90,000 to 100,000 men (92,792 on last payroll). These employees and these investors are drawn from all walks of life. They are human beings with hopes and aspirations and joys and sorrows. The livelihood of employees necessarily depends upon the return from their labor, and this in turn depends upon the prosperity of New England and the railroads of New England. In a smaller degree the comfort and well-being of many investors depend upon the return from their investment, and this also depends upon the prosperity of New England and of her railroads. These investors and these employees, with their families, on a basis of four to one, make 640,000 people, or nearly one tenth of the population of New England. Should not their rights, comforts, and feelings be considered carefully in the current tempestuous discussion in regard to the New England railroads?
The stockholders of the three important New England railroads—the New Haven, the Boston & Maine, and the Maine Central—have selected forty-eight men to act as their
