Seventh Biennial Report Of The Board Of Railroad Commissioners Of The State Of Vermont June 30th 1898 To June 30th 1900 PDF Download

Excerpt from Eighth Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners of the State of Vermont: June 30th, 1900 to June 30th, 1902 It is evident that in the early days of railroad legislation, the difficulties of constructing them along the narrow, winding val leys and over the hills and mountains, were so great-that the Legislature considered that every possible inducement should be extended to persons willing to engage in their construction and operation. Much of that spirit has continued to the present time. They have been given existence without much scrutiny into the provisions of their charters. Very liberal general laws have been passed both for their organization and general govern ment. Towns have been authorized to aid liberally in their con struction. All their franchises and the powers have been con ferred without charge. Doubtless this has been and is a wise policy to pursue. It must however be remembered that they are improved public highways, allowed to be constructed and Oper ated for the benefit Of the public by private persons as invest ments. It is reasonable that those making this kind of invest ments shall be compensated for the use of the money invested and something for the risk. It should not be overlooked that they derive their income from the patronage of the public, the steam railroads from State and interstate trafiic and the street or electric roads, from local traffic. The latter derive their income wholly through fares imposed. Upon the inhabitants of the cities and villages in which they are operated. These fares should be kept as low as will return to the investors reasonable compensa tion for the use of the money actually required and used in their construction and operation. There should be no watered stock or bonds issued for the public to pay dividends or interest upon. The steam railroads were constructed upon a stock basis, and did not resort to raising money by mortgage of the right Of way, road bed, rolling stock and franchises, until the money derived from the stock assessed to its full par value had been used in their construction. As a rule, these corporations were not capitalized for more thah they actually cost. Many of the prominent citizens of Vermont were interested and largely in the control of their management. Now, all the main lines of steam railroads have passed into the control of corporations and interests outside the State. Such control has proved beneficial to the interests of the people of the State and of the public.' It is probable that most of the steam railroads in the State have passed beyond the stage where there is any danger that they can or will capitalize so as to introduce water into their stocks, bonds and other securities. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.