necessity to meet the wants of the people, to stir up a little competition, and induce these companies to give the facilities they are able to. An underground railroad may yet be a necessity. In answer to the chairman, Mr. Ritchie said he did not think there was an inducement for the Met ropolitan Railroad Company to make the accommodations, but the opening of Shawmut Avenue to railway tracks would afford travel for twenty-five or fifty more cars. He had never made complaints to the company, and always took a seat when he could get one, but generally had to stand; his family often made complaints of want of accommodations. The car on which he went out the night before had seventytwo passengers, at about five o'clock; he was due at home at ten minutes to six, a distance of about three miles; he took the Jamaica Plain car because it was generally quicker than the Egleston-square cars. Mr. Ritchie said he had never said much about the Metropolitan Company, on account of what the company had done in the past, but he had not found any one so poor as to do them reverence. They experienced a difficulty in not having the officers of the road living amongst them. In reply to Mr. Bates, counsel for the Metropolitan Company, he said he was willing to admit almost everything in excuse for the lack of accommodations; that all of the great avenues were too narrow for the travel.

L. F. Morse, an assessor, gave some statistics of the growth of the Highland district. When the cars first commenced running in 1856, the population of Roxbury was 18,000; in 1860, 25,138; in 1870, 34,773; and from the increase of polls last year, the number was about 44,000. From appearances in cutting up large estates, the building the present year will be greater than in any previous year. The necessities of travel require another road. In ward 14 during the last four years, there has been a still greater increase. In 1868 there were 1,428 buildings, and in 1871, 2,857; there were 357 new buildings completed last year, and 166 in process of erection. There was land enough in that ward capable of sustaining a population of 100,000.

Mr. Morse agreed with Mr Ritchie that the new road would afford but a temporary relief, and that steam must be required to meet the wants of that section of the city. The present hearing, he thought, had given an impetus to the Metropolitan Company, and new efforts had been made to give accommodations; with a new road they would each give a stimulus to the other, and a competition would be beneficial to the people.

The hearing was further continued to Tuesday morning next, at half-past nine o'clock.

FEBRUARY 13, 1872.

The hearing was resumed this morning in the green room. Mr. George W. Wheelwright was the first witness called. He said he lived on Warren Street, and he had felt that if he could not choose his hour for returning home he should feel compelled to change his residence. His son, who was in business with him, was usually compelled to stand and frequently ride upon the platform. He had advised his friends not to locate in the Highlands until there were better accommodations. The want of brains in the management of the road was apparent to every one. Some of the cars in use were very poorly ventilated. He was surprised that the gentlemen who run the road were willing to continue such a state of things. The road took all it could get, and gave the public as little as possible in return. The management was worse than that of the Erie ring. The statistics of the Baltimore Horse Railroad very nearly corresponded with those of the Metropolitan, and they gave excellent accommodations; a lady was seldom seen standing in the cars in Baltimore. That road paid to the city of Baltimore some $134,000 a year, and kept the streets through which its cars passed in repair, and also supported a public park. He thought the Metropolitan road needed the spur of wholesome competition. Any corporation which got its franchise for nothing should be content with six or seven per cent., and

its dividends should not be pushed up to ten per cent. at the expense of the comfort of the public. He thought the manners of the people had been corrupted by the Metropolitan Railroad, and it had become more customary than formerly for men to retain their seats when ladies were standing. He considered that there was sufficient business for both roads, and he considered the proposed route for the new road perfectly feasible. He did not hear any one in his vicinity speak well of the Metropolitan road. He thought he had said as much in its favor as anybody. He had several times addressed a note to the officers about the accommodations, and had always received a courteous reply. He did not think the Metropolitan road was managed as well as it might be, and he saw no reason why it could not be as well managed as the Baltimore Horse Railroad. He made ten or twelve trips on the road each week, and there were usually people standing on some portion of the route. He was compelled to stand about two-thirds of the time. He thought the inconvenience of putting on more cars could be avoided by a higher rate of speed. An increase of speed on the part of the Metropolitan road would not, however, meet the wants of the people. He considered the new road a necessity, and was willing to take stock in it. He thought it would pay six or seven per cent., which was as much as any company should take. He considered that there were many features which the Baltimore and Metropolitan railways held in common, except in the better accommodations and the return which the Baltimore road made to the city for the right of way.

