It has been turned on the north by the Vermont Central, on the south by the Hartford and Erie. It has been passed over steep grades by the Boston and Albany. At North Adams it is compressed into narrow limits in the Hoosac Mountain, and the bold conception was formed to pierce directly through it at this point. First, the effort was made to accomplish the great undertaking by private capital, aided by a state loan. The difficulties were underrated and the plan failed. Finally, the State assumed the enterprise and has since, with varying fortunes but unfaltering energy, prosecuted it to a successful result. Within the current year there can be little doubt of the completion of the work. The Tunnel will be opened for traffic and a new line formed between Boston and the West, shorter by eleven miles than any existing route; with easy grades, which, making the usual allowance for the obstruction caused by heavy grades to railroad traffic—will render it constructively shorter than any route by at least twenty miles, or ten per cent., between Boston and Albany.
Its cost to the State, including the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, will be at least twelve millions, raised by loans, on which the interest is paid by taxation. Since the plan of the Tunnel was formed new lines of road have been projected and built, connecting it with every part of the State, and there is scarcely a town from Berkshire to Provincetown, which does not to-day stand in position to reap its share of the benefit expected to follow the completion of this great public enterprise.
Having expended so large a sum on the Tunnel, the question arises, How shall we use it to derive the greatest good to the whole people? The State now holds, as owner substantially, the Troy and Greenfield Railroad and the Tunnel, at a cost of about twelve millions. Its value depends wholly upon the future development of business, but its relations are such to other railroad interests, that I have no doubt that, if the State desires to sell the Tunnel, notwithstanding its great cost, negotiations could be made to dispose of it at a price that would return to the State the moneys expended, but it would be at the risk of sacrificing the prosperity of its own industrial interests. There are various and conflicting opinions expressed in regard to the business that may be done. Some parties who appeared before the committee declared that the completion of the Tunnel could only be compared to the removal of a dam, to be followed by a flood of business beyond our power to properly care for; while others were equally confident that the traffic now flowing through other channels would be diverted to the new one only through the influence of time and energetic labor. All, however, agreed in the opinion that, under proper management it was destined to become, at no very distant day, perhaps, the great avenue for trade between the East and West. The eagerness with which various railroad corporations seek its control by "ways and means," if honest, should be convincing proof of the great importance of the Tunnel to the public, and if not honest, it should merit the condemnation of every honest man in the community.
On certain points the committee were unanimous. First: That the State should own and control the Tunnel in such manner as to secure to the whole State the ultimate benefit to be derived from its construction, and to secure to all persons and corporations seeking to use it, equal rights. Second: That to attain the highest benefit to be derived from this new line, a corporation strong enough to provide sufficient equipment and terminal facilities should be formed, able to command connections with roads outside of the State and to compete with a fair share of success with the existing corporations. How best to attain these ends with a view to cheapness of transportation and efficiency of action the members of the committee differ. The majority reported a bill providing for the consolidation of the Boston and Lowell Railroad Company, the Fitchburg Railroad Company, the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad Company, the Commonwealth and the Troy and Boston Railroad Company into one corporation, with authority to purchase or lease certain other roads, which will make a capital of not less than twenty-five to thirty millions and give control to about five hundred miles of railroad. From this plan the minority have dissented and reported a plan which will place the direct line from Boston to Troy substantially under one direction, and subject it not to state management but to state control.
To the bill reported by the majority of the committee we have the strongest objections.
First.—It sanctions an enormous inflation of capital. It authorizes a consolidation upon the basis of an appraisal of the value of the several properties to be made by the parties themselves. The railroads of this Commonwealth are prohibited by law from making stock dividends, and yet here stock dividends are allowed to such extent as the parties think proper. One of the greatest impositions ever practised upon the public, from which the people of this Commonwealth now suffer, is the watered stock of the railroads between Albany and Chicago. The amount of stock in these roads issued without any equivalent, upon which our traffic is now taxed, is variously estimated at from forty-four millions to one hundred and five millions. The annual tax levied is from three millions to six millions, of which we pay a large share. The majority bill provides for just such a watering of stock, to the extent of perhaps ten millions, according to the appraisal by the parties in interest. We believe this to be all wrong, and should not be sanctioned by the Commonwealth.
Second.—We utterly dissent from the opinion of the majority in allowing the Boston and Lowell Railroad to come into such a consolidation. The Boston and Lowell forms no part of the Tunnel line. Every witness before the committee, except the agents of the corporations themselves, was emphatic against such a consolidation.