Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1909 — Bad Railway Depots Must Go. [ARTICLE]

Bad Railway Depots Must Go.

The Indiana railroad commission in its annual report, which will be off the press in a few days, promises to give a great deal of attention this year to the question of providing better railway station facilities in the Interests of steam and electric road patrons. The report is for th'e fiscal year ending September 30, 1908, and since that time, the commission has undertaken to remedy conditions in a number of smaller towns, and has succeeded. There are now pending a ndmber of hearings on complaint of patrons of various roads who have become tired of waiting in close, filthy, badly ventilated and overheated waiting rooms, where inadequate provision is made for the comfort of the road’s patrons. In its crusade against the type of railway waiting-rooms found throughout Indiana, the commission will have the support of the state board of health, which has had under way for Borne time, a crusade against the unsanitary room, where the patrons expectorate on the floor and where the filth in obscure corners provides excellent breeding places for disease germs. Under the new. health law the state board has greater powers over railway companies which maintain unsanitary rooms, and the power under this law will be invaked to aid the railroad commission. "The electrlo lines,” the report .will say, "are building shelter sheds and some very substantial depots throughout the state.” The law governing the maintenance of waiting-rooms provides that they shall be well lighted and heated and supplied with wholesome water and toilet-rooms and kept in a sanitary condition.