r 
 
 POLICY AND MANAGEMENT OF THE BOSTON 
 AND WORCESTER RAILROAD. 
 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 OP 
 
 EMORY WASHBURN. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the stocknohl4rs( of /tjji^ Boston and 
 Worcester Railroad, February 6, 1867, ME^^Pemis made sun- 
 
 dry inquiries as to the management and condition of the road, 
 and alluded to the discussions which have recently been going on, 
 and the statements which have been made upon the subject, in 
 
 connection with the proposition of Mr. Quincy, for the State to 
 
 purchase the Western and Boston and Worcester Railroads. He 
 
 said that he did it that the public might be in possession of the 
 
 facts upon which an opinion might properly be formed. After 
 the President, Mr. Twichell, had replied to these, by stating the 
 facts bearing upon the matters inquired of, Mr. Washburn, one 
 of the Directors, said that he felt called upon to state, somewhat 
 at length, the policy which, as a Director, he had advocated for 
 the last ten or twelve years, after what had been publicly and 
 repeatedly charged against the management of the road. It was 
 due to the Directors and to the Stockholders, whose interests had 
 been entrusted to them, that everything in respect to this policy 
 and management should be fully known and understood, that, if 
 they had been wrong, they might be corrected ; if they had been 
 wise or judicious, the public n^ight be disabused of the impression 
 which had been most persistently attempted to be made upon the 
 
 public mind. He should not, however, assume to speak for any 
 
 one but himself, and no one else was to be held responsible for 
 what he should say. Nor would he presume to tax the attention 
 of the meeting, if the remarks which he had felt called upon to 
 notice, related merely to matters upon which honest men might 
 differ on points of taste or unessential expediency. Charges and 
 insinuations had been made by a gentleman standing high in this 
 community, bearing upon the conduct of the Directors of this 
 road, which ought not to pass unnoticed, since they were not the 
 
2 
 
 casual remarks of conversation or debate, but deliberately repeated 
 before the Board of Trade, before the City Council, and before a 
 committee of the Legislature, and published and scattered broad- 
 cast through the community. And these, or other like charges, 
 were evidently having an effect upon the public mind hostile to the 
 road. He held in his hand the “ Boston Journal ” of to-day, in 
 which the editor, in a leading article in his paper, had seen fit to 
 use this language in respect to the Worcester Hoad in its relation 
 to the Western Boad, and the conveyance of freight from Albany 
 to Boston : The one has considered its traffic beyond the city of 
 Worcester incidental to its main business, and a burden upon its 
 policy ; it has, therefore, done little to encourage trade from the 
 West, and has failed to furnish suitable accommodations for it.” 
 The groundlessness of this general and sweeping charge he be- 
 lieved would appear obvious to every one, from the facts he should 
 offer before he closed, and yet the editor of that paper must have 
 believed it to be true ; he certainly could have had no motive to 
 misrepresent in a matter like this, nor was it to be supposed that 
 he made this statement from any hostility to the road or its officers. 
 And he could not, in this connection, forbear alluding to the lan- 
 guage of his friend, the Hon. Mr. Tobey, before the Board of 
 Trade, day before yesterday, as reported in the “ Daily Adver- 
 tiser’’: “He spoke of the opposition of the Worcester Railroad 
 Directors to the proposal to aid the National Steamship Company, 
 as showing the animus of that corporation.” Mr. W. said he was 
 not aware that the Directors had ever had the subject before them. 
 And if they had, they would have been restricted from acting 
 upon it by the votes of the Stockholders limiting their powers of 
 engaging in any enterprise outside of the railroad proper, adopted 
 as early as 1855. And yet Mr. lk)bey thought what he said was 
 true, for he was the last man to misrepresent any one intentionally. 
 The truth was, that while others had been busy in the community 
 in creating a false public sentiment against the road, its officers 
 had been minding their own business and attendmg to their proper 
 duties, believing that the road itself and the manner in which it 
 was serving the public wants, would be the best answer to any 
 such imputations as had been loosely made against it. But it 
 had now assumed a form so direct and from such a responsible 
 source that, for one, he felt that it was due to the Stockholders, as ^ 
 well as to the Directors, to reply to the charges so publicly made. 
 
3 
 
 He held in his hand a pamphlet, purporting to be “ City Docu- 
 ment, No. 109 ” of the City of Boston, and containing a com- 
 munication of Hon. Josiah Quincy to the Board of Trade, Nov. 
 19th last, and published by the Boston City Council. Also, re- 
 marks made by Mr. Quincy before the Board of Trade, published 
 in the Daily Advertiser ” of January 8th last, and a copy of the 
 argument addressed by the same gentleman to a committee of 
 the Legislature, and published in the “ Daily Advertiser ’’ of 
 January 31st. In them, especially the first of them, Mr. Quincy 
 has seen fit to indulge in remarks which certainly deserved to be 
 noticed, and, if possible, to be answered. 
 
 ALLEGED NEGLECT TO SUPPLY CARS. 
 
