LVRR View of Wyoming Valley
1 2016-08-12T10:25:28-04:00 Jay Donis e3730bdd730a531bff1449a9459a4f235d7640eb 52 1 LVRR View of Wyoming Valley plain 2016-08-12T10:25:28-04:00 Jay Donis e3730bdd730a531bff1449a9459a4f235d7640ebThis page is referenced by:
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Packer's Later Years in the Lehigh Valley Railroad
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In 1871, Asa Packer testified before the Pennsylvania Committee on the Judiciary about “the present difficulties in the anthracite coal region” concerning “the great war that for hundreds of years has been waged between labor and capital.” To win the battle in the coal regions, workers resorted to strikes, which they hoped would threaten such a great financial loss to the owner that he would be forced to pay higher wages. When feeling empowered, owners would stop work in the mines so that laborers could not feed themselves or their families and would agree to lower wages. Negotiations often failed to resolve differences. The Judiciary Committee sought to resolve two questions. “Have the railroad companies by charging their present rates of freight violated their charters? Does the action of those companies in regard to freights, amount to an abuse of their privileges under their charters?”
For his part, Asa Packer testified that his charter did not limit what he could charge for transporting coal. The questions then turned toward the formation of a cartel in March of 1869. Packer replied that he did attend a meeting with different railroad executives, but stated that he did attend a meeting that agreed to reduce coal tonnage in order to keep shipping rates up. Interestingly, Packer also testified that “if there is a combination for the purpose of putting up the price of coal we should use all legal measures to prevent it.” Tiptoeing around the issue, Packer then spoke to the fact that the railroad executives all agreed to raise the price of coal transportation, “but there was no contract.” The committee questioned numerous individuals about railroad operators meeting to fix prices. All people examined acknowledged the existence of meetings, but they often noted the conventional nature of meetings of business leaders and denied formal arrangements in price fixing.
In 1872, more meetings of railroad executives followed. Franklin Gowen, president of the Reading Railroad, organized a meeting in New York City where the major railroad heads agreed to transport a certain percentage of the anthracite coal produced that year. The combination worked for the owners and the consumer and by 1873 coal returned to its pre-American Civil War price, while flour cost twice as much as its pre-American Civil War price. In 1874, prices dropped and coal operators offered a wage cut to their workers. Most workers rejected this deal, but a few did not. After six months, the “Long Strike” failed to bring about changes for the workers and they returned to their jobs with lower wages. In 1876, Asa Packer may have feared that he violated his charter or, perhaps, that legislators would consider his charter null and void and he withdrew from the transportation cartel organized by Gowen. The Lehigh Valley Railroad did not stick to its percentage quota and transported more coal to market than authorized. Gowen flooded the market and chastised Packer and his associates. Packer resisted returning to the fold without a higher quote, which he eventually received for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Knowledge of the agreement spread and the New York and New Jersey legislatures looked into the deal. Neither assembly found it illegal. In the fall of 1878, the Lehigh Valley Railroad demanded a new deal. After Packer’s death, the Lehigh Valley Railroad did not sign any agreements with Gowen, but they struck up an informal deal that periodically shut down production to limit the amount of coal on the market. -
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Building the Lehigh Valley Railroad
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On January 7, 1853 the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna Railroad Company changed its name to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. Meanwhile, Asa Packer was leading the construction process for what would be the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Builders encountered difficulties along the way with the loss of workforce from sickness and dissatisfaction amongst the workers and they were forced to cut through portions of solid rock, which took a tremendous amount of effort and time. Funds were also a problem for the project. Asa had personally provided most of the funding for the construction of the railroad, thus both the welfare of his family and himself was contingent upon the successful completion of the road.
Much of Packer’s funds came from his investments in a business partnership with Joseph Noble and Barnabas Hammett. Noble and Hammett did not want to invest in Packer's railroad project and Packer eventually sued his two partners to free up his share of capital. Later on, when the Lehigh Valley Railroad was successful, Packer’s old business partners insisted that they were Packer’s partners in the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. The court case went on for decades, continued after all three had died, and eventually resulted in a victory for the Packer estate.
Nonetheless, both laborers and managers persevered and the railroad was finally completed in a little less than three years than when the project was started. On June 11, 1855 the railroad between Allentown to Easton opened. The original line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad from Mauch Chunk to Easton and totaled 45.72 miles.
The best account of the details involving the construction of the Lehigh Valley Railroad come from Robert Sayre’s first annual report, addressed to the President and Directors of the Lehigh Valley Railroad on December 31, 1855. Robert Sayre, as the Superintendent and Chief Engineer of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, says the following about the construction process:
The above excerpt from Robert Sayre’s report gives one a fairly comprehensive overview of the procedure and challenges that the builders went through, in order to construct the original line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.On the eleventh of May, 1852, I commenced the survey and preliminary location of the line from Mauch Chunk to Easton, and completed it in the latter part of June, after which nothing was done in the field until the work was let to Asa Packer, contractor. About the first of October I again engaged a corps and started upon the permanent location of the road which I completed during the fall and winter… About the first of May, 1853, the residue of the line was sublet, and soon after the contractors generally commenced operations...After proceeding with the work upon Section No. 46 until the latter part of February, I was directed to change the original plan so as to form a connection with the Belvidere Delaware Railroad, as well as with the Central Railroad of New Jersey…Entire new plans had to be arranged and drawn...Much difficulty was experienced in the erection of the bridge across the river on account of frequent and continued high water. To obviate this difficulty it was suggested to try the experiment of raising the structure upon wire cables stretched from pier to pier…which proved eminently successful …The road was opened for the transportation of passengers from South Easton to Allentown on the eleventh of June, 1855, and two trains run daily to the latter place until the 12th of September, when the road was opened for travel to Mauch Chunk, one train a day being run until the 1st of October. Up to this time the road was operated by Mr. Packer, with rolling stock hired from the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey.
For the first three months that the Lehigh Valley Railroad was in operation, from October to December 1855, the receipts from transporting coal, passengers, and freight totaled $26,517.95. In contrast, the expenses of the railroad from October to December 1855 amounted to $23,736.33. Thus, in the first three months of operation, the Lehigh Valley Railroad made a profit of $2,781.62. The Lehigh Valley Railroad would continue to expand and become more profitable in subsequent years. Asa Packer would become an extremely wealthy industrialist as a result.