Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-04-16
The Railroad.

M0lues, met last AHui1ahy SscHin6
for the purpose of taxing action In ref
erence to the much -talked-of st. Louis
railroad connection. The following
resolution was offered by Mr.. Day,
| President Of the Narrow uage Rail-
road, and was adopted:
Resolved, That 1t Is the sense Of
this meeting that direct railroad com
munication should be established be-
tween the city of Des Moines and the
city OF st. Louis, by Abba and Knox
| vile, and to that end committee of
two persons be appointed by this
meeting to visit st. Louis in further
ance of this object.
A number OF speeches were made by
leading Des Moines men, and ex-Gov.
Merrill, DIR. Rawson, Gen. futile
Judge Phillips and Hon. Hoyt Sher-
man were selected to visit Knoxville,
Abba and st. Louis.
The Des Moines and st. Louis pa
pers are urging their people to take
hold Of this project in earnest and
spare no effort to secure the building
of the road. Ottumwa, seeing the
earnestness manifested in this matter
at st. Louis, is frightened at the pros
pect Of losing the trade now brought
to her doors by the st. Louis, Kansas
| City and Northern, or the old North
Missouri road. Charlton and Indian
ola are quaking with jealousy and fear
in view the movement of st. Louis
| toward Des Moines by this route, and
are vigorously endeavoring to revive
the project for the construction of a
road via Charlton apd Indianola, on
which road they claim that Des
Moines and st. Louis can secure di-
rect connection by building 90 miles
Of road, while, as they tell us, thisline
requires / 10 miles Of new road. Let
US look at these statements and COM
pare them with the facts. TO make
the Knoxville line 10 miles, Mr.. Day,
of Charlton, begins at Moulton and
stops at Des Moines. On the other
route he starts at Moravia and stops
at IndianoIa. Moravia is small
town ten miles from Abba and be-
tween that place and Moulton. Now
if we start from Moravia to compute
the miles Of road to be built OH the
Charlton and Indianola route, it is
only fair to start from the same point
to find the distance by the Abba and
Knoxville route. If we stop at In
diauola on one route we should stop at
Carlisle on the other route. III. III. ID.
erred just II miles in stating the dis
lance from Moulton to Des Moines via
Abba and Knoxville. The distance
Is only So miles instead OF ITO. Now
admit his figures as to the distance
from Moravia to Indianola-65 miles.
Add Is miles, the distance from Moul-
ton to Moravia, and we have SO miles
of road to build from Moulton to In
dianola, about Is of which, between
Moulton and Moravia are, are graded.
Now deduct from the 50 miles by our
route to Des Moines the nine miles
from the latter place to Carlisle, and
we have 81 miles to build to carry US
from Moulton to Des Moines by this
route against SO by the Charlton route;
and on this line we have 40 miles of
the road graded, against Is graded on
. No ~ nae linz frEia m, ifaa Of yayu
road by this line carries us nine miles
nearer to Des Moines than will the SO
miles by the other route. Moulton to
Des Moines via Charlton, missing all
the coal fields, l0l miles. Moulton to
Des Moines via Knoxville, tapping
the heaviest coal veins in the State, 90
miles.
sob, what tangled web we
weave"
When first we practice to deceive"
Let any candid man take map and
measure the distances i'm straight lines
from point to point by the two lines
from Moulton to Des Moines and he
can verify our figures and prove those
of IL. II. d., published in the State
Register and the Indianola papers, de-
ceptive. He may mislead his own
| people to their sorrow, but he cannot
by such transparent mis-statements
deceive the men who will build the
road If it Is ever built.
| st. Louis wants a shorter and cheap
er road than she can get via Charlton.
She wants also road through coun-
try not already supplied with Chicago
roads. She likewise wants a connec-
ton with the Central Railroad of Iowa,
which she can only secure by build
ing from Moulton to Abba. Thence
her only route to the Capitol of Iowa is
by way of Knoxville. 49,
| RAILROAD 10 ST.. LoUIs.--Knox-
| Vile ia moving in regard to Rail-