The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-11-22
The Thirty-Foot Yiaduct Business.

To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
The question as to whether thirty-foot via
duct shall be forced on the people as substi-
tute for Meridian-street crossing of the Union
tracks, is to come up again tonight before the
Board Of Aldermen. 1t was supposed that this
measure had been finally disposed of, but the
ghost comes back to revisit US again, and will
not down. 1t is not too late to repeat. and re-
peat that this thirty foot alley, with sidewalks
taken out of it, is totally inadequate for the
business and travel that must pass. Fifty feet
is too narrow, but the people were content to
let this be constructed. having given up Meridian
street, ninety feet wide 1t seemed to our peo-
ple that the concessions made to the Union
Railway Company were generous, but that cor
poration is still unsatshed. And now rational,
cool headed men ask, Where will their rapacity
stop2 Why yield anything to men who seem
lost TO any regard for favors and assistance lib
orally bestowed9
This new demand is accompanied by
a threat, that if the city does not
accept thirty foot viaduct, the depot will not
be built. TO this attempt at bullying, the COM
pany should be<remlnded that there are some
things in Indianapolis more valuable and inn
portant than even a new Union Depot stuck in
an almost inaccessible corner of a square, that
sensible men by the thousand think that the
present depot would be better than the new one
with Meridian and Illinois streets annihilated
there. and a thirty-foot hog chute, with steep
accent and with sidewalks carved out of it, given
a substitute This city, it will be found. is
not a needy dog to be appeased with bone, but
wait till the Union Railway Company is
animated by less graspine spirit. The passage
over the union tracks is always made By teams
with apprehension, and often with great danger
of accidents. And when fifty-foot viaduct was
proposed, and it was given out by the
company that what was to be done
ancf "a he
Council and Board of Aldermen &C ted promptly,
as If there was really an emergency, and took the
company at its word-that the depot was to be
built at once Now there does not, after months
have elapsed, seem to be hurry to erect it, but
delay after delay is made, and the city is told
that there is no hurry after all. and that if the
terms laid down by the company are not accepted
the depot never will be built.
Is is not time that we called halt and looked
around to see who it is that is talking this wav2
is it not time that this corporation was taught
that hundred thousand people had rights that
even the Union Railway Company was bound to
respecti
This railway track cuts the city in two as eff
fectually as river; long trains obstruct travel;
rapidly passing ones endanger life, and yet the
demand now is that the obstruction shall be
made greater nuisance and that the dangers
and delays shall be increased Every man in
indianapolis who has the public veal
at heart should protest against this
wrong It will grow more grevous as
business and population increase And then the
men to whom the people have confided the
power of municipal legislation vino biindly yield
or barter away or betray their trusts will be re-
embered with Indignation.
This proposition to force the business of the
North and South sides with each other through
the funnel of a sausage-stuffer deserves to be
Indignantly secuted from the files of the Board
of Aldermen without further consideration hav-
ing been already within two months, rejected
by decided majority in that body O.