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THE 
 
 GREAT RAILWAY CONFLICT. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN W. GARRETT, 
 
 PRESIDENT, 
 
 MADE ON APRIL 14th, 1875, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ggik ||Mlltl| |ieliQi qI t|i |iiiiri ot |IheIqii 
 
 OP THE 
 
 BALTIMORE AND OHIO R. R. CO. 
 
 ^ttUTTED Sr on7)EJi OF THE "BOAST), 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 
 THE SUN BOOK AND JOB PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT. 
 1875. 
 
THE GREAT RAILWAY CONFLICT. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN W. GARRETT, 
 
 PKKSIDENT, 
 
 MADE ON APRIL 1,4Tfl[,; J $75, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 j[e3ular j|cintMi) |[eetin0 of tk | oard of mmim 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BALTIMORE AND OHIO K. R. CO. 
 
 i^nij^TEj) sr onvEH or tub isoa'RD, 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE SUN BOOK AND JOB OFFICE. 
 1876. 
 

^ 
 
 THE 
 
 GREAT RAILWAY CONFLICT. 
 
 KEMARKS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN ^W. GARRETT, 
 
 PRESIDENT, 
 
 Made on April 14th, 1875, at the Regular Monthly Meeting of 
 the Board of Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio R. R. Co. 
 
 Gentlemen: 
 
 In connection with the declaration of the usual semi-annual 
 cash dividends of five per cent, on the main stem and on the 
 Washington Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Company, I con- 
 gratulate you upon the splendid and singularly satisfactory re- 
 sults of the hostilities waged by the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
 pany against this Company. 
 
 We have the returns of the earnings of the main stem and 
 branches for the month of March, during the whole of which 
 the efforts of the Pennsylvania Company to injure our interests 
 were made with their highest ability, and the result shows an in- 
 crease in the gross earnings of the Baltimore and Ohio Com- 
 pany, for that month over the same month in 1874, of $103,- 
 773.92. 
 
 M179347 
 

 * Notwithstanding the largely-diminished charge for passengers, 
 the results show an increase of revenue upon the main stem, 
 from this source, of 45 per cent. 
 
 The earnings of the Chicago Division are also shown to be 
 $100,624.81, being an increase of more than 50 per cent, upon 
 the revenue of the preceding month. 
 
 The developments of this controversy have proven to be of 
 the highest importance not only to railway companies generally, 
 but to the leading interests of the country, and the gravity of 
 the subject makes proper a further sketch of its origin and 
 history. 
 
 It is well known that the refusal of the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Company to enter into the Saratoga agreement on the occasion 
 of the visit of Presidents Vanderbilt, Jewett and Scott to Balti- 
 more, in November last, was very unsatisfactory to those gentle- 
 men and the companies which they represented. 
 
 In reply to the arguments used on that occasion to induce 
 this Company to become a member of that combination, your 
 President stated that, in declining to join their combination, he 
 believed he was serving not only the best interests of this Com- 
 pany, but the permanent interests of the New York Central, the 
 New York and Erie, and Pennsylvania Companies. For he 
 stated that if the four great trunk lines should join in that organi- 
 zation, with the power which they could exercise over connect- 
 ing lines, it would be regarded by the people as a combination 
 against their interests, and that, as a result, there would be a 
 combination of the people against the railways of the country, 
 and that, through the courts, which are the exponents of the 
 conscience and interests of the public, and through the repre- 
 sentatives of the people, in legislatures and in Congress, hostile 
 action would be induced which would more than counterbalance 
 the advantages that would flow from the increased rates which 
 
could be commanded through so powerful an organization. The 
 able President of the New York Central road responded that 
 there was much force in this view. 
 
 Whilst, however, declining to become a member of that com- 
 bination, your representative urged the viciousness of fast freight 
 lines, expressed his conviction that they were vampires upon the 
 railway system, and that their irregular and fraudulent action 
 would interfere with the maintenance of reasonable and proper 
 understandings in reference to freight rates. He also cordially 
 agreed to the abolition of commissions on freight and passen- 
 gers, and to discarding middle men generally, believing that the 
 public should have the lowest rates that railway companies could 
 properly work for, and that there should be no parties interven- 
 ing between the railways and the public. 
 
