Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1907 — TWO-CENT FARE LAW [ARTICLE]

TWO-CENT FARE LAW

Winona Lake One of Few Resorts Favored by the Railroads With Low Rates. WHERE THE METHODISTS WILL GO - Winona People Building an Interurban System of Their Own—Effect of Trolley Lines on, Excursionists and Real Estate at This Summering

Place. f The two-cent fare railroad law, passed in a number of states, is going to interfere with the plans of a good many pleasure-seekers who have been looking forward to reduced rates been looking forward to reduced rates to summer resorts. While the law provides for transportation at two cents a mile, the railroads are withdrawing old-time concessions that the public enjoyed, especially In the way of excursion rates. The two-cent fare law has dealt a hard blow to some of the summer resorts, putting a number of them entirely out of business. One that has been forced to retire Is the Island Park Assembly, conducted at Roine City, Ind., for many years. This assembly had its program for the summer made up and was developing its plans, when it found It could not get the railroad rate of other years. Rev. Frank Snyder, from its beginning associated with the Island Park Assembly, and Its last secretary, has gone to Winona Assembly, and is now endeavoring to induce the old Island Park constituency to follow him to his new field of work. The indlcar tions are that the Methodists, since the Rome City resort will not be opened to them, will make Winona Lake their summer headquarters hereafter. A stock company of Methodists is forming to build a Methodist hotel at Winona Lake at a cost of 160,000 to $75,000. The Northern Indiana Methodist Conference is considering the,, idea of making Winona Lake its permanent meeting-place. The Winona Assembly is one of the few summer organizations of its kind that has again been favored by the railroads, perhaps for the reason that last year nearly 400,000 people went to this place, practically all of them using the railroads of the middle West. The Central Passenger Association announces that the old rate to Winona Lake will prevail again this year.. It is possible that before the summer is-over most of the people going to Winona Lake can reach the place by trolley, and much of the trip can be made over an interurban system owned by the Winona people. Trolley lines in southern Michigan and northern Indiana now make connection with the Winona line at Goshen, which runs twenty-six miles south to the lake. The Winona road from Peru, which will be about forty-four miles long, is under construction, and thirteen miles of it is in operation. If this portion of the Winona system is completed this summer, it will open trolley connection with -central, eastern and western Indiana. It is the Intention to put on through cars from Winona Lake to Indianapolis when this part of the road is finished.

The Winona Interurban organization differs from any other trolley system in operation. Only a small amount of stock was issued, none of it was sold, and it is held in the treasury of Winona Assembly. Only enough bonds were issued to pay the actual cost of construction of the Winona lines, and in face of the fact that railroads and trolley companies generally are having a hard time to sell their bonds, there has been a ready demand for the Winona bonds. This demand has come largely from small investors, who from year to year go to Winona Lake in the summer, have looked closely into the purposes of the whole Winona idea, and have faith in its future.

The Winona people have done considerable work in the way of surveys and preliminary plans on a line that Is to run froms east to west from the lake to Fort Wayne, a distance of about forty miles. When this line Is built It will open trolley connection with five lines out of Fort Wayne, reaching the Wabash valley in Indiana and much territory In northeastern Indiana and in Ohio. The Winona Interurban Company has completed at Winona Lake a new power house, which cost over $300,000. It Is regarded as one of the best power plants In the country, and it is expected to furnish all the power that will be needed to operate all the lines that the Winona people have built and contemplate building. This power, house Is on the shore of Winona Lake. The indications are that ,when the Winona company gets through building Its lines it will open up trolley connection to several million people within a day’s ride of the lake. The effect of this trolley project is already being felt at the lake. It has caused an increasing demand for building lots, and the number of homes that are being erected at this place grows larger every year. The demand for building lots has been such that the Winona Assembly is opening up some new territory that is on high ground and offers a picturesque view of Winona Lake and the immediate neighborhood. In the early years of Winona Assembly, people who built homes at the lake constructed them only for summer use, but the cottages now are on a more pretentious order, more attestloa is given to architecture, and the houses are built for winter use.