Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 245, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1917 — OPPOSE MIXED TRAIN SERVICE [ARTICLE]

OPPOSE MIXED TRAIN SERVICE

PATRONS OF C. A E. I. PETITION AGAINST R. R. PLAN OF MIXED SERVICE. The proposed idea of the C. A E. I. Railway officials to run a mixed train over its LaCrosse Division, between LaCrosse and Goodland, based on the theory that the supply of coal will be conserved, will be fought vigorously by the patrons of the road, it is the plan of the railroad officials to run a mixed passenger and freight service. The road runs one train daily over this division between Goodland and LaCrosse. The petition, which will be presented to the Public Service Commission of the state, follows: It having been called to the attention of the undersigned, that the Chicago and Eastern Illinois railroad company has filed its application with the Public Service Commission of Indiana, seeking a modification of the order heretofore entered by the commission, requiring the said railroad company to run one passenger train each direction, daily except Sunday, over its LaCrosse Division, between Goodland and LaCrosse; And that said application is drawn and is being presented to the commission on the theory that the coal supply will be conserved by the substitution of a mixed freight and passenger train in place of the passenger train now in service; We therefore desire to call to the attention of the Commission the fact that the LaCrosse Division, on account of its location, furnishes the only service by which the citizens of the towns of Wheatfield and Kniman, situated in the north part of Jasper county, can come to Rensselaer, the county seat of the said cotmty, and return on the same day. That the said division furnishes the only railroad service that the towns of Mt., Ayr and Kniman have. That it runs through a purely agricultural district where the labor necessary to tin the fayms is already scarce and to require the traveling public to patronize * freight train for travel and for the carriage of express, might conserve a small amount of coal at the expense of the labor and industry of the district, and that in our judgment the contribution of the affected area to the support of the government and the prosecution of the war would be diminished rather than increased by the proposed change and substitution.