Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-12-14
Tntcrricav Uiih Mr.. E!err;1l.

GLOBE reporter met Mr.. s. s. Merrill at th
Merchants last evening. and proceeded to bust
ness by asking him the result of the con ferenc
with the st. Paul & Sioux City people
We met them, said 'lr. Merrill, and talke
matters over and had the papers and plats be
fore us, but did not get through, and shall
meet again to morrow (to-day)
Reporter--l)oes there seem to be \ nrosnec
of al agreement?
Mr.. bl-Oh, yes; / think we shall! have no
trouble in coming to understandings We
have told them, as told the GLOBE that, we
had no intention to Interfere with their rights
or their proposed shops.
Rep.-iave you agreed about the right of
way?
Mr.. M.-That is the point on which we differ
We claim to own an undivided half in the RIGHT
OF way with the Sioux City company, while
they claim to own the north half and give us
the south half. This point we deny.
Rep.-Nlr. Bishop claims to have your de
tailed statement dividing the property as the,
claim.
MIR. Nj know that, but we don't so under.
stand it, We have the original contract civ
ing us the undivided half. We are consider
ing this question and shall meet again to-mor
row to see if we can agree.
Rep.-lf you do agree, do you expect 20
push the road right along this winter.
Mr.. M.-Wc should not do the earth work.
but the rock work and the bridge would be
pushed right along through the winter, prob
ably.
Rep.-You have not yet explained why You
began work i'll the middle of the night.
Mr.. MI can explain that. We thought
there was only one way to get out on our line
without great trouble and expense Our en-
gineers had SO reported. We heard that the
Sioux City company and some other parties
would commence work q liue to minneapolis
Tuesday morning, and decided 30 begin
first in order to secure an outlet for the route
we had surveyed last July. That was all there
was to it. / have been up there since | came
yesterday, and find there are three or four ways
to get out SO that here is trouble on that
score rs | expected. L. was perhaps, unneces-
6ary 10 begin as we did, but the information
We had led us to think it was mportant to oc-
cupy the ground and we did so. We don't
want to interfere with the Sioux City shops in
any way and don't propose to. They had re-
port that we had tried to buy the tract which
they wanted, but we have satisfied them that
that was not true. We never thought of get
ting anything but the right Of way. | think we
shall be able to agree on grades so that all will
be satisfactory between the two companies.
Rep.-Did the report that the Chicago, Bur
in@ton Quincy road was endeavoring to
reach st. PauI by way Of the Minneapolis &
st. Louis route have anything to do with your
sudden start?
Mr. MI never heard of that until to day
We have objection to the Chicago Burling-
ton Quincy coming to st. Paul. There is
plenty Of room for the tracks, and we don't
care now many come III.
MIR. Merrill here turned interlocuter and ask
ed ii the people of St. Paul did not want this
short line to Minneapolis. He was informed
that they did unanimously, but they feared
that some scheme other than that was on foot
1t was oppostion to this supposed hostile
scheme which aroused the people of ST. Panl
and not opposition to the short line. Mr.
Merrill renewed his assurances that they had
no other object except to build short line to
Minneapolis. They were friendly to ST. Paul
and had no desire to injure The city in any
way.
MIR. Merrill also stated that in a few DAYS
they proposed to put on trains running dlect
from st. Paul to Montevideo, being nearly $50
m'cs OF the Hastings & Dakota road He
thought they would arrange to run over the
Sioux City road to Shal1pree aud from there
take their Hastings & Dakota line If they
did not do that they would run via earning
ton.
With promise to renew the call to-day ae-
ter the second conference, the GLOBE envoy de-
parted
COST OF THE ROAD.
Supt Prior, in talk with Il GLOBE reporter.
said the proposed short line of road would cost
1898 900; of that sum 100000 was required
for the bridge. He was anxious to go ahead
and make the expenditure large portion of
it was rock work which could be done in the
winter as we'll in the summer. For a
year and half they had been running eight
trains daily, with air brakes and all
modern provements. between St. Paul and
Minneapolis, and it had not paid They want.
ed to get {; short line that could be run in
twenty minutes and see how that would work