 The first thing that must strike the attention of any one was 
 the persistent manner in which, when, speaking of this road, Mr. 
 Q. had linked and combined it with the Western Hoad. Mr. W. 
 did not feel himself called upon to speak for the Western Road, 
 nor had he occasion to admit or deny that the Western Road 
 had been in fault. But the paper which Mr. Q. had read before 
 the Board of Trade made frequent and pointed reference to a 
 Report of a Legislative Committee of April, 1866, raised “ to in- 
 vestigate the facts as to the inability or indisposition of the West- 
 ern Railroad to give facilities for the transportation of freight from 
 Albany, eastward,’’ etc., etc. Now, upon what ground of fairness, 
 if, in that investigation, anything was found for which the Western 
 Road was justly amenable, should the Worcester Road be made 
 responsible, or why should it be mixed up with the Western 
 Road ? Is the gentleman so hard pushed to find grounds of com- 
 plaint against one of these roads, that he must bring them both 
 into the same category, in order to reach his purposes ? The first ^ 
 of the charges which this paper makes, is the neglect of the road 
 to supply a proper number of cars. His language Was this : 
 “Now, has this demand for increased facilities been met by cor- 
 responding accommodation on the part of the Railroad ? What 
 proportion of the treasure from the great granary of the West has 
 been attracted by this route to New England ? During the last 
 ten years the Western Railroad have added two hundred and 
 twelve (212) freight cars to their equipment, — the Worcester 
 Railroad not one.” Observe here, that the very thing charged as 
 
 \ 
 
4 
 
 a delinquency against the Western Road was their neglect to fur- 
 nish cars. Nor was the Worcester Road upon trial at all. Why, 
 then, this gratuitous blending of the two under the same charge ? 
 What were the facts as they appear, partly from the very report 
 Mr. Q. refers to, and partly from other public documents, includ- 
 ing the annual reports of the road, accessible to any one ? In 
 1853 an arrangement was made between the two roads, whereby 
 the Western was to furnish the merchandise cars for the Western 
 business. That left the Worcester Road with a surplus of cars 
 beyond what was needed for her own business. This was fully 
 stated by the annual report of the road in 1857. In 1862, a 
 reference, consisting of gentlemen of the Board of Trade, and 
 recommended by that board, was had to adjust and regulate the 
 through business of these two roads. One item was purposely left 
 by that board of referees, to be settled by a special referee, 
 and that was, which of the roads should furnish the cars for this 
 business ? The referee, Mr. Robert Hale, made his award in 
 1863, whereby the cars were to be furnished by the Western 
 Road ; and that award and agreement are in force now. In the 
 hearing before the legislative committee, as appears by their report 
 referred to by Mr. Quincy, Mr. Chapin, the President of the 
 Western Road, and Mr. Homer, a Director of the Worcester Road, 
 stated the same fact, in substance, to the committee. The simple 
 truth was, the Worcester Road were not, by that award, to furnish 
 a car for the joint business ; but, on the contrary, the Western 
 Road was to do it. And upon what ground of fairness, he would 
 repeat, is the Worcester Road thus arraigned before the public 
 for delinquency in not adding any cars to her equipment, which 
 was already full ? The fact may not be important, but, in the lan- 
 guage already quoted, it serves to show the animus ” with which 
 the imputation is made. 
 
 ALLEGi*ED DESIGN TO DO A SMALL BUSINESS AT HIGH RATES. 
 
 The next charge made by Mr. Quincy is of a more serious 
 character. It implies that these roads have been pursuing a 
 policy, artfully contrived, by which a small amount of business 
 should be done at high rates, so as to give the Stockholders good 
 dividends, without subjecting the roads to the hazard of being- 
 taken or redeemed by the State. But he chose to let Mr. Quincy 
 speak for himself to this point : “ Let it not be supposed that I 
 
5 
 
 intend to blame either the Presidents of the Western or Boston 
 and Worcester Railroads. On the contrary, I sympathize with 
 them in being compelled to carry out a system at variance with 
 the public interest. The position is an embarrassing one. Here 
 are gentlemen chosen by the Shareholders to look after their inter- 
 ests. They rightly assume that it is their first, if not their only, 
 duty to be faithful to those whose interests are confided to them, 
 in insuring to them large, sure, and immediate dividends. If 
 these are satisfactory, they should ‘ let well enough alone.’ They 
 must grasp one per cent, on a dividend, whatever it may cost 
 the public. They must oppose every change which involves the 
 possibility of a diminution of their profits, and all proposals for 
 ulterior but contingent advantages. In short, they must see that 
 the transitory interests of the few are not sacrificed to the welfare 
 and improvement of the many. How, what are they to do ? 
 Shall they put down double tracks if the business of the road will 
 warrant it ? Shall they add to the depots ? Shall they send out 
 agents and turn all the business, possible to their roads? Shall 
 they, like other* roads, have agents here to settle claims and ques- 
 tions arising with other connecting lines ? Nothing at all of this. 
 Their obligations to the Shareholders requires them not to do more 
 business, but to find out how not to do it. Suppose these Presi- 
 dents had exerted their energies, and accomplished four times the 
 present amount of business (and we know that this was perfectly 
 practicable), thereby increasing their dividends from ten to twenty 
 per cent, per annum, — would this have been a favorable result 
 to the Shareholders ? Decidedly not. In a few years, they would 
 have repaid to their Shareholders the whole capital they had paid 
 in, and seven or ten per cent, interest from the time it was paid, 
 and, by the terms of the agreement, the State would then have 
 had the rigj^t to take the roads without further payment.” 
 
