Radio Script #1193

Little Talks on Common Things
March 4, 1979

Books filled with ntatisth’l, !’Illch TIS annual reports of various departments of the federal J~ov{‘rnmt’nt mttke for dlill rl’adlng. hilt occasionally we find in these old volumes published hal ( Jl country or more ago, items of interest to listeners of Little Talks. Recently I skimmed through the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission issued in 1895, and that was 84 years ago.

The report reveals an interesting fact about Maine railroads of that time. They had shown so large increase in mileage during the past year that it had been the fifth largest increase shown in any state of the Union. In the one year Maine had built 125 miles of new rail line. Although many railroads across the nation had merged into larger units before 1895, just as had the Maine Central, the United States had a total of 1924 different railroads then in operation. That in spite of the fact that 15 railroads had been merged during the past year alone. While the Maine Central system was fast absorbing Maine roads, our state had 15 different railroad lines in 1895.

The extent of the nation’s rail lines was plainly shown by statistics about rolling stock. There were 36,000 locomotives, 40,000 passenger cars, 1,200,000 freight cars. An interesting comment was: “The law requires all to be equipped with. automatic couplers by July first.”

Persons employed by the nation’s railroads were 780,000, and the value of all railroad property was set at $10 billion with a funded debt of more than $5 billion. During 1894 the lines had carried 540 million passengers. A section of the report tells us how railroads were operated more than eighty years ago. It said: “An investment in a railroad is made by purchase of stocks and bonds. The stockholders become proprietors of the road, but in practice they delegate control to a board of directors, who in turn delegate day-by-day operation to superintendents and managers. Public control of the corporations ought to be h’p,I’Iint,’d and ntimini.stcrt’t\ so as to guarantee to investors the integrity of company ·:”I’nts on t .. hi.ch I!”, ‘:alue of tilt, property depends. Such is not no\oJ tIl!’ CllSt’.” l1nforlllnateiy, even llft(‘r that ICC I.mrnlnv- • .1lthollgh some remedial legislation t .. a!l pa1w(‘d, gl1anHltCt’ of a railroad company’s illtq~rity was still lacking, and investors lost money. Some railroad stocks became worthless as did that of the narrow gauge line nl’arcst to Waterville, the road between Wiscasset and Albion, and its branch line through Weeks Hills to Winslow. This road, the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington was so badly managed that people said its initials, W.W.F. stood for “weak, weary and feeble”.

The transcontinental railroads, stimulated by the Civil War, had been built largely by huge grants of government land which the roads sold to find money for construction, but government subsidies did not end with that expansion. In 1895 both railroads and telegraph companies were still being helped by the federal government. On this point the report commented: “The Act of 1888 requires all subsidies that have been granted, either in land or in loans of credit, to be subject to specific regulations. Failure to obey brings legal proceedings against the companies. Last year the Commission sent [onus to be filled out to sixteen such railroads and telegraph companies. Only four were returned. The Attorney General has been not i f ied of the Illi II1n.= :lnd wi 11 start action against the other twelve companies. Ar!llll1g the delinquents are Western Union, U.S. Telegraph, Northern Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.”

How reluctant the railroads were to spend money for the new law required safety devices is shown by this statement: “While the law requires that cars be equipped with couplers which couple automatically upon contact, and which can be uncoupled without trainmen having to go between the ends of cars, companies are slow to comply. The same is true of the law requiring grab-bars and handholds at both ends of all car. Roth laws are effective and compulsory by July 1, 1895, but the railroad companies, (‘xtC’nsi(11l pf that d,He. The Commission insists that any extension :lIft’! t InJ~ tlH’ snft”v of 11f(‘ or limb must not be granted. The safety of persons is more important than financial concerns.”

Even 1.Iw oldest of tht’ f’rr’!h’nt living generations became so accustomed to buying tickets of mileage book in the railroad station, that very few today remember what we called ticket brokerage, but more truly deserved the title of scalping. This 1895 report found: “We must call attention to the illegitimate business of ticket brokerage, buying tickets at regular rates, then selling them at reduced rates while still making a profit.”