The evidence for the petitioners being here closed, the opening argument for the remonstrants was made by S. W. Bates, Esq., who addressed the committee as follows:

OPENING ARGUMENT OF SAMUEL W. BATES, Esq. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee :-The petitioners having presented their case, it is incumbent upon me to make such reply to it as may seem proper for us.

I understand that the people residing in this district say to you that they are not accommodated as they think they ought to be, by any existing means of communication between their territory and the heart of the city of Boston; that they desire some relief, and that certain parties who are the owners of real estate in that vicinity say to you that they are ready, in connection with others, to build a road; that the benefit which it will be to their real estate, and the comfort it will be to the people generally, will be sufficient to pay them, even if they do not make any money for a few years; and they are, therefore, ready to build a new road, if you will grant them a charter. It certainly would be a very desirable thing for all these individuals to have better accommodation. I would go a good deal further than Mr. May did the other day, when he said he would" as soon expect to find a bear upon the Common as to find a person in the Highland district who did not want better railroad accommodations." I think I would as soon expect to find a bear upon the Common as to find any person anywhere in the vicinity of Boston, on any one of the horse railroad lines, that does not want better accommodations, or any person on any one of the steam lines that does not want better accommodations. I would go further, and say that I would as soon expect to find a bear on the Common as to find any intelligent man or woman who does not want every thing on earth better than he or she has got now-for that is what makes men. It is because we are discontented, in a true, proper sense, that we have life and energy and spirit to go forward and improve everything around us. Therefore, I say to all those who are dissatisfied here, "Get better accommodations, if you can; we will help you as far as we can; we will not stand in your way one iota, unless it becomes our duty to do so, from the fact that, in granting the accommodation that you desire, it will be to the injury and the inconvenience of a very much larger class of persons than yourselves." There is a limit to space. The old doctrine that two bodies cannot occupy the same space, is as true to-day as it ever was, and it

is true, not only in those cars, that are so crowded that twọ bodies cannot occupy the same space, as our friends on the other side say they must in those crowded cars; but it is also true in the streets, that two cars cannot occupy the same space, any more than two persons in the car; and the question is, in certain cases, which shall give way? Shall the people in the cars be crowded, or shall the cars and other travel in the streets be crowded? There is inconvenience, injury, evil in both cases, but which will give way? That question is to be decided by facts and common sense, and not by the people in the streets complaining, as they do, that the horse-cars are so numerous now that they cannot live, and they must be taken off; that they go so fast that accidents are occurring every day, and they cannot exist with a Metropolitan Railroad that runs so many cars, and runs them so fast that there is no chance for anybody else to drive a carriage through the streets or by the other party complaining that there are not cars enough, that they don't go fast enough, and that they don't have any accommodation whatever. There are two sides to the evil, and they must both be considered, and the question between them decided by facts and by contrasts.

Now, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, if what is stated to us is true, and what is proposed as a remedy is a remedy, and there is no better remedy, then these gentlemen ought to have their grant. If, on the other hand, the evil is exaggerated, or if there is a better remedy for the evil, or if the remedy which they propose is worse than the disease, and is not a remedy, then they ought not to have it. These points we shall consider particularly. We think that the evil of which they complain is much exaggerated, and we believe that the remedy which they propose is no remedy at all. We believe that the remedy that they propose will be a great injury to all the rest of the travel that is upon this line. We believe that it will destroy what little good, as they say, the Metropolitan road does, and if they have no brains now, and no ability now, and no disposition now to manage their road