DRAWING ROOM AND SLEEPING CAR COMPANIES.

The New York Central Sleeping Car Company is a partnership with a capital of $2,784,000, representing one hundred and eightyone cars, with patents, offices, etc. Considerable less than a majority of its stock is owned by officers and directors of roads over which it runs cars. It runs drawing room and sleeping cars over 7,000 miles of road; 1,200 miles in this State in winter, and 1,400 in

summer.

By contract with the New York Central & Hudson River road (Exhibits, pp. 182, 185, 187, 190)--and its contracts with other roads in this State are very similar-it places cars upon the road, keeps them in repair, and pays the road twenty per cent of its gross earnings for hauling them. There is no special law in relation to drawing room cars in this State. They are placed upon our roads under the original railway act authorizing any one to place cars upon any road with the consent of the company, a law passed at. a time when it was thought that railroads would simply own the road-bed and track, and keep it in repair, and that other people wonld furnish locomotives and cars, and transport goods by paying a proper toll, just precisely as they use the canal. The courts hold the authority under the statute ample; so there can be no question as to the validity of the contract.

The following is an extract from the testimony of Mr. Wagner (Testimony, p. 2439):

"Q. I want to call your attention to the statute fixing the fare upon sleeping cars, which says: 'Such patentee or his legal representative may charge 'for the use of said car, in all cases, to each passenger occupying the same, forty cents, which sum shall entitle such passenger to the use of a birth for one hundred miles; and the said patentee or his legal representative may charge at and for the rate of three mills for every additional mile, but in no case shall the charge exceed eighty cents;' you are familiar with that law, are you? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Are not your charges in excess of that? A. I don't know; I am not aware that they are in excess of it; to Syracuse we charge $1.50; it is three hundred miles.

Q. It could not exceed eighty cents? A. For a single berth; that is $1.60 for a double berth: we charge $1.50.

Q. You charge $1.50 for a double berth? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Do you furnish single berths. - could a man upon any of your sleeping cars call for a single berth and receive it? A. We have very few.

Q. Explain this matter fully? A. We started with one double berth and two single berths; there were a good many started with three single berths, but on my cars we first started with a double berth below and two single berths.

Q. Two single berths above? A. Yes; people laid on cushions in those days; no mattrasses or sheets, or any thing of that kind, after a while people objected to single berths; they would not lay on those shelves; we had to

change all our cars, and make them all double berths; that is, virtually; there is not such a thing known now, except in the end of the car we have sometimes a lounge or a single berth; we have no call for them; none reported to me in fifteen years.

Q. If a call was made could you furnish it? A. If a man insisted, of course we could give him a double berth.

Q. Do I understand you have single berths? A. Yes, sir; we have a lounge or sofa like in the end of, not all the cars, but most of them, that can be used as a single berth.

Q. Do you sell tickets to two different people for what you call a double berth? A. Very often; I have counted five in a berth —children.”

Sleeping car fares range from $1.25 to $2.00; for drawing room car fare see Testimony, page 2436.

The present charges were explained as follows: The above law was passed when the cars were mainly filled with single berths, the back portion being raised eight or ten inches above the front, forming two single berths, instead of being placed on a level, as now, and forming a double berth. The cars then were cheap, costing about three thousand dollars, the bedding of a rude kind, and the whole of such a character as not to attract travelers; but subsequently cars were constructed, costing from fifteen to twenty-five thousand dollars, elegantly furnished, with improved ventilation, and soon the public were attracted to their use. The single berths were objectionable and not called for, people preferring to pay double and get a double berth. The cars were remodeled, and single berths gradually disappeared. Thus from New York to Syracuse they would be entitled to charge for two berths, $1.60; they charge an individual for a double berth $1.50.

Mr. Wagner was asked the following questions on that subject:

"Q. Now, as to the fare from New York to Buffalo; you say it is $2; that exceeds $1.60? A. Yes; if a passenger takes a sleeping car and a drawing room car, that is in addition.

* *

Q. I understand you to say he can leave his sleeping car at Syracuse? A. Yes, sir.

Q. And get into a coach? A. Yes; that is, after breakfast.

Q. Does the sleeping car train leaving here at night get to Syracuse in season for breakfast? A. Yes, sir.

Q. And the extra charge which you make from there to Buffalo or Suspension Bridge you would justify under the charge for drawing room cars? A. That is the way we consider it."

As to the relations of this company to the New York Central Railroad their contract is the most favorable to the road of any in the country, and the committee are of opinion that the interests of the stockholders of said road are in no wise prejudiced, and that they have no cause for complaint.

The only remaining question to consider is, whether the charges

for drawing room and sleeping cars are unreasonably high, and call for specific regulation by statute. Drawing room cars are essentially a luxury and their occupation is entirely voluntary. The railroads are obliged to furnish seats in first class coaches, and, in case they do not, any passenger is entitled to occupy a seat in any drawing room car that may be attached to the train without extra charge. Sleeping cars are not a luxury, but a necessity. In the active pursuit of business, they are indispensable to a proper economy of time and the proper and successful prosecution of one's business. They are equally indispensable to those who travel for pleasure; and the convenience they afford to the public should be furnished as cheaply as possible. There would seem to be no propriety in requiring sleeping car companies to charge less for lodging, accompanied with transportation, than would be charged in the first class hotels of the country, and the advantage of carriage and sleep combined might properly be urged as a reason for charging slightly more. It is in evidence, that first class passenger fare on the New York Central & Hudson River road, plus drawing room or sleeping car fare, is less than first class passenger fare alone on any other road in the world, except it be between competing points where the usual fare is varied.

