OPENING UP NEW ENGLAND The New Haven Railroad's By SYLVESTER BAXTER Foreword by President CHARLES S. MELLEN The writer of the following article has asked me to edit the same, to express my approval of the policy he has assigned to the management, and to endorse the predicted results. In its relation to the other transportation systems of the country, that of New England should be considered as a great terminal yard in which should be handled the business of all connecting systems of transportation on substantially the same terms and conditions, without discrimination, fear, or favor, the same as would be the case were all the New England roads under ownership by the Federal Government. The competition of the New England Lines is incidental and not material; were they all erased from the map, should they disappear from the face of the earth and a free hand be given to build for the New England States a system of transportation best calculated for the well-being of her people and the largest development of her material resources, and were that task committed either to a corporation or to be performed by the nation, it would result in a substantial duplication of what we now have. No one then would rise to claim there was a suppression of competition, and no more should anyone now. Many of the existing lines were poorly located, and the poverty of those originally constructing them compelled a character of construction ill-fitted to handle the business of the present time. But in the main they were what the territory needed at the time of their construction, and were as good as the business at hand warranted calling into being. Now their business has largely outgrown their capacity for service, and they have arrived at a stage where radical rebuilding and enlargement have become vital, not only to themselves as an agency for service, but to the population whose welfare they were intended to promote and secure. Complaints, during reconstruction, must of necessity be numerous. Exasperation at shortcomings, —the result of an attempt to do more than the facilities at hand warrant,—will be severe. Yellow dogs will bark and snap at the wheels of progress as they have since the beginning of time. Men will come and go, but the system of transportation has been built up to endure, and present agitation and apprehension will be looked upon hereafter as we now look back and smile at the prophecies of trouble and disaster when the Colonies of North America became the United States. A creature can never become greater than its creator, and no corporation will ever dominate a community that has the power, resourcefulness, and determination, to govern itself. C. S. MELLEN. THE WORLD'S WORK ADVERTISER |