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Senate Debate
Meigs Elevated Railway News
ON BEACON HILL.
Mr. Meigs Still at the Mercy of the Senate.
THE LEGISLATURE.
...
"At 2.30 o'clock the special assignment of the bill to permit Joe V. Meigs and associates to build elevated railroads, with the consent of cities and towns in which they may be located, being in order, Senator Locke, chairman of the street railroad committee, made an argument against the passage of the bill, explaining the history of the elevated railroad schemes of New York, and their injury to property, and showing that the people of Boston desired no such road, and argued that the bill, if passed though a pernicious one, would give such encouragement to the movement that a syndicate would be formed with a capital of $500,000, that would use every effort to force this scheme upon people who did not want it, and whose property would be irrevocably damaged.
Senator Sherburne offered an amendment, providing that when the alderman shall refuse a location no appeal shall be made to the Board of Railroad Commissioners. This was adopted.
Senator Baldwin defended the bill, stating that the necessity of such roads was apparent, and as this bill asked only for the permission to erect a structure and experiment upon the invention of Mr. Meigs he hopes the bill might pass.
At this point Mr. Crocker raised a point of order, that the bill was not germane to the original petition, which limited the construction to the cities of Boston & Cambridge and towns in the immediate vicinage, while the present bill allowed its construction in any city or town in the Commonwealth.
Before the president ruled on this matter, on motion of Senator Stone of Lawrence, further consideration of the matter was postponed and the bill placed in the first orders for today."
Source: Boston Globe, April 13, 1882