After all, these rates should be determined, not abstractly, but with reference to the cost and what the service can reasonably be done for. From the evidence, it appears that twenty-five per cent of the business is done in the State of New York and the remainder in other States, and in Canada. The portion of the capital of this company invested in this State is $1,000,000. The estimated gross earnings in the State of New York for the year ending March 1, 1879, were $269,000; the estimated proportion of expenses in the State of New York, $172,902.01, or a profit of nearly ten per cent on the investment in this State.

The Pullman Palace Car Company, a corporation whose stock is on the market, runs cars over the Erie road under a contract dated September 5, 1871, and, with certain conditions, continuing fifteen years. (Testimony, pages 3383-4.) By this contract this company gets from the Erie road four cents per mile for every mile the cars are hauled. President Jewett effected a reduction of the mileage from four to three cents. This contract seems very onerous indeed, and to the stockholders of the Erie road unjust. Any company could afford to furnish drawing room cars and sleeping cars to be

hauled at a mileage of three cents even if they were kept locked and no passengers carried at all.

For drawing room and sleeping car fares on the Erie road see Testimony, pages 3512 to 3525.

The passenger traffic of the Central road is a profitable one. It is in evidence that the passenger traffic of the Erie road does not pay, and becomes profitable only as an indispensable adjunct in the operation of the road and the transportation of freight. The legislature has already recognized the propriety of different charges on different roads in accordance with the volume of traffic, varying from two to five cents per mile to each passenger; and if this recognized difference is a proper one, these various roads are entitled to the same consideration in any attention which the legislature may give to the regulation of drawing room or sleeping car fares.

EXPRESS COMPANIES.

The claim that railroads ought to do their own express business does not seem to be well founded. Any road could do the express business on its own line easily, and perhaps with better economy than to relegate it to other parties; and by co-operation it might be done over all roads. This co-operation it may be difficult to obtain. Were all the roads in the State-stated by Mr. Depew to be 70 -in number to do their own express business, there would naturally be an increased expense, in transferring from one company to another, that would doubtless prejudice the public interest by increasing the cost of service. The advantage of an express company is in enabling one to send property over one or many roads, the goods all the while being in charge of one responsible company. Very much of the service which express companies render to the public is not at all germain to the business of transportation. Their contracts are sufficiently favorable to the railroads.

Their rates to the public were not for want of time inquired into. They are bound by contract to "reasonable rates," and their charges are held in check by competition and also by the fast freight lines, which run at about half the rate of speed of express trains. (See Testimony, pp. 3363–4–5.)

STOCK YARD COMPANIES.

The Union Stock Yard and Market Company has the exclusive control of the terminal facilities of the New York Central, under a lease dated January 29, 1875. (Exhibits, p. 350.) And all cattle delivered in New York must, by the terms of this lease, pass

through this yard, and must pay the yardage. Senator John R. McPherson has the same control of the Erie cattle business, under a similar lease (Exhibits, p. 261); and then by agreement the whole cattle business of the port of New York, including the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore & Ohio roads, is pooled. (Testimony, pp. 1728-9.)

Since all cattle must pass through these yards they become a necessary unit in the route of transportation. It may be stated as a general proposition that railroads ought not to farm out to individuals or associations any portion of their business which can as well be transacted by the roads. The objection to a road's farming out its functions is that such instrumentalities have been the most fruitful sources of abuse, and are usually attended with additional taxes upon transportation.

Cattle yarding differs from warehousing in requiring extra care, feed, etc., for the cattle; and the railroads claim that this is no part of the business of transportation. These leases are sufficiently favorable to the roads; and contrary to the general impression, the stock-yards are independent organizations not officered or controlled by the railroads. They charge forty-five cents per head on cattle, six cents on sheep and eight cents on hogs, and forty to fifty dollars a ton for hay fed.

Mr. Blanchard, the Assistant President of the Erie road, testified on that subject as follows:

"Q. In your judgment, is that a reasonable charge? A. I should think that the charge could be reduced one, and perhaps two cents a head on hogs, and that it should be done.

"Q. You think that no other class of animals than hogs would bear a reduction? A. We have a very small business in sheep and calves, relatively, and I only know generally, that there are more difficulties as to the driving and handling of them; and that all the sheep are yarded; that nobody else has yards for sheep; that the sheep slaughterers use these yards constantly, while some of the hog men do not; I therefore think the rate for yardage on sheep is, perhaps, what it probably should be.

Q. Do you not think that forty-five cents a head for yardage and weighing, and $50 per ton for hay, is rather an exorbitant charge? A. I think it is.'

The committee are of the same opinion.

See, also, Testimony of John B. Dutcher, pages 1719–57.

SPUYTEN DUYVIL & PORT MORRIS RAILROAD.

The Spuyten Duyvil & Port Morris Railroad is capitalized at actual cost and leased to the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company at a rental of ten per cent upon cost.

(See Testimony W. H. Vanderbilt, p. 1227, etc.)