not to go on to Washington street between the 
 
12 
 
 points mentioned we might change our minds and bring undue 
 influences to bear on the board of aldermen, and therefore a charter 
 should not be granted. Mr. Chairman, I have pledged myself not 
 to ask you for a charter between the points mentioned. I will 
 pledge myself further, if pledging is needed, not to try to buy the 
 board of aldermen of the city of Boston. I have heard, from time 
 to time, since 1 have had the pleasure of again being a resident of 
 the city of Boston, of undue influences being brought to bear on 
 people in public station ; I have heard that committees of the legis- 
 lature have been bought ; 1 have heard of some such things as undue 
 influences being brought to hear on the representatives of the people 
 as they do their work at the state house. I have no knowledge of 
 such things; but I know this, that so far as I represent any interests 
 in this stale house, neither this year nor last year, not a single 
 dollar nor a single cent has ever been spent in any other than a 
 legitimate way, and that the statement of every disbursement is 
 open to the examination of any man who has an interest to inquire 
 into the subject. I do know that money was spent in this state 
 house last year, and 1 stated it frankly as I opened the case this 
 session; and 1 say it again, with equal frankness, that that money 
 
 was spent in an underhand and in an improper way by some of those 
 » \ 
 
 who were remonstrating against the granting of a similar petition; 
 and to that extent, and to that extent only, has any ulterior or 
 adverse influence, so far as I know, ever beeu brought to bear in 
 connection with this subject. 
 
 But to come back again to this point, to the influence of elevated 
 roads on property : I say it is admitted that some property is bene- 
 fited and some is injured, and if a way can be pointed out by which 
 property which is injured can be made good to its owners, and at the 
 same time the benefits which accrue can be made beneficial to those 
 who create the benefits, no man will be more ready than I to con- 
 sent to such a state of facts being met by a provision in the charter, 
 and no man will rejoice more than I to have that condition of things 
 provided for; and I hope that when the committee comes to confer 
 on this subject some such way maybe suggested; if it is, I am sure 
 
IB 
 
 that not only those whom I represent but those my brother Child 
 represents will equally be glad to accede to such a suggestion. 
 
 As to the influence of elevated roads on property, as shown by a 
 comparison between New York and Boston ; a letter was read to you 
 by Mr. Hills from a former commissioner of taxation in that city 
 stating his views on that subject. His statement was important and 
 .worthy of consideration. It was somewhat of a surprise to me, for it 
 stated the facts to be not as I understood them. I have accordingly, 
 for the purpose of meeting that same point, caused a communication 
 to be addressed to the commissioners of taxes and assessments in 
 New York and asked their present views and their present opinion 
 on that subject, for 3*011 will bear in mind that the gentleman who 
 wrote the letter which Mr. Hills read, is not at present employed as 
 one of the commissioners of taxes and assessments, but retired from 
 that position in 1878. 
 
 As to this letter, I should preface it perhaps by saying that I wrote 
 to Mr. Cowing, who you remember was a witness here, and asked 
 him to procure a statement from the commissioners of taxes. Mr. 
 Cowing replies to my letter in this way: 
 
 The New York Elevated Railroad Co. 
 
 General Offices, 7 Broadway. Treasurer’s Office, 7 Broadway. 
 
 New York, March 11, 1880. 
 
 J. A. L. Whittier, Esq : 
 
 ym 
 
 Dear sir, — In reply to the following questions in yours of the 9th 
 inst., viz., : — 
 
 I. "Has the operation of elevated railways in New York caused 
 "any decrease in the taxable valuation of real estate along the line of 
 "roads; if yea, to what percentage on previous valuations? if no 
 "change, please say so. If valuations have been increased for the 
 "above reasons, to what per cent?” 
 
 II. "What, if any, has been the effect of the operation of the 
 "elevated railways in New York, on the taxable valuation of property 
 
14 
 
 "contiguous to, but not on tin* hue of the said roads? Please state 
 " percentage.” 
 
 I submit a letter from Mr. Kellock, chief clerk in the tax de- 
 partment; the Mr. Coleman referred to by Mr. Kellock is a deputy 
 tax commissioner and good authority upon the questions submitted. 
 