 If these insinuations were true, the Stockholders then before 
 him had been partakers in this wrong done to the public. What 
 had been done is charged as having been done for them. And 
 he appealed to those who heard him, if they had ever counselled 
 such a course, or if the thought had ever entered their minds ? 
 As for himself, he did not hesitate to say, the charge so far as he 
 had ever heard anything said at the board, or so far as we know 
 his own mind or that of the Directors, was wholly and absolutely 
 groundless. So far from its being true, it had been a constant 
 
6 
 
 subject of thought of the board, when they came together, to 
 know how they could fairly increase the legitimate business of 
 the road, and how they would reduce the expenses of doing that 
 business. He appealed to every Director, if what he was saying 
 was not literally and unqualifiedly true ? He would do more. 
 He would go to the Board of Trade, before whom this statement 
 had been made, and appeal to Mr. Tobey himself, one of the 
 prominent members of that most respectable body, if, while he 
 was a member of this Board of Directors, as he recently was, he 
 ever heard a suggestion or a hint even, of such a course of policy 
 as is here indicated in the paper of Mr. Quincy ? He would go 
 still further, and appeal to the business men of Boston, one and 
 all, who have had occasion to make use of this road, if there ever 
 was a pound of freight declined or refused by the road or its 
 officers ? He had no hesitation in challenging contradiction, when 
 he asserted that the road has been willing, from first to last, and 
 has, in fact, carried everything, within its capacity, which has been 
 offered for transportation. 
 
 WHAT THE ROAD HAS DONE. 
 
 Instead of sparing endeavors to do an increased business and 
 to meet the growing wants of the public, the road has been con- 
 stantly making new efforts and adding new facilities. Instead of 
 neglecting, as intimated in the language cited, to add to the 
 depots,” the road had, before 1857, expended, to accommodate 
 the through business, over and above what would have been neces- 
 sary to do their proper local business, at least two millions of dol- 
 lars, as then estimated, — and since 1857, as stated this day in 
 their hearing by the President, the road had expended for land, 
 buildings, and rolling stock, over and above the depreciation, ren- 
 dered necessary to accommodate the growing ‘business from the | 
 West, 1600,000, besides 1250,000 towards accomplishing the 
 scheme of reaching deep water at East Boston, which the public 
 have been pressing as essential to the business of the road. So j 
 far from being content with a limited amount of business, the road ^ 
 have, the very last year, been actively engaged in a vigorous at- 
 tempt to multiply and increase it by uniting in organizing three in- , 
 dependent freight lines, known as the Red^ Blue^ and White Lines^ 
 between Boston and Chicago, and Boston and Cincinnati, by which i 
 the Boston merchant can to-day send his goods from here to Chi- | 
 
7 
 
 cago at the same prices and rates at which the New York mer- 
 chant can send his goods to the same point, although he is fifty miles 
 nearer Chicago than Boston is. The truth is, this road has been 
 constantly and assiduously endeavoring to meet and supply every 
 reasonable requirement of the public. They have had to encoun- 
 ter frequent and annoying difficulties and delays, for which they 
 have, in nowise, been responsible. They felt the importance of 
 reaching deep water and providing elevators for the Western trade, 
 and they early engaged in the scheme of doing this at East Bos- 
 ton. They, for this purpose, invested, by way of loan and a con- 
 tract for doing this business, with the Grand Junction Road, 
 1100,000, for which they have yet received no return, by reason 
 of the failure of that Company. Since then, they have been making 
 constant endeavors to reach the same point, but have never had 
 leave or authority from the Legislature to do it, until a year since. 
 A road under that authority has been located to that point, but 
 the delays arising from questions in respect to the property at 
 East Boston, pending in court, have hitherto prevented their ac- 
 complishing their purpose. In the mean time, to accommodate this 
 business, to the best extent in their power, they have, within a 
 month or two, procured land upon Fore Point Channel, by an ami- 
 cable arrangement with the Old Colony Road, upon which they 
 propose to erect an elevator, which has become necessary, now 
 that the bridge at Albany enables the Western trader to send 
 forward his grain in hulk. These are some of the things which 
 the road has done and is doing ; and with what grace can it be 
 charged, that the Presidents of these roads have conspired, under 
 ‘‘ their obligation to the Shareholders not to do more business,” 
 “ to find out how not to do it ? ” 
 
 THE ROAD HAS DONE AS MUCH IN PROPORTION AS BOSTON. 
 
 But he did not choose to let this inquiry stop here. These 
 charges have been reiterated and repeated in every form before 
 this community, to awaken a jealousy on the part of the business 
 men of the city against this road. And now he would, himself, 
 appeal to facts as they exist, if this Railroad is not, to-day, as 
 ready and as fully prepared for the business which it is hoped to 
 draw here from the West, as the merchants of Boston themselves 
 are ? Are they as well prepared with storehouses for the goods 
 to arrive, or with ships to transport the Western produce to its 
 
