Wichita eagle., 1889-11-21
THE STREET RAILWAY INJUNCTION.

In the district court yesterday afternoon
the temporary injunction granted to the
Wichita Street Railway company restrain
ing the Riverside and Suburban Railway
company from interfering with the FORM
er company s track on South Market street
and virtually preventing the Riverside
from bulldog under its lately acquired
ordinance was argued before Judge Reed.
In brief the Riverside and Suburban want
TO cross Douglas avenue and run down
Market to connect with Williams street
on which they hold a franchise from
Water to Fourth by virtue of the pur-
chase of the Paramount line. The Wich
ita Street Railway company oppose this
movement for the following reasons: They
allege that two lines of railway on a mar
row street like Market wonld not be toll
Grated by the property holders; that the
operation of both lines over the one road
bed would be impracticable, working them
an injustice il every instance; that prac-
tically it would compel them to abandon
the line which is their only means of reach
ing the government building, and that
this aggression on the part of the River
side and Suburban is AL infringement on
their rights under their franchise. Judge
Sluss appeared for the Riverside line and
Mr. Vermillion for the City line.
Before the examination of the first
witness was conluded the attorneys
were at variance regarding the relevancy,
competency, etc, of the various questions
propounded. In order that the court
might rule intelligently on such questions
at the outset, Mr.. Vermilion stated the
grounds upon which his clients proposed
to base their case. He said we came into
court on two propositions. first, that the
Wichita Street Railway company has the
right to the exclusive use of the streets, for
the purposes named in it's charter, that is
to say such streets as are set forth in its
franchise; second, that the Wichita Street
Railway company has the exclusive right
to that part of South Market street in
question for the reason that it already oc-
cupies it with tracks in operation.
The Evidence as adduced yesterday after
noon firstly tended to show that the line
at present laid on South Market street
was constructed in good faith to be used
as part of the system of the city lines,
and that it would be impracticable to
operate the city line and the electric line
over one road bed even for one block; Sec
ondly, tending to show that in addition to
the line having built for legitimate pur-
poses, it was also constructed with view
to shutting out the possibility of any other
line getting down the street. and that If
harmony prevailed between the two COM
panies that both lines could be run
over the one road bed without
any serious conflict. The questions
put to the witnesses by Judge Sluss sug-
gested that the greatest harmony might
prevail between the two companies so far
as the copartnership in that little bit of
track was concerned if the city lines were
so disposed, while the questions put by
Mr. Nirmilion suggested that such state
of affairs might exist and even at the
present moment, provided the Riverside
people were allowed to have everything
just as they wished it. During the exami |
nation of Mr. RYDER Judge Sluss asked if |
the witness did not think the city council |
would be able to lay down rules and regu- |
lations to govern the joint operation of |
the block in question. Mr.. Nermilion |
objected aud the court sustained the OBJ |
jectiou. Judge Sluss then remarked that |
he believed the court knew pretty well |
what the council would do, to which Mr.. |
Vermilon responded by saying that If the |
court did he was smarter than any other |
man in town.