 For a short time subsequent to that conference the general 
 views thus agreed upon were carried out, but it soon became ap- 
 parent to the officers of the Baltimore and Ohio Company that 
 the fast freight lines were violating the agreement, and that the 
 Baltimore and Ohio Company was suffering largely in its busi- 
 ness from this cause, especially in all the Eastern cities. The 
 Baltimore and Ohio Company was ultimately compelled to pro- 
 tect itself against these infractions of the agreement in order to 
 maintain its business ; and it demonstrated the accuracy of its 
 statements in regard to those infractions. It also continued to 
 maintain its right to fix the rates for transportation between its 
 Eastern and Western termini. Its determination to establish the 
 rate from Chicago to Baltimore at 35 cents per one hundred 
 pounds proved a subject of great dissatisfaction to the Northern 
 lines, and ultimately led to a decrease of the rates between Chi- 
 cago and Eastern cities much below those which had been required 
 by the three Northern lines during preceding winters. 
 
6 
 
 Complaints were made by officers of the Pennsylvania road 
 regarding reduced rates from Baltimore by this Company, and 
 the Baltimore and Ohio Company demonstrated that the fast 
 freight lines of the Pennsylvania road had been guilty of break- 
 ing down those rates through their previous actions. 
 
 As an illustration of the views of the Pennsylvania Company 
 as to what it styled "a violation of the agreement," I submit the 
 following correspondence between Mr. A. J. Cassatt, Third Vice 
 President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and Mr. John 
 King, Jr., Vice-President of the Baltimore and Ohio Company, 
 in regard to the tariff on petroleum, viz : 
 
 Philadelphia, December 19th, 1874. 
 John King, Jr., Esq., Vice President : 
 
 My Dear Sir — In our conversation yesterday, I omitted to say 
 anything in reference to the rates at which you are carrying oil 
 from Pittsburg to Baltimore. It is generally understood that 
 your rate is eighty cents per barrel, a cut of forty-eight cents 
 below our net rate to Philadelphia. 
 
 We do not understand that petroleum forms any exception to 
 the agreement between our companies by which equal rates shall 
 be maintained between all competing points. We cannot, there- 
 fore, regard your present rate on petroleum otherwise than as a 
 violation of the agreement, and must ask that you will be kind 
 enough to give this matter your attention, and advise us of your 
 conclusions. Yours, very truly, 
 
 (Signed) ' A. J. Cassatt. 
 
Baltimore, December 22d, 1874. 
 A. J. Cassatt, Esq., Third Vice-President Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road Company : 
 
 My Dear Sir — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor 
 of the 19th inst., and to state in reply that we cannot admit that 
 we are '^cutting rates" on coal oil from Pittsburg to Baltimore. 
 
 When the advance on coal oil rates was made from the oil re- 
 gions and Pittsburg to New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, 
 we were not consulted. Had we been, we should have expressed 
 ithe views we now hold, viz : That there is nothing in the situa- 
 tion of the coal oil trade to cause this advance in the rates of 
 transportation. Doubtless, the Northern lines had what they re- 
 garded good reasons for making this advance. We have not 
 •changed our rates; but the Northern trunk lines, acting with en- 
 tire independence of us, have increased theirs to suit their own 
 views. Surely, when there was nothing agreed to by the Balti- 
 more and Ohio Company on this subject, there can be no viola- 
 tion of an agreement on its part. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 (Signed) JOHN King, Jr., Vice President 
 
 In this case the combined roads made an enormous advance in 
 the tariff for transportation of petroleum, without notice to the 
 Baltimore and Ohio Company, and without reference to its wishes 
 •or judgment, and then claimed that the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Company acted improperly, when it simply continued its tariff^ 
 which had been in force for more than two years past without 
 alteration. 
 
 It is true that the maintenance of moderate rates on petroleum, 
 when the parties to the Saratoga agreement had made a prodi- 
 gious advance, produced very marked results on the trade of 
 Baltimore. The statistics show that the exports of refined oil 
 
