Excerpt from Argument of Franklin B. Gowen, Esq., Before the Joint Committee of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, Appointed to Inquire Into the Affairs of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company and the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company: At Atlantic City, New Jersey, July 29th and 30th, 1875, on Behalf of Said Company
The Reading Railroad Company was chartered in the year 1833 for the purpose of building a railroad from Philadelphia to the town of Reading. Within a year or two its powers were extended to enable it to locate its line and construct its road to the anthracite coal regions of Schuylkill county. The road was opened to the coal region in the year 1842, and from that time until the commencement of these difficulties it has been carry ing out the object of its charter fairly to the public, honestly to the State, and often for many years at great loss to its pro moters. From a small line of fifty - eight miles of single track in 1835, it has extended itself throughout every valley of the Schuylkill and Mahanoy coal fields, offering an avenue to every one who desired to send his coal over its lines and in the year 187 0 it Operated one thousand one hundred and sixty-eight miles of single-track railroad, of which four hundred and sixty six miles were located in the coal fields alone. I ask you to glance at this map exhibiting a map] to see the extent of ter ritory that was opened by the coal laterals of the Reading Rail road. You have seen it probably before: it represents the various lines built by this company for the purpose of develop ing the anthracite coal fields which had no other avenue to market than those owned by the company I represent; and I call your attention to it for the purpose of showing you how fairly and honestly this railroad company fulfilled the objects of its charter in offering facilities to all persons to make use of its line, irrespective of who they were and irrespective-of the par ticular locality of their mines. ‘wherever an opening was made in any part of the coal field for a colliery, the Reading Railroad Company built a railroad to it without cost or charge to the projector of the improvement. It has expended hundreds of thousands of dollars in new lines, often expended as high as forty thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars for a line to open a single colliery, which afterwards turned out to be in fault, and from which no business was ever derived.
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