 Undoubtedly the first effect upon some pieces of property abut- 
 ting on the street where the elevated roads are built is to depre- 
 ciate the taxable value, and owners are quick to avail themselves of 
 such circumstances to press upon the assessors and tax commissioners 
 for a reduction. And parties who occupy such premises on leases, 
 are also sharp to avail themselves of the clamor of owners, that 
 their property is injured — to get a reduction of rent; the embar- 
 rassed owner is then between two tires ; he must on the one hand stick 
 to it that his property is ruined, in order to make a claim upon the* 
 company and upon the tax commissioners for an abatement, and 
 on the other hand he must claim that the road is no injury, but a 
 benefit, to meet the demand of his tenant. 
 
 I learned of a case in ,53d street, between 6th and 9th avenues, 
 where there are good dwellings on both sides of the street: a per- 
 son owning a house on that street took the ground that his prop- 
 erty was depreciated largely; his neighbor, not so much alarmed, 
 inquired how much he thought he would lose, and he replied, lie 
 would take $15,000 for his house, which cost him $25,000 ; his neigh- 
 bor took him up and bought his house for $15,000, and re-sold it 
 within six weeks for $25,000. Now the original owner was right in 
 his views, but only half right; he did not see the other side. The 
 road did injure his property, not two fifths, but say it would rent for 
 $2500 per year before the road was built, it should fall to $2000 
 per year after the road was built ; but had the road been built on 
 52d or 54th streets, it would have increased the rental to $3000 per 
 year; so after all, taking both elements into account, the rent should 
 be the same as before, at $2500. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 J. A. COWING. 
 
15 
 
 Now, the commissioner of taxes and assessments writes as follows, 
 under date of March 10th : — 
 
 Department of the Commissioners of Taxes ani> Assessments, 
 
 City Hall Park, Chambers Street, 
 
 New York, March 10, 1880. 
 
 Dear sir, — In reply to your request, I submitted your questions 
 to our Mr. M. Coleman, and the substance of his views was as fol- 
 lows : "The depreciation caused by the erection of the elevated 
 roads cannot be stated, as the city south of 40th street, east of 3d 
 avenue and Bowery, and west of 8th avenue, is tilled with large 
 tenements which have rented for high prices, tilled with the laboring 
 class, who were compelled to live near their respective places of 
 business, and who could not risk the time morning and evening to 
 reside at a distance, but who can now, for the same fare and with 
 the same time, conveniently live on the outskirts of the city at a 
 cheaper rate of rent, thereby causing a large vacancy in those tene- 
 ments, thereby depreciating the value. 2d. The commissioners 
 have only recognized a depreciation where the roads have been 
 erected in narrow streets, such as Pearl, Church, Allen and Amity, 
 and in such improved property on (5th avenue and W. 53d street as 
 they thought was depreciated ; as to the general improvement and 
 appreciation of real estate, the balance is at least 28 per cent in 
 favor of the action and existence of the elevated railroads to the 
 present time.” Such, in brief, are his views. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 WILLIAM IvELLOCK. 
 
 J. A. Cowing, Esq., Treasurer. 
 
 That is to say, in taking a balance of the whole thing, and that is 
 the only proper way of treating the subject, the commissioners of 
 taxes and assessments in New York find that alter the roads have 
 been in operation two years the benefit accruing to the city by their 
 existence amounts in his opinion to 28 per cent. I submit that, 
 gentlemen, as an argument well worthy of your consideration. 
 
1G 
 
 Elevated Railways and House Railroads. 
 
 Let us consider a little further as to the advantages of these elc- 
 vated roads in another sense. The question of the improvement of 
 the outlying belt of territory not now adequately served by either 
 the steam cars on account of their not being near enough, and by 
 the horse cars on account of their slowness, need not be repeated, 
 because 1 have already touched upon it. The next question is as to 
 comparison between the horse ears and the elevated road, as to 
 different means to accomplish the same end. 
 
 In saying what I shall say, so far as this comparison is concerned, 
 I want to be distinctly understood as claiming that the city of Boston 
 possesses the best system of horse cars that probably is in existence in 
 any American city. My own investigations or my own knowledge 
 on that subject do not extend beyond St. Louis on the west, or 
 south of Richmond, Va. ; but in every other large city, and I sup- 
 pose that only excepts San Francisco and New Orleans, 1 have pretty 
 thoroughly examined this subject as to the service afforded by horse 
 cars, and the result of my experience is that in this city of Boston wc 
 have the best cars, the best system for accommodating the public, 
 the best horses, the most rapid transportation, the most efficient and 
 satisfactory drivers and conductors, the most capable and wide-awake 
 management, and in every way I believe the horse roads of Boston 
 arc the best roads of any city of the United States; and I will go a 
 little further, and I will say that I honestly believe that those, 
 who are in charge of the horse roads in Boston are men who are 
 alive to the wants of the people, and who propose in the future, 
 as they have in the past, to meet and to supply, so far as they 
 can, every want which comes to their knowledge. And I will 
 go a little further than that, if the committee will allow me to be so 
 personal, and to say that I believe that there is at the head of one of 
 these roads in Boston a man whose clearness of head and kindness of 
 heart are not exceeded by those qualities as possessed by any other 
 man at the head of any other corporation in the United States ; and 
 I honestly believe that so long as Calvin A. Richards is at the 
 head of the Metropolitan railroad the people of Boston will not 
 