Today we ask in amazement how that could be done. In 1895 the charge per mile for railroad travel depended upon distance. The uniform rate of two cents a mile that I paid when I travelled by a mileage book in the 1920’s had not then come into vogue. Different rates per mile were also common on different railroad lines. If we were going, for instance, from Waterville to Albany, New York, there would be one per-mile rate on the Maine Central, another on the Boston and Maine, and a third on the Boston and Albany. A trip to California might involve as many as twenty lines. The sale of tickets, sometimes of great length, with separate attachable sections for each different line on the trip, was sold on the afisUOIl’tioll that on(‘ pCT!;on ….· ,\ulcl \I<;l’ it to go the whole journey. But a person might use it for only the first line involved, then sell the rest for slightly less than it would have cost at a station to buy one for the rest of the trip. Whl’n’l lickt’t \ .. a5 broken lip Sl) th:.t each coupon was used by a different person. The total amount could be considerable.
That was possible because the price for a through trip involving several lines was much less than the total cost arrived at by adding the rate charged for the part on anyone of the lines. That is, the cost of that ticket from Waterville to Albany for a through journey on the three lines was a lot cheaper than the cost of three separate tickets. A person could thus buy such a ticket, but use it only to Portland, then /11’11 thi’ Itnll<:pd p.1rt to n tick{·t hl”d«(‘r, wh() could then sell it bit by bit at price 1(‘~{!l than nnt’ would have to pay at a station for one section of the trip. A ticket to California might thus go through the hands of half a dozen brokers and two dozen passengers. It was more than twenty years after that report before American railroads were able to put an end to scalping, they finally accomplished that by agreeing on a uniform per-mile fare all across the nation.

One of the Interstate Commerce Commission’s prosecutions in 1894 involved a noted Maine man, James G. Blaine, who just ten years earlier had been narrowly defeated for President of the U. S. by Grover Cleveland. The report said: “On February 10, 1894, James G. Blaine was subpoenaed to testify before a U.S. Grand Jury in the northern district of Illinois concerning violation of the act to regulate commerce. He refused to testify, alleging that his testimony would tend to incriminate him. He was charged with contempt of court but was discharged on the ground that the 1893 statute was unconstitutional.

Under the laws that then applied, the Government could not appeal. The Commission reported the facts to Congress, recommending amendment to the law so as to permit appeal of such cases to the U. S. Supreme Court. As yet no action has been taken on our recommendation and the Commission is placed in an impossible situation. We cannot obtain testimony by which to enforce the penal provisions of the law, thus making it extremely difficult to obtain convincing evidence.

For many years clergymen received free passes, or at least reduced rates, on the railroads. That caused some unexpected trouble. When the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific R.R. refused a discount to Spiritualist leaders, there was a formal complaint filed with the Commission. What were they going to do about Normans and Jehovah’s Witnesses who in which every member was a minister?

Let’s listen to what the report said,”The different carriers have «II f((‘rent r(‘~·111.1tions ah(Hlt reduced rates for clergymen. The I .. HI merely IItnt(”!, ‘Nothln~ In this At.:l shall constrain railroads from ~~iving redll(“C’d Tilt.”! to ministers of religion,’ “[11at permits each railroad line t.(l s~t it-1l 0 … ·1l slIch rnl(”!. This is only one example of the way American railroads retain independent authority to do much as they please. What is needed is to give the Commission greater authority over the different categories of rail operation, but there will be bitter fighting with many boards of directors before the end is reached.”

In 1895 no one could possibly foresee that in much less than another hundred years there would be not one list of railroad passenger service in Maine, except for night trains in the thinly settled part of the state through Brownvilleand Mattawamkeag to Vanceboro, a route traversed by the Canadian National from Montreal to St. John. Today even the Amtrak system, connecting major cities where travel is extensive, is in trouble. People prefer to travel byair or private car. There seem to be few persons left with my life-long preference. I have always delighted tn train travel, and one of my most memorable journeys was a trip completely around the United States entirely by train.

In these times when donations to schools and colleges are made in millions of dollars it is astounding to learn how modest Waterville College appreciated and well publicized gifts in the mid-nineteenth century to the institutions.

In the 1850’s Waterville College, later to become Colby, launched a campaign to increase its very modest endowment. It employed as chief fund-raiser a well known clergyman, Stephen Starks. In 1858 he reported on the results of his year’s effort. He had secured pledges for a total of $31,287. He had personally raised $27,300, $10,300 of it in Waterville. He had hired on commission three others; Drinkwnt(·r. G1 Lpatr 1cknnt,’ Bnrrows, who together had raised the remainder. The money came from more than 70 different donors, most of them Baptists. Starks teelnred Ids belief that most of the pledges were good, although he said the college must expect some defaults. because he suspected, that in addition to a few who failed to pay, there would be a few others who signed without any intention of subsequent payment.

We suspect there hasn’t been much change in that respect since 1858. In every modern campaign by any organization the budget anticipates a percentage of non-payment.

And with that doleful thought, we say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1979