8 
 
 foreign destination, as this road is with depot accommodations and 
 cars and -rolling stock to bring it? They had heard from the 
 President, to-day, that the merchants, who are receiving pork from 
 the West, are occupying no inconsiderable portion of the freight- 
 houses of the road as a market-house for its sale. And we have 
 been told here to-day, too, that, at times, the storehouses, indepen- 
 dent of the proper freight-houses, of the road, are filled with goods 
 and produce, and remain so for considerable periods of time, because 
 the owners or consignees have not warehouses or storehouses in 
 which they can dispose of those goods. And what is to become 
 of this produce of the great granary of the West when it shall 
 be attracted here ? The cry is cheap fares,” “ cheap freight ; ” 
 “ all that is wanting to make Boston the emporium of the Western 
 trade is a reduced tariff! ” This has been repeated till men verily 
 believe it. But how is the fact ? Suppose a railroad run from 
 Albany to the end of Cape Cod, and would carry freight for 
 nothing, — how much Western produce would find its way there, 
 with no addition of ships or steamers to take it off? Now, it is 
 not expected that Boston is going to consume all the pork and 
 grain that are to find their way hither. It is to go abroad, if any- 
 where, and yet we are told by Mr. Hill, of the Board of Trade, 
 in his remarks before the Social Science Association, in speaking 
 of steam accommodation with Europe : ‘‘ Boston, therefore, in 
 1867, has the same number of regular arrivals and departures 
 from and for Liverpool as in the autumn of 1840 1 ” Not a 
 steamer has been added to the foreign business of Boston. And 
 without these, what is to become of the produce that can now be 
 brought over the road ? The Directors of the Western Road tell 
 us, that, with their present outfit of cars, etc., “ we are now able, 
 in addition to our present business, to transport to tide-water suf- 
 ficient freight to load, weekly, a steamship of three thousand tons 
 burden.” He had no disposition to complain of the merchants of 
 Boston, and there was nothing in his power which he would not 
 do to aid them, as a Director or as an individual ; but he would 
 ask them, in all candor, when throwing, as some of them seemed 
 inclined to do, the fault of a diminished business upon the rail- 
 roads, if there were not other and more potent causes why busi- 
 ness is seeking other markets, than the price of a few shillings 
 upon a car-load of grain or pork ? Is it nothing that so much 
 capital has been withdrawn from this market, and employed in 
 
9 
 
 maintaining rival houses in New York ? Boston names and Boston 
 houses are to be seen in all the principal streets of that 'city, and 
 many of them are doing three or four times as much business 
 in amount there, as the Boston branch is doing here. Will it not 
 be time enough for these railroads to add new freight-houses and 
 extend their accommodations, if they keep pace with the* business 
 that is to be carried on through the means which these facilities 
 are to afford ? 
 
 ALLEGED CHARGE OF CONCEALMENT IN KEEPING ACCOUNTS. 
 
 Another charge made by Mr. Quincy, in his address to the 
 Board of Trade is, that by the manner in which these roads keep 
 their accounts they, in fact, deceive the public by charging to 
 expenses what ought to appear in a different form. He assumes 
 that the deterioration of cars and engines would be 20 per cent. 
 
 Now,” he says, the charges made for deterioration and for 
 the purchase of new cars and locomotives, and deducted from 
 the earnings^ are, on the Western, $673,713, on the Worcester, 
 $249,357, being six hundred and sixteen thousand four hundred 
 and fifty-five dollars more than. Mr. Chapin supposes would be a 
 sufficient sum to cover depreciation.” 
 
 Here, again, it is not easy to see why these roads should thus 
 be mixed up together in a charge of this kind. He did not 
 undertake to tell how the Western Road kept their accounts, nor 
 was the Worcester Road in any way responsible therefor. The 
 item in the return of the Worcester Road is this : ‘‘ Total for main- 
 tenance of motive-power and cars (including new), $249,357.64.” 
 In the first place, the folly of attempting to give a false aspect to 
 those accounts, where every fact is stated just as it is, and is^open 
 to the examination of any one, is too obvious to need a single 
 comment. And, in the next place, if money paid for the rolling 
 stock of the road, which, upon Mr. Q.’s own position, is used 
 up and destroyed in fivb years, is not properly charged to expense 
 account, he was at a loss to know under what head the item 
 should appear. There are the facts, fully and fairly stated, and 
 where is the pretence that, in the language of Mr. Quincy, The 
 companies are stronger by this amount than they appear. That 
 is to say, the income of the roads would he that amount larger 
 than the report’^ ? 
 
10 
 
 ALLEGED EXCESSIVE CHARGES FOR FARES AND FREIGHTS. 
 
 But it was time for him to call the attention of the Stockholders 
 to what Mr. Quincy has so much elaborated, the position that the 
 road has been charging an excessive rate for freight and fare. 
 And how does he prove this ? By English treatises and the 
 charges upon English Railroads, without scarcely a reference to 
 the actual condition and fares on American Railroads. One of 
 these roads is from Edinburgh to Glasgow, forty-six miles, said to 
 be almost if not an entire level, with a city of near 200,000 at one 
 end, and a commercial and largely manufacturing city, with more 
 than one line of steamers, and a population of near 500,000 at the 
 other. And of what value was a comparison of a road in such a 
 condition with that over which the traffic of the Worcester and 
 Western Roads must be dragged ? He would not stop to compare 
 the cost of English labor or English materials, nor would he under- 
 take to compute the difference in the weight which might be trans- 
 ported by the same motive-power over a level road, compared with 
 one whose acclivities varied from twenty-five or thirty feet to eighty 
 in a mile. Engineers have told us that the difference was very 
 great and that it required a vastly increased amount of power to do 
 the work. Nor, with the present condition of the streets and 
 railroads, need he remind them that the item of snow was not 
 wholly to be disregarded. If they looked at the actual returns of 
 the business done upon these roads, they would at once perceive 
 the difference between having a constant supply of freight and 
 passengers in both directions sufficient to employ the full power 
 of the road, and the condition of the Western business. By the 
 report of the Western Railroad of the present ye^r they would 
 find that while the freight from Albany to Boston was 140,191 
 tons, that from Boston to Albany was but 49,991, or three times 
 as much in one direction as the other. And of course of every 
 three trains, two must go back empty, a distance of two hundred 
 miles over the hills and mountains between Boston and Albany. 
 Nor was the increase of freight upon the road any ground for 
 assuming that there was to be a like increase in passenger travel. 
 While the through freight business of the Worcester Road had in- 
 creased, the last year, 26 tfo per cent., that of passengers had 
 decreased lliVo per cent. But what better test could they have, 
 as to the charges having been reasonable or otherwise, than the 
 
11 
 
 history of the business of the road itself as it was before them in a 
 documentary form ? And where was the wisdom of disregarding 
 the lessons of experience, and following vague conjecture and 
 theoretical speculation ? The road had been in operation for, say, 
 thirty years. Every year the statements of its receipts and dis- 
 bursements have been made to the public, and its accounts have 
 been open to the inspection of any one interested in their accu- 
 racy. If they had been charging more than it had actually cost 
 them to do the business, they must have either spent it extrava- 
 gantly or wasted it, or they had taken it to their own use, or they 
 must have it on hand now. 
 
