It is needless to explain at any length what the Hoosac Tunnel is.
There can be no member of this board who does not know that we in
Massachusetts are separated from the West by a mountain barrier
extending from near Long Island Sound to near the Canada line. This
barrier must be passed to bring us into connection with the West.
It has been turned on the north by the Vermont Central, on the south
by the Hartford and Erie. It has been passed over steep grades by the
Boston and Albany. At North Adams it is compressed into narrow limits
in the Hoosac Mountain, and the bold conception was formed to pierce
directly through it at this point. First, the effort was made to
accomplish the great undertaking by private capital, aided by a state
loan. The difficulties were underrated and the plan failed. Finally,
the State assumed the enterprise and has since, with varying fortunes
but unfaltering energy, prosecuted it to a successful result. Within
the current year there can be little doubt of the completion of the
work. The Tunnel will be opened for traffic and a new line formed
between Boston and the West, shorter by eleven miles than any existing
route; with easy grades, which, making the usual allowance for the
obstruction caused by heavy grades to railroad traffic--will render
it constructively shorter than any route by at least twenty miles, or
ten per cent., between Boston and Albany.
Its cost to the State, including the Troy and Greenfield Railroad,
will be at least twelve millions, raised by loans, on which the
interest is paid by taxation. Since the plan of the Tunnel was formed
new lines of road have been projected and built, connecting it with
every part of the State, and there is scarcely a town from Berkshire
to Provincetown, which does not to-day stand in position to reap its
share of the benefit expected to follow the completion of this great
public enterprise.
Having expended so large a sum on the Tunnel, the question arises, How
shall we use it to derive the greatest good to the whole people? The
State now holds, as owner substantially, the Troy and Greenfield
Railroad and the Tunnel, at a cost of about twelve millions. Its value
depends wholly upon the future development of business, but its
relations are such to other railroad interests, that I have no doubt
that, if the State desires to sell the Tunnel, notwithstanding its
great cost, negotiations could be made to dispose of it at a price
that would return to the State the moneys expended, but it would be at
the risk of sacrificing the prosperity of its own industrial
interests. There are various and conflicting opinions expressed in
regard to the business that may be done. Some parties who appeared
before the committee declared that the completion of the Tunnel could
only be compared to the removal of a dam, to be followed by a flood of
business beyond our power to properly care for; while others were
equally confident that the traffic now flowing through other channels
would be diverted to the new one only through the influence of time
and energetic labor. All, however, agreed in the opinion that, under
proper management it was destined to become, at no very distant day,
perhaps, the great avenue for trade between the East and West. The
eagerness with which various railroad corporations seek its control by
"_ways_ and _means_," if honest, should be convincing proof of the
great importance of the Tunnel to the public, and if not honest, it
should merit the condemnation of every honest man in the community.