17 
 
 suffer, so far as he can, by horse railroad accommodations, meet their 
 wants and supply their demands. 
 
 But the question is, is that the best method of meeting the public 
 wants? We have been told here that we have failed in one thing; 
 we have failed in that we have not shown to this committee that an 
 exigency for this system exists. What do these people mean? What 
 is to be understood by the word exigency? I confess that it is a 
 word susceptible of various and divers meanings. If I understand cor- 
 rectly the position of the remonstrants it amounts substantially to 
 this: that if this committee had begun to sit the day after it was ap- 
 pointed and the day after business was referred to it, and had sat 
 constantly every day it could sit for the hearing of testimony, and 
 witnesses had constantly been brought before it, one after another, 
 until hundreds and thousands had been brought up here, and then 
 when you had been obliged to stop because you had no more time 
 you should be told that the lobbies and the hall of representatives and 
 of the senate were full of people waiting to testify, and the crowd ex- 
 tended down the steps to Beacon street : 1 believe that is what one 
 set of men 'would have called" proving an exigency,” and, they would 
 argue, because that was not done on our behalf, we had not proved an 
 exigency. I submit to you that that kind of evidence, entirely 
 cumulative evidence, is not of a kind to have any particular effect on 
 intelligent men. You can judge of the exigency by the testimony of 
 five men, coupled with your own knowledge, just as well as you can 
 by the testimony of five thousand. And there is a line of evidence 
 which we have presented but have not yet pressed with any particular 
 force : there is a line of evidence which these remonstrants have not 
 alluded to, but which does prove our case, so far as the exigency is 
 concerned, beyond the shadow of a doubt. There are, Mr. Chair- 
 man and gentlemen, fifty-five millions of witnesses before this com- 
 mittee on behalf of the exigency which we claim to exist. I tell 
 you that every man and woman and child who went to make up the 
 vast number of people who were transported on the horse cars in the 
 city of Boston during the last year, every single one of them is a 
 silent, but an outspoken witness too, in favor of the existence of the ex- 
 
18 
 
 igency which we. claim ; and when a on can wipe out the fact that those 
 passengers are increasing at the rate of three millions and a half a 
 year, then, and not till then, have you succeeded in setting aside and 
 nullifying the weight of the testimony which the actual fact of their 
 existence presses upon your attention. There they are ; they arc the 
 Avitnesses which prove the exigency ; and when Ave offer a means of 
 communication to those fifty-five millions of people Avhich 'would re- 
 sult substantially in carrying them Avitli tAvice the speed, three times 
 the comfort, with entire safety and Avith no increase of expense as 
 compared with existing means, A\ r e have proved to you that an ex- 
 igency exists which should result in the granting of that which we ask 
 for. 
 
 Supposing the case to be that an elevated road is constructed in 
 Boston, and that out of the fifty-five millions of people Avho travel 
 year after year on horse roads we carry thirty-five millions, leaving 
 the rest for the present street roads ; and supposing Ave carry those 
 thirty-five millions of people at a saving of ten minutes on each trip, 
 and at no greater cost than they are paying to-day, what Avould be 
 the practical effect of that saving in adding to the Avealth of the city 
 of Boston? Simply this: calling a day of ten hours Avorth a dollar 
 to each person, it would result in adding every year $1,200,000 to 
 the productive value of the people of the city of Boston. That 
 saving is worth money ; and figures, gentlemen, do not lie. 
 