from Baltimore from January ist to March 29th, 1875, were 
 5,025,505 gallons, and that the exports of refined oil from Balti- 
 more from January ist to March 29th, 1874, were but 340,722 
 gallons, and that the gain, therefore, was 4,684,783 gallons* 
 Was it not the vast increase of this business in Baltimore, caused 
 by the moderate and judicious action of the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Company in regard to this tariff, which aroused the criticism of the 
 Pennsylvania Company ? This case illustrates largely the tone and 
 character and reasonablerit^ssbf -the criticism and hostile action 
 of the Pennsylvania road towards- the Baltimore and Ohio Com- 
 pany. But the Baltimore and Ohio Company, with its admirable 
 equipment, its superior roads, and its effective lines to the great 
 centres of trade in the Southwest and the West and the North- 
 west, in commanding simply that to which it was fairly entitled 
 from its enterprise, became more and more an object of jealous 
 hostility on the part of its competitors. Palpably they resolved 
 that it must be controlled, and the history of the case shows that 
 the distinguished President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
 pany was the volunteer who undertook to control and reduce to 
 submission the Baltimore and Ohio Company. Like Don Quixote 
 with the windmills, with his single spear he determined to control 
 or demolish the Baltimore and Ohio Company ! His absolute con- 
 fidence in achieving the proposed victory, evidently induced the 
 representatives of the New York Central and the New York and 
 Erie Companies to give him all the power and scope he asked; 
 and, gentlemen, what has been the consequence? Is it not 
 known to all that the chief point in the policy of the Baltimore 
 and Ohio Company has been to build up the trade of Balti- 
 more ? And this champion of the Saratoga combination has 
 given to the Baltimore and Ohio road, by his course, the most 
 splendid success in all its history, in enabling it to accomplish 
 with so much greater rapidity its grand object! To punish 
 
9 
 
 the Baltimore and Ohio Company, what course did he adopt? 
 He reduced the rates from J^altimore to the West to one-half- — 
 and in some cases to 7iiuch less than one-half — the charges from 
 Philadelphia and New York and Boston to the same cities; and 
 thus he made the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the special 
 representative of the city of Philadelphia, aid directly the Bal- 
 timore and Ohio Company to achieve the leading object of 
 its policy with a success that has attracted the attention of the 
 whole country! He has given to the opening of the Chicago 
 extension of the Baltimore and Ohio road an advertisement, a 
 significant conspicuousness, and gained for it a power and pres- 
 tige and fame for unparalleled usefulness which years of its own 
 efforts could not have effected ! He has placed before the nation 
 the fact that the Baltimore and Ohio Company has lines so com- 
 manding in their influence that the Pennsylvania Company, con- 
 trolling, as stated in the report of its investigating committee, 5>933 
 miles of railway, representing a capital of $398,267,675.22, has 
 been compelled to subordinate itself and throw its whole power 
 into building up the city of Baltimore at the expense of its own 
 city of Philadelphia and other Eastern cities ! 
 
 How gratifying, gentlemen, to see around you, notwithstand- 
 ing the calamitous depression of trade in other cities, the activity,, 
 vigor and extent of business transacted in your midst ! Our 
 manufacturers and our merchants are largely prospering under the 
 effects of what was designed as mere hostility to the Baltimore 
 and Ohio Company. And the Pennsylvania Railroad Company,, 
 following the lead of our Company, has made its passenger rates 
 so low to Baltimore, in order to drive the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Company from its position, that large numbers of business men 
 from all parts of the country are coming to Baltimore to reap 
 the advantages of the low charges both for travel and transporta- 
 tion. But may not the valiant knight have so entangled his lance 
 
10 
 
 in the intricate machinery which he has attacked, that, instead 
 of the ''pulverization" of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com- 
 pany, other grave and large interests may be approaching in a 
 terrible manner that condition ? 
 
 Within a short time we have seen the announcement that the 
 Pennsylvania Company has ceased to pay interest on the enor- 
 mous sum of more than fifteen millions of dollars of bonds of 
 the Columbus, Chicago and Indiana Central Railroad Company, 
 and it is also notified within a few days past, that, at the annual 
 meeting of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad Com- 
 pany (its important Pan Handle route), resolutions were unani- 
 mously adopted declaring the income of that road insufficient 
 to pay the interest on the several mortgage bonds due ist April, 
 1875 ; and defaults of payment of interest and principal by this 
 Company also are alleged to have taken place to the further and 
 alarming extent of ten millions of dollars ! 
 
 We know full well that the rates fixed by the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad Company in Baltimore are utterly unremunerative to 
 that road, that fifteen cents per hundred pounds from Balti- 
 more to Chicago — with large amounts of drayage and labor paid 
 in many cases — cannot fail to produce great losses, when that sum 
 is divided between the Northern Central, the Pennsylvania and 
 the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago roads. Such rates may 
 produce a catastrophe to their great road from Pittsburg to Chi- 
 cago, similar to that which has already fallen upon their two 
 great and leading lines to which reference has been made, 
 the bonds of which have heretofore been held and regarded as 
 practically guaranteed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 
 We must confess, gentlemen, that the stock and debt repre- 
 senting the capital of the Baltimore and Ohio Company present 
 figures insignificant when compared with the immense pro- 
 portions of the stock and indebtedness— without reference to the 
 