 If anybody has taken a dollar of this money, the accounts of 
 the road would show it. Was it pretended that they had paid ex- 
 travagant wages or salaries ? The President had, for years, been 
 serving them for one-half the salary which he could have, at any 
 time, commanded elsewhere. They had lost some of their best 
 men because other roads would give them higher salaries. Not a 
 dollar had gone to buy dinners for the Directors, nor had they 
 even a “ Director’s car ” upon the road. The money, then, must 
 have gone to the Stockholders, in dividends, or the road must have 
 it on hand now. They had, in the annual report of the road, a 
 statement of every dividend made since the road began operation, 
 and could calculate for themselves. But, if he had made no mis- 
 take, they would find that the average dividends, up to 1862 , had 
 been less than seven per cent., per annum. The average, up to 
 1866 , inclusive of that year, was a little over seven and a quarter 
 per cent., and, taking the last ten years by themselves, — the most 
 prosperous of any of the years in the life of the road, — the aver- 
 age was a little over eight per cent. And this, it would be recol- 
 lected, was not upon a loan, where they could withdraw their 
 capital at pleasure ; but it was locked up, and could never be re- 
 called, except by sale in market, while it was constantly subject to 
 great hazards and loss by fire, accidents upon the road, and other 
 casualties. And was seven and a quarter per cent, too large a 
 return for investments thus made, many of them at the infancy of 
 the road, when it was but an experiment in which comparatively 
 few were willing to embark? Who of the Board of Trade or 
 Corn Exchange, would be content to do business, with such haz- 
 ards, at so low a rate of profits ? When speaking of the rights of 
 business men in this connection, have the holders of rBl,. 500 , 000 , 
 
12 
 
 in the stock of this road, no rights to be heard and regarded ? 
 When it is asked how large a sum has been locked up as a “ re- 
 served fund,” hj the road, they would find that it was 1600,318.20, 
 saved for the purpose of reaching deep water, the erection of an 
 elevator, and providing additionaFdepot accommodations, — a sum 
 probably not half enough to meet the expense of these necessary 
 improvements for which arrangements are now being made. 
 These are the simple facts, which have been developed by the 
 experience of a succession of years ; and they are in accordance 
 withLthe testimony of Mr. Ashburner, a distinguished and well- 
 known civil engineer, before the legislative committee, contained 
 in the report already referred to. On page 51, he is asked : 
 
 Would all other expenses be increased in the same ratio as the 
 business was increased ? ” A. Yes, sir ; and if you carry the 
 road to the very extent of its capacity, you are likely to increase 
 the cost over the present cost. I just heard what Mr. Chapin 
 said about the rates. I should say they were low, from my knowl- 
 edge of such matters.” 
 
 ALLEGED TAX UPON THE PUBLIC. 
 
 And yet there has been an eloquent and impassioned appeal to 
 the public against these roads, on the ground they were ‘‘ taxing ” 
 the people, to the amount paid for the transportation of goods and 
 passengers, — as if a man who hires a laborer to do work for him 
 and pays him three or five dollars a day, is paying a tax to that 
 amount to that laborer while receiving a full equivalent for every 
 dollar paid. The public are sometimes taken by such appeals 
 to their prejudices, but, if ill-founded, they are, pretty sure to 
 detect the fallacy and to do justice in the end. But, that 
 he might not do injustice to Mr. Quincy, he would read from 
 his remarks before the legislative committee, already referred 
 to : ‘‘I would first call the attention of the committee to the 
 extraordinary position in which we are placed. Some ninety years 
 ago, the inhabitants of Boston, then numbering about seventeen 
 thousand souls, defied the whole power of Great Britain, rather 
 than pay an indirect tax of about a penny a pound on their tea. 
 Their cry was ‘ taxation without representation is tyranny,’ and 
 the cry awakened every patriot from Maine to Georgia. Now, 
 last year, the corporations I have mentioned laid, legally and 
 under authority of the Legislature, a direct tax of $2,408,379.88, 
 
13 
 
 and an indirect one of 13,166,848, amounting to $5,575,227.88, 
 on the people of the Commonwealth. ... In one case our fathers 
 escaped by revolution. We can only escape by purchase.” Now, 
 these were brave words, and, if poor Boston is being thus cruelly 
 taxed by a single corporation, the Legislature ought, undoubtedly, 
 to interfere at once for their relief. It was the first time that he 
 ever supposed the war of the Revolution grew out of the price 
 charged for the freight of this tea, by the shippers who brought 
 it here. 
 
 it certainly was a little remarkable that while competing roads 
 were charging the same prices as are charged by these two roads, 
 not a word of censure or rebuke seems to have fallen from those 
 who are so loud in their denunciations of the management of this. 
 They seem to forget what has actually been accomplished, already, 
 in the way of reduction of prices. Freight is now carried for 
 twelve and a half per cent, less than in 1854 ; although most 
 items of expense are higher, and what it formerly took thirty 
 days to accomplish in the carriage of goods to Chicago, is 
 now done in five. And, he wished to repeat what he had 
 already said, that it had been the constant and uniform aim 
 and study of the officers of this road to reduce the charges and 
 increase the accommodations of its .business to the community, 
 and he pledged himself for the Directors that if any one can point 
 out a way in which that can be carried farther, to the extent of a 
 dollar, and leave a fair remunerative return only for the capital 
 invested, it should be at once adopted. Their interest and that of 
 Boston were not antagonist to each other, — they were identical ; 
 and the true policy of the road. was to do wffiat it could to aid 
 and encourage the business of Boston ; and such, he believed, 
 had been the aim and wish of its officers and Directors. What 
 motive could the Directors, have to do otherwise ? They are not 
 generally large Stockholders. It had been cast as a reproach 
 upon some of them, in a late legislative hearing, that they owned 
 so few shares in its capital stock ; and, surely, they cannot be 
 suspected of being willing to sacrifice their just pride in the honor 
 and good fame of Boston for the paltry consideration of the one 
 per cent, on a dividend, whatever it may cost the public,” of 
 which they had read in the city document before referred to. 
 
14 
 
 CONSOLIDATION OF THE ROADS. 
 
 But the inquiry did not stop here. While the subject of pur- 
 chasing the two roads by the State was being discussed, they 
 are told that Mr. Derby is to-day urging before a committee of the 
 Legislature the proposition, which had formerly been agitated, of 
 consolidating them ; and he asked indulgence while he called their 
 attention to this as a measure of relief from what the business 
 men had been complaining of — high freights. It had been 
 repeated so often, and so little had been said upon the other side, 
 that it had grown to be a kind of popular conviction, that if these 
 two roads could be united, somehow and in some way, freights 
 would come down, businese would grow beyond measure, and 
 everything in and around Boston at once gain new life and pros- 
 perity. But, when we ask how this is to be done, is- any man 
 prepared to answer ? If a man take his seat here in a car for 
 Albany, he pays his fare to that city, and need not leave it, if he 
 do not choose to, till he reaches his destination. He knows not by 
 anything he sees or hears, where one road leaves off and the other 
 begins. It is to him, to all intents and purposes, one road, one 
 united, entire enterprise. And so it is with every ton of freight 
 which he sends to or brings from Albany. There is no break in 
 the connection, no delay in its passage at any point of intersection 
 of these two roads ; and, provided the price charged be a reason- 
 able one, the merchant could not have a more direct or cheaper 
 transit of his goods, to the extent of a single penny upon a ton, 
 if the roads were consolidated, than he has now. But then we 
 hear the cry repeated, at every corner and on every occasion, that, 
 until the roads are consolidated, there will be disputes between 
 them about the division of freights and fares. It might have 
 been folly in the roads, heretofore, to dispute about the settlement 
 of their respective shares of their freights, but no such difficulties 
 now existed, and everything had been settled and in harmonious 
 action for years. Besides, if those charges were not too high, 
 what had the merchant who paid them to do with their division 
 amor^g the two roads ? Was he any the poorer? Was he any 
 the less promptly accommodated, or his business any the less 
 satisfactorily done ? If one of you were to go into one of our 
 best mercantile establishments and buy a chest of tea or a bale of 
 cloth, and get a good article at a satisfactory price, is he any 
 
15. 
 
 the worse off, because the partners of that house, when they came 
 to divide the profits of that sale, differed as to the respective shares 
 which each was to receive ? So long as their business is promptly 
 done, and at reasonable prices, by the roads as they are, the pub- 
 lic are not to gain a farthing, in the way of charges and expenses, 
 by consolidating them. And the only practical effect will be, even 
 if the business is equally well done, to create a great combined 
 system, extending through the Commonwealth, to be wielded, it 
 may be, by artful and designing men to control the political action 
 of the State, and command the business destinies of its citizens. 
 And do the merchants of Boston candidly believe that they could 
 influence a great monopoly like this more easily or effectually 
 than they can these separate corporations ? And why should the 
 State or the City of Boston wish to crush the Boston and Wor- 
 cester Railroad or swallow it up in that of the Western Cor- 
 poration ? Its local business, that for which it was originally 
 constructed, without the aid of a dollar from the State, is con- 
 stantly increasing. The very last year, there was an increase of 
 per cent, of passengers, and 19^^^ per cent, of freights, 
 while the tonnage of freight of the local business, the last year, 
 exceeded 93,000 tons, independent of what came over its branches. 
 Is there any complaint that this business has not been well and 
 satisfactorily done ? And is this amount of business and the in- 
 terests of Boston, in her connection with her own fellow-citizens 
 living and doing business upon this road, to be disregarded and 
 forgotten ? And will Boston be benefited by changing the course 
 of this trade, by converting it all into way business, subordinate 
 and subservient to the longer line of travel ? What would she 
 gain by such a change ? And would it be wise to make war upon 
 a line of business represented by 93,000 tons of freight ? 
 