 We can carry these passengers here with safety. There is no 
 question whatever that it is within the limits of engineering skill to 
 construct an elevated road strong enough and safe enough to carry 
 everybody that rides on it, and there is no question either that 
 prudent men Avho are willing to put their money into the construction 
 of an elevated road will be prudent enough to build it Avith sufficient 
 strength and solidity to inspire and to retain the public confidence ; 
 for the worst thing that could happen to them and to their interest 
 would be the erection of a structure which was not in itself entitled 
 to the public confidence. There has not, during the operation of 
 elevated roads in Ncav York up to this day, been a single accident 
 resulting from the weakness of the structure itself. Every accident 
 
19 
 
 that has happened on those roads is owing to causes which might 
 produce the same result on any surface road — to the carelessness of 
 a switchman, to the carelessness or the inexperience of an engineer, 
 to the fault of the passenger himself, or to causes of that kind ; but 
 there has not been an accident produced in and of itself by the weak- 
 ness of the structure. When that happens, when a girder falls 
 down, when a train is thrown from the track by the breaking down 
 of a section of the structure, then it will be time enough to argue 
 that we cannot build a safe elevated road. 
 
 As to the matter of comfort ; that point deserves a word of atten- 
 tion, for it is a pretty serious matter. Here, for several months in 
 the year in Boston, how are we transported as regards comfort? 
 We are carried now in as good a way as we can be carried under the 
 circumstances, but our cars are cold, and a great many people suffer 
 great inconvenience because they cannot ride comfortably warm. 
 On an elevated road that objection is entirely obviated. There is 
 no difficulty in heating the cars, there is no difficulty in carrying the 
 passengers in a train of comfortable temperature ; there is no diffi- 
 culty in giving every man a seat if he is only willing to wait for a 
 minute; but the people stand in New York, and the only complaint 
 against elevated roads there — and it was voiced by one of the wit- 
 nesses here — is that people are so anxious to ride on those roads at 
 certain hours of the day that they will crowd into the cars and will 
 stand up. That is something which applies to the passenger and is 
 not to be attributed to the railroad. And if I am not mistaken 
 something of that kind has occurred on the horse roads in Boston, 
 for we all have a distinct remembrance of crowded horse cars on our 
 city streets. 
 
 The next question is the speed. There is no doubt you can be 
 drawn a great deal faster on an elevated road than you can on a 
 surface road where the car is drawn by horses. That needs no 
 argument, although it was asserted, and erronously, I think, that 
 the speed of a horse car in Boston was eight miles an hour; I 
 never saw a horse car going at the rate of eight miles an hour ; and 
 
I never want to, for I think it will he disastrous to the horses and 
 ruinous to the corporations. 
 
 The next question is cheapness. My brother Clarke, with that 
 clearness and that satisfactory method that is characteristic of him, 
 yesterday, at considerable length, demonstrated to you very satis- 
 factorily to himself that an elevated road could not be operated 
 cheaply, and therefore the people would get no benefit from it. My 
 brother Clarke forgot one or two things which, perhaps, he would 
 not have mentioned if he had remembered them. One was that an 
 elevated road can be operated if it is wisely managed at a percent- 
 age on the receipts of about forty-five per cent, and that the horse- 
 railroad percentage of expenses to receipts is, I think, at least 
 seventy per cent. My friend Mr. Richards will correct me if I 
 am wrong, but my impression is that somewhere about seventy per 
 cent is required for operating expenses, and the margin alone 
 between the operating expenses of an elevated road and those of a 
 horse road is enough to afford a very good margin of profit and a very 
 good contribution towards the payment of dividends ; and he should 
 have borne in mind another thing, that we can build an elevated 
 road in Boston a great deal cheaper than it can be built in New 
 York. lie forgot to tell you that the elevated roads in New York 
 are paying dividends to-day of ten per cent on their stock, and 
 that they are carrying bonds which bear interest at the rate of seven per 
 cent on a watered capital of twenty-four millions of dollars. And 
 lie forgot to mention to you that it is not possible, under the satis- 
 factory system of the laws of Massachusetts, to water any stock in 
 such a way as that. If he had told you those things, the conclusion 
 to which he would have been obliged to come would have been pre- 
 cisely the opposite to that to which he did come, and he would have 
 been obliged to admit that the argument that we cannot carry pas- 
 sengers cheaply was not founded on a correct understanding of the 
 facts of the case. 
 