11 
 
 prodigious aggregate of liabilities guaranteed — of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad Company. Were it wealth instead of debt, the 
 figure representing the stock and indebtedness of that Company 
 would be magnificent indeed. Whilst the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Company has $13,000,000 of common stock and $4,000,000 of 
 six per cent, preferred stock, the Pennsylvania Company shows, 
 of stock alone, on which its shareholders expect dividends to be 
 continued, $68,719,400. The New York Central and Hudson 
 River Railroads represent also enormous figures — more than 
 eighty-nine millions of stock — and the New York and Erie Rail- 
 road represents over eighty-six millions of stock, in addition to 
 their respective mortgage indebtedness. 
 
 Parties connected with the Pennsylvania road cry aloud 
 against the alleged ruin brought by the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Company on the railway interests of the country ; but, gentle- 
 men, it is the Pennsylvania Company that is responsible for these 
 low prices. It established these unremunerative rates for the 
 purpose of driving the Baltimore and Ohio Company from its 
 policy of independence, and the results will show that the 
 famous hero of La Mancha produced as much effect on the wind- 
 mills as President Scott will produce by his reckless action 
 upon the thoughtfully-considered and well-established policy of 
 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. 
 
 Let the battle go on ! Already the consumers and producers 
 in all parts of the United States have had their attention directed 
 to the economies of the port of Baltimore, and its ample sup- 
 plies of goods of every description at the lowest prices ; and to 
 the fact that it has a great line of railway absolutely determined 
 (as it has comparatively and assuredly the power to do) to main- 
 tain at all times moderate rates for the transportation of imports 
 and exports to and from the port of Baltimore. This determi- 
 nation is based upon wise and just principles, and will result in 
 
12 
 
 enforcing its policy, which will make the entire country appre- 
 ciate that Baltimore presents another great and economical port 
 on the Atlantic, with vast and increasing advantages, and fur- 
 nishes the cheapest and best entrepot for large sections of the 
 South and Southwest, the West and Northwest. 
 
 The only apology that has been urged by the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad Company for its extraordinary proceeding in refusing 
 accommodations upon the Camden and Amboy line, (which it 
 controls as a monopoly between Philadelphia and New York, 
 and on which its charges in many instances are double what 
 they will' be when an effective competing line is established,) 
 for the freight and passenger business of the Baltimore and Ohio 
 road, is its allegation in connection with the use of the Wash- 
 ington Branch prior to the construction of the Baltimore and 
 Potomac road. To demonstrate not only the injustice, but the 
 gross misrepresentation made on this subject, a copy is submitted 
 of a letter written when these misstatements were made in the 
 Congress of the United States, and when adverse legislation was 
 urged because of these statements made then in the interests of 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. This letter was addressed 
 to the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, then a Senator from Maryland, 
 and is as follows : 
 
 "Baltimore, 29th March, 1867. 
 
 "My Dear Sir — I am obliged for your esteemed favor of 
 27th instant. 
 
 "Baggage is checked at our Washington station for Philadel- 
 phia, New York, etc., and for all points in the West by our main 
 stem. 
 
 "The complaints to which you refer are doubtless in reference 
 to travel via Harrisburg and the Pennsylvania road, as by all 
 other lines the arrangements are as perfect as practicable. 
 
13 
 
 "You are aware that the Pennsylvania Company is not merely 
 a rival, but a hostile interest. The Baltimore and Ohio Company 
 can furnish no through checks for baggage by the Northern Cen- 
 tral road, which is controlled by the Pennsylvania road, except 
 arrangements be made with the officers of the latter Company. 
 This Company has for years been entirely willing to make the 
 requisite arrangements to check baggage through from Washing- 
 ton to all points desired by the Northern Central and Pennsyl- 
 vania roads, making but one proviso, which is usual under 
 similar circumstances, viz : That if tickets are sold and baggage 
 be checked at our Washington station, the Pennsylvania road 
 shall cease to maintain separate and antagonistic offices in 
 Washington. 
 
 " This reasonable and proper arrangement has not been 
 accepted, although I have repeatedly called the attention of the 
 leading directors of the Northern Central road to its necessity 
 and propriety. 
 
