Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1910 — Railroads Snub Old Soldiers In Regard to Rates. [ARTICLE]

Railroads Snub Old Soldiers In Regard to Rates.

Efforts to obtain a rate of 1 cent a mile eqch way for the Indiana members of the G. A. R. who intend going to the national encampment at Atlantic City in September has failed, and the veterans who will go will be compelled to pay at the rate of 3 cents a mile for the distance one way, the rate s being one and one-half fare for the round trip. Virtually all the trunk lines running east from Indianapolis were approached by the veterans for a lower rate, but all refused. Resolutions demanding that the roads grant a rate of 2 cents for the round trip, or about half the regular fare, were adopted at the state meeting in Terre Haute recently, and copies of the resolutions were sent to the traffic managers of the trunk lines. Colonel John R. Fesler, assistant ad-jutant-general of the Indiana G. A. R. has received replies from all the roads and is reporting to the various posts. The attitude of the roads is shown in the following extracts from a letter written by George R. Randolph, first vice president of the Baltimore and Ohio: "We can not agree with the expressions contained in the demand, which we believe to be based on ah erroneous conception of certain imagined rights which do not-exist. As a matter of fact, for the last two years the discriminatory rate granted prior to that time to members of the G. A. R. has not been in existence. It is an undoubted fact that the previous existence of the rate was used in arguments before various state legislatures to prove that railroad rates should be reduced to 2 cents a mile because of their willingness to concede this 1 cent a mile rate to the G. A. R. and other organizations. "The increased costs that havh'been placed upon us by state and federal legislation reducing our rates and Increasing our taxation have been of such a nature that we can not, in justice to the owners of the properties we represent, continue to extend favors to various organizations that it has been pointed out were discriminatory in character although possible not forbidden by legislative enactment. Unless present circumstances, brought about by state and federal legislation, imposing additional and very considerable burdens upon common carriers, we feel that as loyal citizens of the United States, the members of the G. A. R. should cheerfully and willingly aid us in carrying out the fullest intent of the will of the people as expressed in their legislation