 There is another point which, I think, is perhaps worth considering, 
 and that is : we are going to bo in competition, in operating our ele- 
 vated road, with several other means of transportation, and of necessity 
 
we must to make our fares cheap or else we will not get the busi- 
 ness. We will have to make our enterprise a success, and if it is 
 not a success and it results finally in the taking down of the pillars, 
 and there is a destruction of the roadway and the carrying off of 
 these railway trains for some other use and in some other place, 
 then the loss will he ours, and the misfortune will be ours, and we 
 shall not go for sympathy to our friends of the street roads. But we 
 submit that we are willing to try the experiment. I say it in all hon- 
 esty and sincerity that there are behind me, and I represent, men who 
 are willing to put the money which they have earned themselves 
 into this enterprise and spend sufficient to test it thoroughly and 
 satisfactorily, and are willing to take the risk as to whether or not it 
 will produce any adequate' returns for the investment which they make, 
 and all we ask from you is, that if you are satisfied as to the exigency 
 and satisfied as to the possibility, you will give us the chance to do 
 the work. 
 
 There is another consideration to which I should call your atten- 
 tion, and that is, that the surrounding towns, such as Cambridge, 
 South Boston, Charlestown and the Highlands, are not properly 
 served by the present means of transportation ; and an elevated rail- 
 road is the only way in which they can be satisfactorily served. The 
 statement of that proposition carries with it almost its own support. 
 It is not necessary for me to enlarge upon it, for every man who 
 knows that eight millions of people come from Cambridge and spend 
 over an average of half an hour to and fro each trip, and a far greater 
 number from the Highlands, and about the same number from 
 Charlestown and South Boston, spending about the same length of 
 time, — every such man knows that the statement of that fact means 
 that there ought to be, if possible, some better means of communi- 
 cation than is now afforded. We submit, that the elevated road does 
 afford such a means of communication. 
 
 But it has been argued to you still further, on behalf of the remon- 
 strants, that the accommodation as furnished by the street-car lines 
 has not yet reached its maximum, and that the statement we have 
 
22 
 
 made heretofore in regard to their having come up to their limit is 
 not correct. 
 
 That point can he disposed of, I think, very briefly, for yon must 
 bear in mind that it is admitted by all parties that, so far as the circuit 
 is concerned, they have come to a point where no more cars ought to 
 be allowed. But, say the gentlemen who represent the street rail- 
 road, "if you come with your horse cars to Scollay’s square in one 
 direction, and to Boylston street in another, there isn’t going to he 
 any difficulty.” But the fact is the people want to go further, and the 
 fact is that the demand has caused the circuit to he crowded, and the 
 fact is that the demand is constantly increasing and that the want can- 
 not he met on the circuit by the present system, and in accordance 
 with the views of the board of aldermen. In regard to this point, this 
 matter of accommodation furnished by the street road, the analogy 
 is precisely that of a chain — the weakest link of a chain is the test of 
 its strength — and the weakest link of the chain, so far as the limit of 
 accommodation is concerned, is over the circuit, and when the cir- 
 cuit is full and cannot he any more crowded than it is to-day, then 
 they have reached their limit and the people arc not accommodated. 
 But the elevated road will meet that difficulty. 
 
 ■ It will meet another difficulty. It will obviate another discomfort. 
 It will have, undoubtedly, the effect of removing from the streets of 
 Boston a portion of the street cars, and to that extent the other 
 means of transportation through the streets of the city will have a 
 degree of accommodation which they don’t now have and which they 
 have a perfect right to expect. 
 
 I am notone of those who believe, as did one of the witnesses here, 
 that there is no need of any other means of transportation in Boston 
 so long as there is a street on which a horse road can he put down. 
 It was stated to you here by one witness, that there were a great 
 many streets in Boston on which horse-car lines could he laid : I 
 don’t doubt it. But I do submit that there are in existence, and 
 should he considered, the rights of some other people than those who 
 control the horse-car lines ; and that those who do teaming and truck- 
 ing, who drive their own horses, or who use the streets for any of 
 
 4 
 
ft 
 
 s 
 
 23 
 
 the various purposes connected with their avocations and their busi- 
 ness, have some rights of consideration ; and that the effect of putting 
 a street-car line down on almost every street of the city, would be 
 disastrous to some interests, and a thing which should not be al- 
 lowed ; and I doubt very much if the sensible board of aldermen who 
 have heretofore, now, and hereafter will control the interests of the 
 city in that regard, will ever allow anything of that kind. 
 
 But there is another, and rather a curious argument made here by 
 the gentleman who opened the case on behalf of the remonstrants. 
 In relation to the circuit, he said, if I understood him correctly, that 
 the board of aldermen practically were not enforcing their rule in 
 regard to the circuit, and in all probability they would not enforce it. 
 That is a very singular sort of a statement. It is not an argument, 
 but a statement ; and reduced to its brevity it is, because men don’t 
 do their duty, and there is a chance that they will not do their duty, 
 there is nothing for anybody else to do. But the statement was not 
 true, and no weight should attach to it in your minds. 
 