 *T fully accord that the public should be accommodated upon 
 this subject, and I am equally satisfied that the Northern Central 
 Company would cordially cooperate, if not adversely controlled 
 by the Pennsylvania Company. It would, of course, be useless 
 to cause this Company to maintain additional rival offices and 
 meet the needless expensiveness of *the present system in Wash- 
 ington, if tickets to all points, by either road, at the option of the 
 passenger, could be obtained at our Washington station. 
 
 **As the fault of the failure to effect the proper arrangement 
 lies entirely with the Pennsylvania road, I will be obliged if you 
 will make the requisite explanations to such parties as are inter- 
 ested. 
 
 'T am, with great regard, 
 
 "Very truly yours, 
 
 •'J. W. Garrett, President. 
 ^'Hon. Reverdy Johnson, U. S. S., Washington." ^ 
 
14 
 
 This letter was read by Senator Johnson in the Senate, pub- 
 Hshed at the time, and no reply whatever made by the Pennsyl- 
 vania Company. 
 
 The impregnable truth and accuracy of these statements pre- 
 vented even any attempt to attack them, and show conclusively 
 the injustice of the slanders which are again being uttered on 
 this subject. 
 
 Perhaps no better illustration of the ability of the Baltimore 
 and Ohio Company to compete with the Pennsylvania Company 
 need be shown than to call attention to their much vaunted Balti- 
 more and Potomac road. This enterprise, which has only a 
 single track line — and that single track certainly not of the best 
 character — in connection with its expenditures on part of the 
 tunnel in the city of Baltimore, and its totally unremunerative 
 track to Pope's Creek, represents — as officially stated by the 
 Stockholders' Investigating Committee — a cost, in stock and debt 
 of nine millions^ eight himdred and eighty-eight thousand^ seven 
 hundred and thirty-six dollars ! ! The Washington Branch of 
 the Baltimore and Ohio Company, which the learned writers in 
 behalf of the Pennsylvania Company (in publications apparently 
 by the authority of that Company) criticize as an " unavailable 
 asset," is a strictly first-class, double-tracked road, with the best 
 steel rails, and the most durable masonry and bridges, thirty-one 
 miles in length from the Viaduct to Washington, and is repre- 
 sented by a capital of one million six htmdird and fifty thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 Another contrast of economy of working seems to show the 
 ability of the Baltimore and Ohio Company to maintain itself in 
 any competition which the Pennsylvania Company may desire. 
 President Scott states that his charge for terminal expenses, viz : 
 for the deliveries and transfers at New York, by putting cars on 
 floats between Jersey City and New York, oi five cents per hundred 
 
15 
 
 pounds, "is not sufficient to cover the actual cost of the work done."" 
 The Baltimore and Ohio Company has a similar transfer performed 
 in the same manner between Locust Point and Canton, and the 
 actual cost of this transfer is less than the half of one cent per 
 hundted pounds. Surely there must be strange elements in this 
 " actual cost " on the part of the Pennsylvania Railroad to make 
 it loom up into such an extravagantly comparative figure. 
 
 Every artificial obstruction placed in the way of traffic from* 
 the Baltimore and Ohio road to Philadelphia and New York, 
 serves to add business to Baltimore, and daily increases the great 
 sympathy and support of the West and the South, and leads to- 
 sustaining the Baltimore and Ohio road and the City of Balti- 
 more, for the clear reason that bonds of mutual interest are being 
 thus effectively strengthened. Obstruct the movements of pass-^ 
 engers and freight between Baltimore and Philadelphia and Balti- 
 more and New York, and those very passengers stop at Balti- 
 more, examine its advantages as a market, purchase their goods,, 
 avail of the low freights from this city, and become its custom- 
 ers and cordial friends. 
 
 An epoch has been reached in the history of this struggle,, 
 and the varied attacks of the single knight have proven to be 
 disastrous failures. He has recently been reinforced by the rep- 
 resentatives of the New Yovk Central and the New York and 
 Erie Companies ; and now it is not only a battle of one 
 railway company against another railway company, but it 
 is a struggle to maintain the policy of the Baltimore 
 and Ohio Company against the combined power of the 
 greatest railways on the continent, representing with their asso- 
 ciate lines, more than seven hundred millions of capital ! But 
 the very fact that they do represent $700,000,000 of capital will 
 be the cause of the failure of the combined attack, and the very 
 fact that the Baltimore and Ohio Company represents so limited 
 
16 
 
 a capital, with such grand and effective lines under its manage- 
 ment, makes victory on its part certain. 
 