 There is no difficulty now in the transport of passengers or freight 
 between here and Albany, after it is once on board the cars here 
 or at Albany. The difficulty has been either at Albany or beyond 
 that. The bridge at Albany will obviate much of this, and a 
 proper supply of cars, and the completion of the double track on 
 the Western Road will, it is to be hoped, wholly remove the diffi- 
 culty and delay there. And how is the union of these two roads 
 going to remedy or remove difficulties and embarrassments on other 
 roads beyond Albany ? Massachusetts, powerful as she is, cannot 
 legislate for these. Everybody is in praise and commendation of 
 
16 
 
 the lines now in operation between this city and Cincinnati and 
 Chicago, of which he had spoken. They are serving the public in 
 a manner, he was happy to believe, to satisfy the trade and busi- 
 ness which is done by means of them. The Red line, for instance, 
 has met the unqualified approbation of the Board of Trade in their 
 published reports. And yet this same line, between Chicago and 
 Albany, passes over the roads of five independent corporations, 
 who have to do with each other, and, in fact, do with each other 
 what the Boston and Worcester and the Western have done with 
 them and with each other, make an amicable arrangement whereby 
 the public business is served, while they are themselves benefited 
 and advanced. Merchants and men of business speculate and 
 theorize in their counting-rooms, and in their discussions with each 
 other, upon the trade of Boston, and content themselves with the 
 conclusion that if freights could only be reduced, business would 
 pour into her marts, though she has not warehouses enough for 
 what comes here already, with a single line of steamers only to 
 carry it away when it does come, and some of her largest and 
 wealthiest houses are engaged in building up the business of New 
 York at the expense of that of Boston. And in this they do in- 
 justice to their roads by denying to them the credit of having done 
 what they could to aid this business. 
 
 WHAT THE ROAD HAS ACCOMPLISHED TO INCREASE BUSINESS. 
 
 He had again and again stated that the Boston and Worcester 
 Road had been constant in her efforts to add to the business of 
 Boston, and the statistics of the road show, in some measure, the 
 extent to which they have succeeded. In 1849-50 there were 
 carried one mile on her road, 9,461,000 tons of which 6,944,- 
 000 tons were received from other roads, chiefly of course 
 from the Western Road. In 1861-62 this had increased to 13,- 
 403,000, and from other roads 10,803,000 tons. 
 
 In 1866-7 the tons carried one mile were 21,263,000, while that 
 which came from other roads was 16,321,000 tons. And estimat- 
 ing by the number of tons actually carried in their cars during the 
 year ; in 1861-2 it was 345,172, while in 1866-7 it had grown 
 to 569,319, — an increase, if he was not mistaken, of more than 
 sixty per cent, in five years. And yet it is repeated and reiterated, 
 till it is believed by many honest inquirers, that the road has 
 
17 
 
 done little or nothing to encourage the trade of the West, and 
 ‘‘ has failed to furnish suitable accommodations for it.” The truth 
 is, while others have been haranguing the Board of Trade, and 
 denouncing the road at the corners of the streets, its officers have 
 been diligently at work to meet the public wants, to do the 
 public business, and to advance the public interests to the best of 
 their ability. They have been content to let their works show for 
 themselves, and answer these imputations of selfishness and neglect. 
 And what is more, the wants of the public have been met in 
 every instance where it has been within the power of the road to 
 do it. No Elevator was urged or seriously asked for within the 
 city of Boston, till within a year, and measures are now in progress 
 to provide it. A new depot for goods was wanted, and it has been 
 supplied the present year, while it would have been folly to have 
 gone on multiplying these expenses, any faster than the growing 
 business of the road suggested that they were needed. He was 
 willing to rest the question of the fidelity of the road to the public 
 upon these facts, evincing, as they have done, and do, the policy 
 upon which it has been managed. 
 
 HAVE THE STOCKHOLDERS NO RIGHTS? 
 
 But while they have been considering, thus largely, the rights 
 and interests of the business men of Boston, it might be well 
 to inquire, have the Stockholders of the Boston and Worcester no 
 right to be heard ? Here are $4,500,000 invested to aid the 
 business of Boston and the public. It is money actually contrib- 
 uted and locked up — dedicated to that use and cannot be with- 
 drawn. The state has not aided them to the extent of a dollar. 
 Men had been willing to risk their money, in starting what was 
 then an experiment, without a chance for relief if it had failed. 
 Fortunately for the public and fortunately for them, it has suc- 
 ceeded. But who has reaped the richest share of the benefits it 
 has brought with it? It has helped to give life and energy 
 to the enterprise which has been building up the city and bringing 
 wealth and independence to her merchants. And what have these 
 Stockholders received as their share of the return for all the risks 
 and hazards which they have incurred ? A trifle over seven 
 per cent, per annum, for this four or five millions of dollars. 
 Have they no rights to be regarded, no interests to be consulted. 
 
 
18 
 
 and are they to be pointed at and denounced as taxing the good 
 people of Boston until revolution or purchase is all that is left for 
 them ? And then again have the people who, upon the faith of 
 the accommodation to be furnished by this road, have settled at 
 Worcester and along the line of the road, now numbering at least 
 one hundred thousand souls, have they no rights to be taken into 
 consideration in carrying out those schemes now being pressed 
 upon the public attention ? He had read the character of Boston 
 for magnanimity as well as enterprise amiss, or this community 
 would not intelligently ask the Legislature to sacrifice these inter- 
 ests. He did not believe that Massachusetts, who had made her- 
 self so prosperous by the protection which she had extended to all, 
 by just and equal legislation, would, knowingly, do anything to 
 sacrifice what she has helped to build up by her charter and her 
 encouragement to this road. And he would only delay them a 
 single moment longer by alluding to the project of a purchaser of 
 these two roads. 
 
 PURCHASE OF THE ROADS BY THE STATE. 
 
