westerly line of the old location of the Eastern Railroad, and the present northerly line of the Fitchburg Railroad: provided, however, that in case of the aforesaid taking and exchange of property by and between the Eastern and Fitchburg Railroads, the Boston and Maine Railroad shall release the Eastern Railroad Company from all damages for its taking and occupation thereof and take from the said Eastern Railroad Company so much of the premises described in the first section of the three hundred and fifty-sixth chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-two, as was taken from the said Boston and Maine Railroad by said Eastern Railroad Company under the provisions of that act; and said Eastern Railroad Company shall, without other compensation therefor, release to said Boston and Maine Railroad all their rights in said premises acquired by them, taking the same under said act; and provided, further, that any exchange of land made under the provisions of this section shall take effect simultaneously.

All general laws relating to the taking of land for railroad purposes and to the location and construction of railroads, shall be applicable to and govern the proceedings in the taking and exchange of lands and property, and in the making of any new locations under the provisions of the foregoing sections, except that instead of the county commissioners three disinterested persons shall be appointed by the supreme judicial court for the county of Suffolk as a board of commissioners to determine the values of the lands and property so taken and exchanged or over which any such location may be made, and to adjudicate the damages to be paid by any of the others upon the taking, exchange or locations aforesaid, from whose decision an appeal shall be to a jury in behalf of either party, as provided by law in the case of lands taken for railroad purposes.

Any sum of money received by the Fitchburg Railroad in said interchange of stations and tracks above the expense of necessary alterations shall be applied to procuring new terminal facilities and making improvements on said road or may be applied to the reduction of the capital stock of the Fitchburg Railroad Company in such manner as may be agreed between the Fitchburg Railroad Company and said board of trustees.

SECT. 19. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

SPEECH.

Mr. President:

I am deeply impressed with the great importance of the question now before us for consideration. It is not local, not sectional, nor political, but a question that affects more or less directly the industrial, the mercantile, the manufacturing, and the commercial interests of the whole Commonwealth. The proper solution of this great problem rests with us, as the representatives of the people; and it is a responsibility of no ordinary importance, and one that should control our serious and earnest attention and our candid and best judgment, unbiased by any local or personal interest, with a solemn regard to our oaths to support and maintain the constitutional rights of the people of the Commonwealth.

Stern convictions of duty alone induce me to address this honorable body on this occasion—duty that I feel incumbent upon me, Mr. President, from the honored position that I received at your hands. It is well known that I neither have or make any claims as a public speaker, and I must ask your indulgence for being somewhat dependent upon my notes in presenting to you an honest statement of my own convictions of this great question, having no other interest to serve but the State and her people.

This important subject involves directly the whole question of the railroad policy of this Commonwealth; and here in Massachusetts the proper direction of the railroad policy is even more important than at the West, where it now engages the public attention almost to the exclusion of other interests.

Within the last fifty years this Commonwealth has almost entirely changed its industrial position. Half a century ago, agriculture, the fisheries, and commerce were the leading interests. Now, manufactures engross the attention of our people, and have made all other interests subordinate. They have not excluded other interests, but in a measure supplemented them. Our agriculture has changed and now finds its chief support in providing supplies for the manufacturing towns which have grown up in every part of the Commonwealth. Our commerce, both internal and external, is largely engaged in bringing to our doors the raw material for our laborers, and in spreading throughout the world the products of our manufacturing industry.

We can raise but a small proportion of the food necessary to feed the people of the State; under such circumstances the transportation must weigh heavily upon our industry. We feel it in the increased cost of living, which increases the cost of every article we produce. We feel it in the increased cost of the raw materials of our manufactures, which makes us less able to compete successfully with more favored locations. We feel it finally in the increased cost of marketing our goods. This position has been so well stated by the Railroad Commissioners in their report of 1870, page 39, that I may repeat it here:

"It may safely be asserted that there is no branch of Massachusetts industry which is not carried on against competition more advantageously located. The State has very few natural advantages; but everything with her depends on the intelligence of her people, and the cost of transportation. The West, in producing cereals, has at least a soil of unsurpassed fertility: Pennsylvania in manufacturing iron has the ore and the coal in close proximity to the furnace. The English mill-owner has his power and his labor in cheap profusion. Almost every article, however, which enters into the industries of Massachusetts has to be brought within her limits from a distance. Her very water powers are subject to inclement winters and dry summers, while she has to make her ingenuity supply a deficiency in labor. Her food is brought from the North-West: her wool and her leather from South America, Texas, California and the Central States: her cotton from the South: her ores from the Adirondacks: her coal from Pennsylvania; her copper from Superior,—and the list would admit of infinite extension. Massachusetts is thus merely an artificial point of meeting for all kinds and descriptions of raw material which is here worked up, and then sent abroad again to find a customer At every point, coming and going, and in process of manufacture, it has to be transported, and it has to bear all costs of transportation in competition with articles of the same description produced elsewhere and by others. Every reduction of the transportation tax acts then as a direct encouragement to the industry of Massachusetts, just as much so as if it were a bounty or bonus: it is just so much weight taken off in the race of competition."

No words of mine can add any force to this plain statement of facts; but yet we are told that transportation is only one element in the cost and price of goods, and frequently not that of the greatest consequence, but the importance of this one element is fourfold, and often more, to the Massachusetts manufacturer, making the transportation of more importance in many cases than the cost of materials transported. This transportation tax is the very element that is to build up a competition in these favored localities that will either extinguish or transfer many classes of our industrial interests that we can ill afford to lose.