PROCEEDINGS OF A PUBLIC MEETING IN RELATION TO LATE HOSTILE MEASURES OF THE MANAGERS OF THE RUTLAND & BURLINGTON RAILROAD, AGAINST THE WESTERN VERMONT RAILROAD AND THE PUBLIC, WITH A COPY OF A MEMORIAL TO THE LEGISLATURE ON THE SUBJECT.

(Referred to on Page 62 of the Journal.)

A large meeting of the citizens of Bennington and Rutland Counties was held in the Court House, at Manchester, on the 6th of October, 1865, in pursuance of public notice given in the Manchester Journal and the Bennington Banner, to take into consideration the subject of their railroad facilities. The meeting was organized by the appointment of Hon. MYRON CLARK, President, Hon. JOEL W. AINSWORTH and Hon. LEMUEL BOTTUM, Vice Presidents, and LOVELAND MUNSON, Secretary.

On motion of George W. Harman, Esq.. a committee of five was appointed to draft resolutions concerning the object of the meeting. The Chair appointed the following persons: George W. Harmon of Bennington; Martin Mattison, of Shaftsbury; Harrison Prindle, of Manchester; Williar, Billings, of Arlington, and Ira Cochran, of Dorset.

The committee retired for consultation, and upon returning, reported the following resolutions:

Resolved, That the leading object of the Legislature, in granting railroads, was the accommodation of the public, and that any sacrifice of such accommodation by the managers of a railroad for the sake of corporate or personal emolument, is a wanton perversion of the purpose for which such road was originally granted.

Resolved, That the Western Vermont, now the Bennington & Rutland Railroad, is the most feasible and convenient railroad route between Montreal and Burlington at the North, and New York and Troy at the South as is shown, not only by its being the shortest route, but also by the well known fact that the travel and business between those points have always naturally taken that direction.

Resolved, That the Western Vermont Railroad, having its track, fifty-four miles in length, wholly in this State, (beside its branch of five miles more to Bennington,) is entitled to equal advantages and facilities in its competition for business with any other road, and especially a foreign road, and that the recent attempt of the managers of the Rutland & Burlington road to divert the business from the Western Vermont road, and to send it around by the way of Saratoga, by refusing, contrary to all former practice, to honor the tickets of passengers who came over such road, and to receive freight from it, is a wanton outrage upon the rights of the Western Vermont road, and also upon the traveling public, who are thereby unnecessarily delayed more than an hour in their passage to the place of their destination, and compelled to travel that length of time longer in cars, and over a rougher and more wearisome

route.

Resolved, That it was the original intention of the Legislature in granting the Western Vermont road, and of the corporation who constructed it, that it should so enter upon the Rutland & Burlington road, at Rutland, so as to connect with it in the reception of travel from the North, and in the convenient manner it has always been heretofore used, and that

the late conduct of the Rutland & Burlington road, in switching off its cars carrying passengers for Troy a short distance above the Rutland depot, and breaking the connection with the Western Vermont road for the mere purpose of compelling the travel to go over the Saratoga road, to the discomfort and annoyance of the passengers, is a new and unprecedented trick in railroading, deserving the condemnation of the Legislature of the State, and demanding a speedy legislative remedy.

Resolved, That the Western Vermont Railroad, in common with the other railroads in the State, has been kept in successful operation mainly by the travel and freight which passes over it from other sections of the country, and that if the present efforts of the managers of the Rutland & Burlington road to divert its through business from it, and thus leave it to become wholly upon its local business for support, should prove successful, there is every reason to believe that the road must be wholly abandoned, or that its accommodations will necessarily become so limited, and its charges so greatly increased as to render its continued existence scarcely desirable to our people. It therefore become us, and our senators and representatives in the Legislature, to make use of every possible exertion to prevent so serious a calamity. Resolved, That a committee, consisting of fifteen citizens from the towns along the line of the Western Vermont (now the Bennington & Rutland) railroad, be appointed to prepare and cause to be presented to the Legislature, a memorial embodying the leading facts in relation to the recent hostile movements of the managers of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad against our road, and a statement of its effects and consequences, and to ask for legislative relief against the same.

On motion of Henry S. Hard, Esq., the report was accepted, and the resolutions unanimously adopted.

Hon. E. B. Burton moved that a committee be appointed in pursuance of the last resolution, and the Chair appointed the following persons such committee: Hiland Hall, Elias B. Burton, Harmon Canfield, Henry G. Root, Major W. Potter, Z. H. Canfield, Franklin H. Orvis, Norman Millington, Lemuel Bottum, George W. Harman, Chauncey Green, E. O. Whipple, Joel W. Ainsworth, Harvey Shaw, Mason S. Colburn.

The meeting was addressed by Hon. Myron Clark, Hon. A. L. Miner, Hon. Ira Cochran, and others.

On motion of Hon. E. B. Burton, it was resolved that the proceedings of the meeting, attested by the Chairman and Secretary, be published in the Manchester Journal, the Bennington Banner, and the Rutland Herald.

The meeting then adjourned.
L. MUNSON, Secretary.

MYRON CLARK, President.

COPY OF THE MEMORIAL.

To the General Assembly of the State of Vermont,

to be convened at Montpelier on the second Thursday of October, 1865: The undersigned would respectfully represent to your honorable bodies that, at a meeting of citizens of the counties of Bennington and Rutland, held at the Court House in Manchester, on the 6th day of October, 1865, in pursuance of notice given by publication in the Manchester Journal and the Bennington Banner, to take into consideration their present and future railroad facilities, which meeting was largely attended, they were appointed a committee to memorialize your honorable bodies in relation to recent hostile measures of the managers of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad against the travel and business of the Western Vermont (now the Bennington & Rutland) railroad, and to ask for legislative aid in regard to the same, beg leave to make the following representation:

The Rutland & Burlington Railroad Company was incorporated by act of Assembly, of November 1, 1843, by the name of "The Champlain & Connecticut River Railroad Company," and its road was put in operation about the year 1850. By the fifteenth section of the act of incorporation, the Legislature reserved the right to authorize any other company to enter with another railroad at any point of the road therein granted," and thereby form a connection with it.

The Western Vermont Railroad Company was incorporated by the Legislature, November 5, 1845, with an express provision that it might " enter upon the Champlain & Connecticut River Railroad at any convenient point in Rutland."

The Western Vermont road was put in operation in the summer of 1852, the two roads connecting at Rutland, forming a continuous line from Burlington to the western line of the State, in the town of Bennington, there connecting with the Troy & Boston road, making a through line from Burlington to Troy, and, in connection with the railroads to the north of the Rutland & Burlington, and to the south of the Troy and Boston roads, a continuous line between New York and Montreal.

From the time these railroads went into operation, daily trains of cars have been run over them, the Western Vermont delivering to and receiving from the Rutland & Burlington road, at Rutland, both passengers and freight, to the mutual convenience and advantage of the traveling and business public, and of the two railroads. These to roads, with those connecting with them, form the shortest and most desirable railroad route between the cities of New York and Troy at the south, and Montreal and Burlington at the north, as is shown by the fact that the travel and business between those points have uniformly taken that direction. During all this period for the accommodation of the traveling public, as well as of the several railroads, through tickets from New York to Montreal and from Montreal to New York, and to and from intermediate stations, have been sold to passengers by all the railroads forming said line, entitling such passengers to pass over all of said roads, including the Western Vermont road, which tickets have always heretofore been recognized aud received as valid by all of said roads.

But within a few months past, the Rutland & Burlington Railroad has gone into the hands of new managers, who are taking very extraordinary measurers to divert the travel and business from its customary channel between Rutland and Troy, and to send both passengers and frieght over the Rensselaer & Saratoga road, although the distance twelve miles greater by that than by the other route, and by reason of its numerous curves and heavy grades it requires more than an hour's additional time to run it. It will also be noticed that the Western Vermont road, fifty-four miles in length, (besides the branch to Bennington of five miles more,) is wholly within this State, twenty miles of it in the southern part of Rutland county, and the remaining thirty-four miles running through the heart of the county of Bennington, while the route now favored by the Rutland & Burlington road has but eighteen miles of its track within this State, and those eighteen miles under the management of the Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad Company, a foreign corporation over which the Legislature of this State has no control.

In order to accomplish this diversion of travel from the Western Vermont to the Saratoga road, the through tickets before mentioned, which are sold at New York and Troy, and other southern stations, over the Western, Vermont road, have lately been refused by the Rutland & Burlington road, and passengers going north, after seating themselves in the cars at Rutland, are told that their tickets (they having come over the Western Vermont road,) cannot be received, and they are required either to leave the cars, or pay their passage over again. That this refusal to receive the through tickets does not arise from any apprehension that the road which issued them will not properly account for the passage money, but is caused wholly by a determination to divert the travel from the Western Vermont for the benefit of the Saratoga road, is made evident from the formal notices which have been given by the Rutland & Burlington road to other railroads, of which the following, to the Hudson River Railroad, is a specimen :

OFFICE OF THE RUTLAND & BURLINGTON Railroad,
RUTLAND, July 18, 1865.

J. M. Toucey, Esq., Assistant Supt. Hudson River Railroad:

DEAR SIR:-By an arrangement between this road and the Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad, we are compelled to ask you to desist selling tickets to passengers going to stations on or over the Rutland & Burlington Railroad, except over and via the Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad, and I desire to hereby notify you that after August 1st, tickets to our road by any other route cannot be honored or received by us. Respectfully,

GEO. A. MERRILL, Superintendent.

By this notice it appears that the Rutland & Burlington are "compelled," not by any distrust of the tickets offered them, or by any demand of the traveling public, but by "an arrangement" with the Rensselaer and Saratoga road, not to honor or receive tickets "by any other route."

With passengers traveling south with tickets over the Western Vermont road, the Rutland & Burlington managers make very short work by stopping the train a mile and a half north of the Rutland depot, and switching off the cars for Troy and sending them west to Whitehall, and so over the Saratoga road, thus breaking the connection with the Western Vermont, and compelling passengers, generally against their wishes, to travel towards the place of their destination over the longer and more wearisome route.

There has for years been a large and desirable business for the Western Vermont and the Rutland & Burlington roads in transporting freight in through cars coming from Western cities, over the New York Central, by way of Troy and Rutland, to Boston, and from Boston on the same route to the West. The managers of the Rutland & Burlington road have recently refused to take the freight cars thus arriving at Rutland, and transport them on to Bellows Falls towards Boston, for no other reason than that they reach Rutland by the Westorn Vermont instead of the Rensselaer & Saratoga roads; and in consequence of such refusal a large number of cars which had been billed at the West over the Western Vermont road, were stopped at Rutland, and had to be hauled back over the Western Vermont and sent to Boston by another route, to the delay and damage of freighters, as well as to the injury of the Western Vermont road.

That this conduct of the managers of the Rutland & Burlington road is of serious detriment to the public, is evident,

By requiring passengers between Rutland and Troy to go by the roundabout way of Saratoga, they are obliged to travel in the cars upon an average more than an hour longer than they would by the Western Vermont road, as the time tables of the two roads will show. Thus the passengers going south who are switched off at Rutland at 11.45 A. M., and sent over the Saratoga road, are delayed in their arrival at Troy fifty-five minutes beyond what they would have been if they had been allowed to take the route over the Western Vermont for which they had purchased their tickets-the trains of that road arriving at Troy at 3.05 P. M., and the Saratoga train not until 4 P. M., while between the two trains which leave Troy for Rutland at 1 P. M., there is a difference in the time of their arrival in favor of the Western Vermont, of an hour and a half, the train of that road reaching Rutland at 3.45 P. M., and that of the Saratoga at 5.15 P. M.

Until the recent change in the management of the Rutland & Burlington road, a train has loft Rutland for the north on the arrival over the Western Vermont, of the express from Troy, say at 3.50 P. M., carrying the through mail from New York to Montreal, connecting with the Vermont Central at Burlington, and reaching Montreal the same evening. In consequence of the new arrangement between the Rutland & Burlington, and the Saratoga roads, this train does not leave Rutland till twenty minutes past five, thus delaying the passengers and express matter, including the New York daily papers, an hour and a half or more on the whole route north of Rutland, and breaking the connection with the Vermont Centra l by which the Montreal mail is delayed until the next morning.

Heretofore a night train has been run from New York to Montreal, over the Western Vermont road, leaving Troy with sleeping car at 9.50 P. M., which at 12.40 A. M.. was taken at Rutland and drawn over the Rutland & Burlington road, connecting at Burlington with the Vermont Central. By this train, passengers who left New York at 4 P. M., reached Montreal about 9.30 the next morning. But under the new arrangement, passengers from New York for Montreal, in order to reach there at the same time over the Saratoga road, are compelled to leave New York at 2 instead of 4 P. M., thus adding two hours to the length of their trip ; while those who desire to leave New York at 4 P. M., and take the sleeping car at Troy over the Western Vermont road, as heretofore, are obliged to get up and dress at Rutland a little after midnight, and take another car, the managers of the Rutland & Burlington road refusing to take along the sleeping car as formerly.

These are some of the injurious effects of the new proceeding of the Rutland & Burlington road, upon the general public. The people in the counties of Bennington and Rutland, in the vicinity of the route of the Western Verinont road, have additional grounds of complaint. It is well known that the great support of the Vermont railroads arises from being thorough ares for travel and freight from other sections of the country; that their stock was subscribed ftheir bonds purchased and their roads constructed in contemplation of such support, and that but for this through business, it would be difficult, if not impracticable, to make their earnings sufficient to keep them in successful operation. Such is doubtless the case with the Western Vermont road. If the through business is withdrawn from it, as contemplated by the parties now in charge of the Rutland & Burlington road, and it is left to depend wholly for its support upon its local travel and business, there is every reason to believe that it must either be abandoned, or its accommodations become so limited and its charges so greatly increased as to render its continued existence a grevious burden to the people through whose territory it passes.

This new movement on the part of the Rutland & Burlington road is certainly of an extraordinary character, and is believed to be quite unprecedented even in the annals of railroad monopoly. It has been generally supposed that railroads, consulting their own true interest, would accept of business from whatever quarter it came. But the Rutland & Burlington insist that all their business from the south and west shall come to them over a particular road, and that road a foreign one, to the exclusion of a shorter and much better road, whose track is wholly in the State, and which is principally owned by citizens of the State, interested in its prosperity and amenable to its laws.

The friends of the Western Vermont road, now by virtue of an organization of its mortgage bond holders, under the general statutes of the State, become "The Bennington & Rutland Railroad," desire no advantage over any other road, not even a foreign one. They only ask, as was doubtless originally intended by the Legislature, that the Rutland & Burlington road shall not be allowed to make a discrimination in the reception of either passenger or freight between the two roads, but that the Bennington & Rutland and the Saratoga road shall, in that respect, be placed upon precisely the same footing. This can doubtless be properly done by a general law, the Rutland & Burlington road under the acts of November 9, and November 13, 1850, in amendment of its charter, and its acceptance of those acts, being clearly made subject to such general laws. Your memorialists believe that approved precedents will be found in the general legislation of other states, furnishing remedies for such evils.

In order that passengers from Montreal and Burlington, and other places at the North, who may desire to travel over the route of the old Western Vermont Railroad shall not, by the present or any future managers of the Rutland and Burlington road, be prevented from doing so, and to carry into effect the original intention of the Legislature, a renewal of the right granted by the charter of incorporation of the Western Vermont road, to enter upon the Rutland & Burlington road," at any convenient point in Rutland " is desired; or, in other words, your memorialists ask that the General Assembly will grant to "The Bennington & Rutland Railroad Company," as the successors of the Western Vermont Company, the right to extend their road northerly to Center Rutland, and thus form a sure connection with the Rutland & Burlington road at that point, where they may be able to compete on equal terms with the Rensselaer & Saratoga road for the business from the North coming over the Rutland & Burlington road, as they have always heretofore done.

Your memorialists, in conclusion, would respectfully pray your honorable bodies to grant to them and the people of the counties of Bennington and Rutland, whom they represent the remedies and relief herein before mentioned, and such further or other remedies and relief against the acts herein complained of, as in your wisdom shall seem meet and proper. And your petitioners will ever pray. HILAND HALL, Bennington, E. B BURTON, Manchester, HARMON CANFIELD, Arlington, HENRY G. ROOT, Bennington, MAJOR W. POTTER, Pownal, Z. H. CANFIELD, Arlington, FRANKLIN H. ORVIS, Manchester, NORMAN MILLINGTON, Shaftsbury,

LEMUEL BOTTUM, Shaftsbury,
G. W. HARMAN, Bennington,
CHAUNCEY GREEN, Dorset,
E. O. WHIHPLE. Danby,

JOEL W. AINSWORTH, Wallingford,
HARVEY SHAW, Wallingford,

M. S. COLBURN, Manchester.

To the General Assembly of the State of Vermont, now in session :

The memorial of EDWIN A. BIRCHARD and JOHN B. PAGE, Trustees under the second deed of trust of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad, and Acting Managers thereof:

Your memorialists respectfully represent, that their attention has been called to a certain printed document submitted to the Legislature, and signed by HILAND HALL and others as a committee of citizens of Bennington and Rutland counties, met in public meeting at Manchester, on the 6th of October, 1865, purporting to be the proceedings of said meeting, to

gether with a memorial to your honorable body in relation to what are styled in the documentas "Late hostile measures of the Managers of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad against the Western Vermont Railroad and the public."

Your memorialists in reply to said document, desire first of all, to repel this charge of hostility towards the Western Vermont Railroad, and especially of hostility towards the public, either in motive or in act. Your memorialists, having been selected by those in interest as bondholders of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad Company to be their trustees for the management of said road and its affairs, and this under the sanction and approv al of the court of chancery, to whom they are at all times answerable for the manner in which they may manage this great trust, have believed it to be not only proper, but their duty, in all legitimate and fair ways, by connections and running arrangements with other railroads, to add to the business and gains of their road, yet always in due subordination to the purpose of the Legislature in granting the charter-viz., service to the public.

The document in question, however honestly intended by the respectable gentlemen whose names appear attached to it, is greatly inaccurate in its statement of facts, seeming to be based upon unfounded reports, and is calculated to produce an erroneous impression by a marked omission to notice other important facts.

It is not true, as implied in the document in question, that there are only two railroad routes from Rutland to Troy, nor that these two roads, the Rutland & Burlington and the Western Vermont,form the shortest and most desirable railroad route between the cities of New York and Troy at the South, and Montreal and Burlington at the North;" nor is it true, that the "travel and business between these points have uniformly taken that direction."

The Rutland & Washington Railroad, running from Rutland through Castleton, Poultney, Granville, Pawlet, Rupert, Salem and Cambridge to Eagle Bridge, there connecting with the Troy & Boston Railroad for Troy, was put in operation as early as the Western Vermont, and has been operated as a competing line to Troy with the Western Vermont, being fully as short and desirable a route for freight and travel as the Western Vermont, and has taken certainly an equal share of trade and business with the Western Vermont. Although the artist in preparing the map illustrative of the document in question, has, in following the text, been careful not to notice the Rutland & Washington Railroad, that road exists, nevertheless, upon the earth's surface, and forms still one, and a third link in the means of active railroad communication between Rutland and Troy.

Nor is it true, as your memorialists are advised, that in grades and curves the Western Vermont and Troy & Boston roads from Rutland to Troy have any advantage over the Rensselaer & Saratoga road.

The Western Vermont Railroad, by a foreclosure of its first mortgage, passed into the hands of its bondholders. These bonds have since been purchased in at a discount, costing the present owner about three hundred and seventy thousand dollars, and a new corporation of the bondholders has been organized, called the Bennington & Rutland Railroad Company. The railroad is now under a lease to the Troy and Boston Railroad Company. The term s are to keep it in repair and pay an annual rent of thirty-six thousand dollars, being an interest of nearly ten per cent. on the cost of the bonds. The Troy & Boston Company now operates the Western Vermont road, and has done so for several years under this lease, which will expire January 16, 1867. So long as this lease to this foreign corporation shall continue, it is difficult to see how any proprietor of the Western Vermont, (or Bennington & Rutland Railroad), can be injured by any running arrangements of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad with other roads, unless possibly as affecting its present saleable price as a speculative stock.

The Troy & Boston Company's road is designed by its charter to connect Troy with Boston by the way of North Adams and the tunnel through Hoosic Mountain, which is in process of construction. When this route shall be opened, it will form the shortest and easiest line between Troy and Boston, and said Company is now under a perpetual contract with the State of Massachusetts, that upon the completion of said tunnel, it shall turn all its business over this tunnel route-a result which would naturally follow, without such contract. Its use of the Western Vermont road is therefore only designed to be temporary, and until such time as it can safely break its present connections, and assume its naturally hostile attitude to the Vermont roads in respect to eastern business.

Some time in May last the Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad and the Rutland & Washington Railroad, by some arrangement between the proprietors of each became consolidated in ownership and in management by a common board of directors. Your memorialists understand that this was done with the view of putting an end to a competition which was ruinous to the two roads and injurious to the public; and that the proprietors of the Western Vermont road, and of the other two roads entered into negotiations to take the Western Vermont into the same consolidated arrangement; and that these negotiations, for the time being, failed or were suspended, partly because the proprietors of the Western Vermont road could not during the continuance of the lease to the Troy & Boston company control their own road, and partly because they demanded a larger price for their road in the common stock than the other party was willing to allow.

After this consolidation of the Rensselaer & Saratoga and the Rutland & Washington Railroad, and with the expectation that the Bennington & Rutland company would at some convenient time come into the same arrangement, and thus put an end to the great embarrassments which had been formerly experienced, your memorialists, as trustees and managers of the Rutland & Burlington road, did enter into a business running arrangement with the managers of the two consolidated roads, forming a through line for freight and passen gers from Troy, Albany and Schenectady to Boston over the Rensselaer & Saratoga and Rutland and Burlington road, necessarily giving a preference to said line over other roads leading from competing points.