 But then they go a little further, and they say, as it was said on be- 
 half of the remonstrants in the opening, that it is utterly impossible 
 to build an elevated road in the streets of Boston. If it is utterly 
 impossible, why don’t that settle the whole question? and if the ques- 
 tion was settled by that fact it was settled before these hearings 
 began. It was settled practically and scientifically before this peti- 
 tion was presented, and there is no occasion for 'anybody to come up 
 here and take his time, and trouble his friends to testify, in regard to 
 this subject at all, because the question was settled when it was 
 known that it was utterly impossible to build an elevated road in the 
 streets of Boston. But unfortunately for them that statement is not 
 correct, because there is no engineering difficulty in the way which 
 cannot be overcome ; and if it should happen that we should have 
 to go round a very short curve from one narrow street to another, 
 one thing is certain : we should be obliged to take some ground be- 
 longing to a private individual ; and another thing is certain, we 
 should have to buy that ground. 
 
24 
 
 ' 
 
 
 The Rights of Adjacent Property Owners. 
 
 We are told, and the weight of a good deal of the evidence is to 
 the effect, that we are going to injure adjacent property, and that 
 we ought to be compelled to pay for it. This question is to be con- 
 sidered not alone in the light of the rights of the claims of the ad- 
 jacent property owners : it is to be considered too, in this light : first , 
 what are the rights of the people in the streets? and secondly , 
 what are the rights of the property owners adjacent in the streets? 
 and thirdly , what is the weight of the law in regard to the use of the 
 streets? Now, I think it will be admitted by any one who knows 
 anything about it, that ordinarily speaking the adjacent property 
 owners, the abutting property owners, in Boston have no special 
 rights in the streets over and above those of any other people ; and 
 I think it will be admitted that if it appears that the use to which 
 the streets are put in the erection of an elevated road is not an im- 
 proper use, that that settles the whole question, and that the matter 
 of damages naturally follows the settlement of it. It has been held 
 by several courts — it is, I think, the law of Massachusetts, in fact 
 I have no doubt of it — that the use of the streets for a horse rail- 
 road is not an improper use. It is not a use, however, that was 
 contemplated by the founders of the city ; it is not a use that was 
 thought of for many and many a year after the streets wei-e laid 
 out; but notwithstanding, when that use came into being, it was held 
 to be a proper use. It has been held further, that the use of the 
 streets for a steam road is a proper use. As a matter of fact, in the 
 city of Boston to-day there is a steam road Avhere cars are drawn 
 by locomotives at a low rate of speed through the streets. So we 
 may assume these two things : that the use of the streets for a horse 
 road is not improper, and that the use of the streets for a steam 
 road is not improper. And we then come to the question whether 
 the use of the streets for the erection of an elevated road, which is 
 to be put on pillars over the heads of the wayfarers, and which 
 helps to relieve the street from its present use to a certain extent, 
 is an improper use? I submit it is a perfectly proper one, because 
 it is a use to which the street is put for the same reason that it was 
 
 4 
 
before used by horse roads and steam roads — that is to say, for (he 
 comfort and convenience of the people; and when it is shown that 
 the elevated road is not for the public comfort, and not for the pub- 
 lic convenience, then and then only will it be proper to argue that 
 the erection of such a structure is an improper use of the streets ; 
 and if that be a proper use, the question of damages must be settled 
 in the courts ; and I submit you are perfectly safe in leaving that 
 matter where it now is, and in leaving the courts of the common- 
 wealth to settle it as between the corporation and the people, without 
 the interference of the legislature, and without attempt to make that as 
 law which never has been law, and which probably never will be law, 
 because if these rich property owners along the lines of these 
 streets are really damaged, they have their remedy, and the roads 
 can be obliged to meet and pay for all the damage that has been 
 created ; and if they have suffered no actual damage, there is no 
 reason why those corporations should be met at the outset with a 
 provision in their charter compelling them to pay for a wrong which 
 they have not committed. I have shown you, I think, that in the 
 streets of New York the injury claimed has not actually existed, 
 and that on the whole there has been a decided improvement. I 
 have shown you, too, if I am not wrong, that the argument presented 
 by the remonstrants to the effect that steam roads centre in Bos- 
 ton from one hundred and eight suburban stations, and at nine dif- 
 ferent railroad depots, does not meet the issue which is presented 
 for your consideration ; for, notwithstanding all those facilities, the 
 travel on the street roads is constantly increasing, and that is the 
 kind of travel we are seeking to accommodate. 
 