 He had read what had been published upon the subject, and it 
 was a matter peculiarly within the judgment and wisdom of the 
 Legislature. Does any man believe it could succeed if adopted ? 
 What is proposed? Roads which, with their present amount of 
 business, require the constant, persistent, and untiring care and 
 labor of competent, experienced, and responsible ofiicers and 
 employees, under the general superintendence of Directors who 
 have a personal as well as official interest to watch over the man- 
 agement of the roads, — these roads are to be purchased by the 
 State at the round price of some twenty millions of dollars. 
 They are fhen to be let to the city of Boston, and to be man- 
 aged by a Board of Directors, part of them chosen by the Board 
 of Trade, a body of gentlemen some eight hundred in number, 
 with no pecuniary interest to call them together, but ordinarily 
 leaving a score or two to make the elections, and a part by the 
 cities of Worcester and Springfield and the town of Pittsfield. 
 And the offices of President and Superintendent and Treasurer, 
 etc., which will be among the highest paid in the Commonwealth 
 are to be put in and put out at every revolution, local or political. 
 And all this with a view, at some time ere long, of reducing the 
 fare of a passenger from Boston to Albany to one dollar, and the 
 
 # 
 
19 
 
 freight of a ton of merchandise between the same points to two 
 dollars. 
 
 Is it believed that this new scheme will secure more fidelity, 
 more care and oversight than the present system ? And is Bos- 
 ton ready to assume the risk of hiring an enterprise of twenty 
 millions of dollars, to be run by a Board of Directors and a set 
 of officers and employees in whose selection she is to have no 
 voice, and over whose management she is to have no control, and 
 to pay the balance of accounts, after transporting some millions 
 of passengers and tons of freight at the rates contemplated in the 
 scheme before the public ? 
 
 But, as he had already said, that was a measure which ad- 
 dressed itself to the wisdom of the Legislature, and there he was 
 willing to leave it. It was for them to say whether the hitherto 
 leading policy of the State, of carrying on its great enterprises 
 of business by means of private corporations, which has been so 
 signally successful, is to be abandoned. He was, at any rate, 
 unwilling to believe that the Commonwealth, of which we were all 
 so justly proud, was going to sacrifice the interests and prosperity 
 of this road by compelling her to unite herself with any other 
 road, or by punishing her for desiring to maintain her integrity, 
 by carrying out that other scheme which has been hinted at, 
 extending the Western Road along her track from Worcester to 
 some new depot in Boston, and thus rendering worthless the 
 millions of dollars which she has invested here to advance and 
 accommodate the business that is to come over the Western Road, 
 and in whose original establishment this road took an active and 
 efficient part. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 After Mr. Washburn sat down, Mr. Peter T. Homer said : 
 
 In that portion of the remarks of Governor Washburn referring to the 
 consolidation of the Boston and Worcester with the Western Railroad, he 
 omitted to include its financial bearing, as adverse to the interests of our 
 road. 
 
 I find, on reference to the Western Railroad report, that the value of 
 the sinking-fund applicable to meet the maturity of the sterling bonds due in 
 London, was, on the 30th November, 1866, $2,719,862.00. 
 
20 
 
 Now, according to the report of the Treasurer and Receiver-General of 
 the Commonwealth for the year ending December 31, 1866, the funded pub- 
 lic debt of the State,- given for the benefit of, and guaranteed by, the West- 
 ern Railroad, and called “ sterling loan, principal and interest payable 
 in London,^’ if reduced to currency at the price of gold yesterday. 
 
 Amount due April Ij 1868, £135,000, at S6.65 to the £, $897,750.00 
 
 « October 1, 1§j68, 337,500, “ “ 2,244,375.00 
 
 $3,142,125.00 
 
 This sum, if paid at the price of yesterday, extinguishes all the sinking-fund, 
 its future earnings, and the contribution of $40,000 for 1867. 
 
 In addition to the preceding liability, there are farther debts, as follows : 
 
 Amount due October 1, 1869, ..... £90,000 
 
 “ April 1, 1870, . . . . . . 180,000 
 
 « “ 1, 1871, ..... 157,400 
 
 £427,400 
 
 which, at the same rate of $6.65 the pound sterling, amounts to two millions 
 eight hundred and forty-two thousand two hundred and ten dollars, and the ■' 
 Stockholders must be called upon to supply such deficit as may occur from 
 the inadequacy of the sinking-fund to meet the entire amount of the above 
 liabilities. 
 
 C. M. Ellis, Esq., followed in a few earnest and eloquent remarks upon 
 the policy which had been, and ought to be, pursued by the road, and 
 offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : 
 
 Fotcc?, That the company recognizes the principle that the interests of the public 
 and company are not antagonistic, but concurrent and harmonious, and that we shall 
 serve the public at the lowest remunerative rates and provide all needful facilities. 
 
 Voted, That they are satisfied that this has been always the policy of the Directors, 
 and that they have done all in their power, and the company desire that they shall do 
 all in their power, to provide all facilities for passengers and freight traffic, and at the 
 lowest possible rates. 
 
 Mr. Twicbell, in bis closing remarks, stated that freight transportation 
 was afforded to the merchants of Boston to the West at the same rates as 
 from New York, though the route to Boston was fifty miles the longest ; and 
 he thought the New York Central road was entitled to the thanks, rather 
 than the abuse, of the public, for the assistance it had given towards re- 
 ducing the merchandise tariff. He mentioned one exception to his first 
 remark, — that of flour, — which is set down in New York at ten cents less 
 per barrel than in Boston, but all return freight is carried at New York 
 rates. If Boston merchants wish to compete with those of New York, for 
 the Western trade, they must sell as cheaply. 
 
 After a unanimous vote, requesting Mr. Washburn to furnish a copy of his 
 address for publication, the meeting adjourned. 
 
 /