Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1895 — BARRED BY A RAILROAD. [ARTICLE]

BARRED BY A RAILROAD.

Illinois Central Refuses to Allow Chi* cagoana to Crams Ita Tracks. Actual conflict between citizens and armed officers of the Illinois Central Company on the Chicago lake front because passage to and from the lake front was denied to the people has brought the question of rights to a decisive issue. Mayor Swift declares the crisis has been reached. He proposes to protect the people against a repetition of the outrage of president of the company, announces he will not budge from the determined stand taken by his force of mem with revolvers lie says citizens were denied right to cross the tracks out of regard for their lives and intimates the corporation will fight any opening of streets. In short, the company’s position is construed by city officials to be a determination to stick for alleged vested rights. Thij earnestness on the part of both contestants makes any more conferences and consequent agreements impossible. Chicago’s lake front on Wednesday was in the possession of fifty armed men, hired By the Illinois Centra 1 Rai 1 road Company to blockade passage to the harbor from Randolph to 12th streets. They had clubs in their hands and revolvers in their pockets. They were instructed to use both if necessary on any person who insisted on his right to an approach to piers in navigable waters, and, in carrying out the instructions, they compelled a score of women to imperil their lives Wednesday night. This climax of the contest between the corporation and the municipality was caused by the action of the company in retaliation for the order to tear down the Van Buren street viaduct. Special Officer O’Keefe was called into the general manager's room and ordered to secure a large force of assistants. He was informed that at sundown the people were to be taught they had no right to a passage to the lake front. He was told to furnish his assistants with weapons and to arrest peacefully in all cases where a beating was not necessary, any man, woman or child who tried to enter Chicago from the steamboats. This order, said to be without precedent in the history of maritime matters, was put into working force at the time when the people were returning from Lincoln Park and Windsor Park Beach by boat.