 And there is another consideration which has a close relationship 
 to this subject, and which has never been alluded to during these 
 lengthy hearings and these lengthy arguments by our opponents : our 
 bill provides that the city of Boston, and the other cities and towns 
 through which our road is to pass, shall be paid for the use of the 
 streets which we occupy, by a percentage of our receipts. 
 
 I do not wonder that no allusion was made to this feature of our 
 
26 
 
 bill by those who are here to prevent, if they can, our obtaining a 
 charter. 
 
 The very idea of paying for the use of the streets is obnoxious to 
 those who control the street horse railways. They have used the 
 roadways so long that an idea has grown up in their minds that they 
 own them, and that no other use is in consonance with the funda- 
 mental law which regulates the highways. In this they are mis- 
 taken. In no other city can be found such an existing condition as 
 is characteristic of Boston. In other communities the use of the 
 streets is paid for by the horse railroads, and we have a provision in 
 our charter which will produce the same result. 
 
 We carefully provide that a percentage of our receipts shall go 
 towards the cai’c of the parks of the city or towards such other cor- 
 porate uses as the government of the respective municipalities shall 
 suggest. 
 
 To this extent our charter is peculiar, and to this extent only. In 
 no other respect do we introduce into the corporate peculiarities of 
 Massachusetts charters a feature not before known. 
 
 And the argument which is forced upon your attention by this 
 state of things, is one of great weight, and is one which is favorable 
 to our petition ; for which reason no reference to it has been here- 
 tofore made by those who have occupied your time with argument- 
 ative objections. 
 
 But I am met with another objection presented here, and forcibly, 
 to the committee by some of the counsel on the other side, and that 
 is, that we should fail in our endeavor to promote the interests of the 
 people of Boston and build up the population by the erection of an 
 elevated road, because we should be interfering with that natural and 
 steady growth which is characteristic of the city, and which cannot be 
 accelerated by any' such means. Now, analogous to that was the state- 
 ment made by Dr. Moore that lie would rather see a tire sweep down 
 Washington street and destroy all the buildings than to see an ele- 
 vated road there. Those two expressions of opinion were of pre- 
 cisely the same kind, and they amount simply to this: that they are 
 the uttering of a sentiment which h is been characteristic of Boston 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
 27 
 
 for a good many years. That is to say, we are conservative ; we 
 want to be let alone, we don’t want to be hurried up, we don’t want 
 anything here except natural and steady growth. The practical effect 
 of that theory has been to drive away from Boston business enterprise 
 and business men. Wherever you go in the western country you 
 will find that the smart men and the enterprising men, the men who are 
 making money and improving the country and building up the re- 
 sources of the West, are the men who came from the East, and a good 
 many of these men "went from Boston, and they went away be- 
 cause they could rind no place here on account only of that same sen- 
 timent which comes up here and is voiced by the cry, "Let us alone, 
 and don’t try to accelerate the natural growth of the city.” I have 
 no words in which to express my opinion of that kind of an argument. 
 I believe in giving Boston everything that can do it good. I believe 
 in bringing here and using here everything which in any other city has 
 been demonstrated to be an advantage to the citizens, and I don’t be- 
 lieve that it is a sound policy or a sensible policy to say, "Never 
 mind what has done good in another place, we don’t want it here 
 yet awhile ; never mind what other places have reaped from certain 
 advantages, we don’t want them here yet awhile; all we want or care 
 for is our natural and steady growth.” Natural and steady growth 
 is one thing, but the growth to which a city is entitled is quite a dif- 
 ferent one ; and that natural and steady growth would keep the poor 
 people in the tenement-houses of Boston for an indefinite time. That 
 natural and that steady growth would keep the Highlands from grow- 
 ing any faster than they grow to-day. That natural and that steady 
 growth would keep Cambridge where it is now. That natural and that 
 steady growth would prevent the development of all the outlying 
 suburbs within a radius of four miles of Boston. And that natural 
 and steady growth has been an incubus on this city for many a year. 
 I honestly believe the erection of the elevated road we ask for will 
 do more than any other thing has done towards wiping it out and 
 utterly destroying it and putting Boston where it ought to be. There 
 is no trouble with Boston, the working-men of Boston are all right ; 
 the business men of Boston have got enterprise enough, there is 
 