 This is not the first great struggle in which the Baltimore and 
 Ohio Company has been involved with these lines. At the 
 commencement of its present administration efforts were 
 •made to enlarge the business of the road, and rates were fixed 
 from Baltimore lower than the rates from Northern cities to the 
 Western centres of commerce, upon the plain and strong grounds 
 of the geographical advantages of this city. Those eminent and 
 able railway officers, the late Erastus Corning, Dean Richmond 
 and J. Edgar Thomson, agreed upon a programme to force the 
 Baltimore and Ohio Company to charge the same rates from 
 Baltimore as they charged from New York and Philadelphia. 
 That was a very great controversy. The President of the Balti- 
 more and Ohio Company called the attention of the officers of 
 the New York Central Railroad, in convention, prior to the 
 commencement of that conflict, to the fact that the city of Balti- 
 more was, by a singular coincidence, exactly the distance nearer 
 to Cincinnati than the distance from New York to Cincinnati, of 
 298 miles — the entire distance between Albany and Buffalo — 
 and that they demanded that the Baltimore and Ohio Company 
 should charge for its distance, thus 298 miles shorter, equal to 
 the whole length of their line, the same rate for transportation. 
 Reckless rates were then made by that hostile combination 
 against the Baltimore and Ohio road. But what was the 
 result ? A loss of millions to those lines in that protracted 
 ■conflict, and the ultimate establishment of the fact that common 
 sense and the laws of trade must govern on all such subjects, and 
 that from that day to this hour no serious effort has been made 
 by those lines to force that principle (at that period pressed .with 
 so much pertinacity) again on the attention of this Company. 
 
17 
 
 Whether this conflict continues for a long or a short period, 
 gentlemen, I judge it will be your determination that the policy 
 of preserving the independence of this Company shall be main- 
 tained. As your executive, I deem it a privilege to battle, and, if 
 necessary, to make sacrifices for the great object in view. 
 
 Our stockholders are largely identified with the interests of 
 Baltimore and with the interests upon our lines. The massive 
 business pouring over our roads gives employment to the many 
 thousands in our service. The pay of our employees, in the 
 States through which our lines pass, is distributed among the 
 farmers, the tradesmen, and the general population. We aid 
 progress everywhere, build up all our local interests, and add to 
 the prosperity of our great, growing and beautiful city. Are 
 we expected to decline the maintenance of our views, the main- 
 tenance of fixed policies, based on sound principles, when the 
 worst efforts that the Pennsylvania Company can make against 
 us are shown to be that they are compelled to aid us in building 
 up the city of Baltimore, and in making it understood in every 
 direction throughout the country that Baltimore presents the 
 greatest advantages and inducements for commercial transac- 
 tions ? 
 
 We have the satisfaction of knowing that at this period, invest- 
 ors from New York, Chicago and other cities are purchasing real 
 estate in our suburbs, and merchants from many quarters are 
 arranging to transfer their homes to our city ; and among the 
 gratifying results attendant upon these railway difficulties are 
 the constant and increasing prosperity of our community. 
 
 President Scott has addressed to me the statement that he 
 believes the railway officers and the stockholders who may be 
 injured will hold the President of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
 road responsible for this "policy of destruction." 
 
 What is this "policy of destruction ?" The reduction of rates 
 in Baltimore' to one-half the prices charged in Philadelphia and 
 
18 
 
 New York to Western cities — and this policy was originated by 
 him and has been continued by him. Other difficulties and reduc- 
 tions followed from this cause. "Facts are stubborn things ;" and 
 the judgments of men are governed by facts and not by erroneous 
 assertions. If the vast railway fabric which, legitimately or illegiti- 
 mately, has been built up or controlled by the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road Company, shall be broken down by the folly of these pro- 
 ceedings, history will record that the responsibility for the failures 
 to pay dividends and interest on the stock and bonds of the roads 
 involved— which I regret to anticipate will cause the ruin and 
 misery of thousands of helpless and innocent investors and vic- 
 tims—is with President Scott, and that the continuance of this 
 state of things rests with him and the Directors of the Penn- 
 sylvania Railroad Company, and that no part ©f that responsi- 
 bility, ruinous as the results may prove to vast interests, will 
 attach to the managers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
 Company. 
 
 After remarks by Messrs. Banks, Cheston and others, sustain- 
 ing the policy and action of the Company, a resolution was 
 unanimously adopted by the Board of Directors, approving of 
 the maintenance of the policy of the Company by President Gar- 
 rett, and ordering the address to be printed in pamphlet form. 
 
YC 4 
 
 3896 
 
 ivil793'17 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY