of the companies interested, we have strong reasons to believe.

It secures to the stockholders the dividends they are now receiving. It secures also to them the benefit of any increase of business likely to accrue from the completion of the tunnel, to as full an extent as they can hope to benefit by it. No railroad corporation ought ever to pay more than ten per cent. dividends, and the legislature would undoubtedly, under its power to regulate tolls, interfere to prevent greater dividends.

While these corporations are thus interested in the earnings of the roads, the bill provides that they should be represented in their management. We shall thus secure the services of persons familiar with the local business and history of the separate roads, and although forming only a minority of the board of management, they must have an important influence in the direction of its affairs.

The benefits to be gained by the State by this arrangement are obvious and manifold.

It retains state ownership and management of the tunnel.

It secures to all corporations desiring to use the tunnel equal rights.

It secures to the Commonwealth the full value of its investment, whatever future developments of business shall prove that value to be.

It assumes the establishment of a strong corporation, able to provide all equipment and terminal facilities which any future increase of business may render necessary or advisable.

It meets all the presumed advantages of state acquisition of the railroads, without that disturbance and removal of capital which must follow the purchase of the railroads by the State.

It can furnish capital for the improvement of the line at a cheaper rate than any consolidated company can procure it; and cheap capital in disinterested hands secures cheap transportation.

It enables the State to try fairly and fully the experiment of cheap transportation.

It creates a corporation which cannot combine with other corporations, nor can its stock be purchased or in any way controlled by outside parties, and is strong enough to compete successfully with the powerful corporations of neighboring States.

Such a management we believe would be efficient and reliable beyond that of ordinary railroad corporations. It would combine to a great degree the advantages of state and corporate management. The governor and council could be depended upon to appoint suitable persons as trustees. The railroad corporations would naturally appoint their most efficient agents as trustees. Such a board could find no difficulty in securing the services of the ablest railroad officers to direct and aid in the management.

It remains to refer briefly to the other propositions before the Committee.

First, to that of the Boston and Lowell Railroad Company to unite with the Fitchburg. This is a proposal to unite two lines in some degree rival and competing. They are rival lines to some extent for local business. They form parts of rival lines for distant business with the North and West. It is a new proposition in this Commonwealth to unite rival and competing lines. This competition will be increased with the opening of the tunnel line. The Lowell is the natural terminus of the Northern line, and the Fitchburg is the natural terminus of the tunnel line. Whatever advantages may accrue to the corporations themselves from such a consolidation, the public results will be unmitigated evil. Not one witness unconnected with the interested corporations appeared before the Committee to testify in favor of such a consolidation. The evidence against it was strong and conclusive. The Northern line by way of the Lowell and Vermont Central was shown to be of great value to Boston and to Massachusetts. It is now in a measure consolidated under contracts having twenty years to run, and it is surely bad policy for the Commonwealth, having expended $12,000,000 to create a new line, to commence its operations with the destruction of one in full and vigorous existence. Moreover, such a consolidation threatens more than anything else state control of the tunnel itself. A powerful corporation, owning the whole line except the tunnel, would soon compel the transfer of that, and until such transfer, would throw upon the State as the owner of the tunnel the responsibility for all the sins and omissions of the line.

The important question of an interchange of depots and tracks by the railroads entering Boston on the north has been somewhat involved in this hearing.

The avoidance of railroad crossings is undoubtedly of great importance, but it has no proper connection with the disposal of the tunnel. The Eastern Railroad Company and Boston and Maine Railroad are agreed what changes can and should be made to avoid these crossings. All that is essential to secure this end is to remove the passenger station of the Fitchburg Railroad west of the Lowell, where it properly belongs. The legislature has full power in the premises. It can, independently of any consolidation, require the Fitchburg Railroad Company to provide passenger accommodations west of the Lowell station, and thus leave its present station on Causeway Street free for the use of the Eastern Railroad Company.

If the State acquires the Fitchburg Railroad under this Act, it can easily provide for the change. The whole question of interchange of depots is independent of the far more important question of the disposition of the tunnel, and should not control it. If the Lowell Railroad can provide for the wants of the Fitchburg Railroad Company in its passenger station after consolidation, it can do so without consolidation.

Respectfully submitted by

E. P. CARPENTER,
J. K. BAKER,
T. W. WELLINGTON,
WILLIAM BAKER,
Members of the Committee on Railways.

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-Three.

AN ACT

To incorporate the State Board of Trustees of the Hoosac Tunnel Railroad.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECT. 1. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall, as soon after the passage of this act as may be convenient, appoint five persons, citizens of this Commonwealth, who shall, on or before the first day of July next, take the interest of the Commonwealth in the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, and the Hoosac Tunnel when it shall be completed by the contractors, and all the property and interest of the Commonwealth in the Southern Vermont Railroad Company, and hold the same in trust for the purposes hereinafter named, one of whom shall hold his office for five years, one for four years, one for three years, one for two years and one for one year, from the ___________ day of ___________. Before the first day of July in each year, one such trustee shall be appointed for the term of five years; upon the occurrence of a vacancy before the expiration of a term, an appointment shall be made for the remainder of such term.

SECT. 2. Said trustees are hereby created a railroad corporation under the name of the State Board of Trustees of the Hoosac Tunnel Railroad, and shall have all the powers and privileges, and be subject to the duties, restrictions and liabilities set forth in the general laws relating to railroads, so far as the same may be