capital enough in Boston, but the only trouble is, there is :t cer- 
 tain conservative spirit produced i>v men who have retired from active 
 business, who have large propertv interests which they only wish to 
 take care of, and who take no such interest in the general business 
 of the city as they should, and who are keeping down and back those 
 who would make Boston what it ought to be in reality — the metropolis 
 of New England and one of the greatest cities in the United State-. 
 There is no reason why we should not grow as other cities have 
 grown ; and T believe we are going to produce in our city within the 
 next ten years a degree of development which will be a credit to us, 
 and, as compared with the growth of the past, a very remarkable 
 development; but we shall not do it, we cannot doit, if we are to be 
 kept back by the cry of "natural growth.” 
 
 I am about concluding what T have marked out for myself to say, 
 fori bear in mind I am to be followed by a gentleman who can pre- 
 sent to you, with a clearness of which I am no master, and with a degree 
 of power to which I can lay no claim, the considerations in favor of 
 these petitions in a more exhaustive manner; but I find on my mem- 
 orandum two more points which I must touch. They may be con- 
 sidered as the scientific objections. 
 
 The Scientific Objections. 
 
 It has been argued here that there are scientific objections in the 
 way, and that we cannot depend on the experience of the past, but 
 we must expect to meet certain experimental conditions of things, 
 and we must provide a method of meeting them ; and we are told that 
 the proper way to meet these scientific objections is to take out of 
 the hands of the board of aldermen of Boston that which they have 
 always had, to wit, the control of its streets, and to create a certain 
 foreign and peculiar commission which never existed before, to be 
 composed of the aldermen, and the railroad commissioners, and the 
 superintendent of streets, and the man who builds the sewers, and 
 the other man who takes care of the water works, and the represen- 
 tative of the Boston Gas Light Company, — and I think the Bell tel- 
 ephone people are going to be represented too — and three or four 
 
29 
 
 other corporations in the city should all combine and form a com- 
 mission to settle this question. But that is not the way to meet it. 
 I take the ground that the governing power in the city of Boston, 
 which has taken care of great matters in the past, matters which 
 embodied great scientific research and the use of almost every scien- 
 tific means that could have been brought to bear, and have suc- 
 ceeded in what they undertook, are competent to take up and carry 
 out the duty devolved upon them in this charter. If we are allowed 
 to erect elevated roads in Boston, under their direction, I think the 
 power which enabled Boston to have its present water system, and 
 which is controlling the various scientific details of its other require- 
 ments, can be safely trusted with this one. It is not a very difficult 
 question to settle ; the question can be settled in a very brief time 
 as to what kind of a structure should be used, what the strength of 
 the structure should be, and how it should be erected. I think the 
 board of aldermen, with the assistance which they are entitled to call 
 for, and which they always avail themselves of, are perfectly able 
 to settle this question ; and I believe if they are allowed to settle it, 
 they will do it to entire satisfaction, both as to location and as to 
 the way in which the work is to be done. It is not necessary to add 
 to them what they have never asked for, and it is not necessary to 
 do it until they ask it. I can understand why it might be an advan- 
 tage sometimes to have a large body of men to pass on this ques- 
 tion, because the result of diversity of opinion would always be in 
 favor of those who are our opponents. I submit that is not worthy 
 of your consideration, and in settling a matter of this kind, in its 
 details as well as its generalities, you should go as far as you can 
 in accordance with what experience has taught to be a safe and 
 proper method ; and that the safe and proper method has been here- 
 tofore to leave to the board of aldermen the control of the Boston 
 streets, cannot and will not be denied. 
 
 We then come to this : If we have succeeded in what we have 
 endeavored to prove here, we have shown you that an elevated 
 road is not an experiment, but is a fixed and successful fact : we 
 have shown you that in another great city it is doing a great deal 
 

 30 
 
 of good : we have shown you that it results in carrying people with 
 speed, with comfort, with safety and with cheapness : we have shown 
 you that there is no difficulty connected with its structure which 
 cannot be overcome by proper scientific appliances : and we have 
 shown you too that it will be a great benefit to the city of Boston. 
 If we have succeeded in convincing you of these things, then we 
 have given you every reason why that which we ask for should be 
 granted. And believing that we have succeeded, and with entire 
 confidence as to the conclusion to which you will come, and with an 
 entire willingness to leave our interests in your hands, for we know 
 they are safe there, we submit our case to your careful considex-ation. 
 
 f, 
 
 4 
 
4 
 
 
 J A 
 
1