Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-27
THE ALTON Is sAUCY.
Old Man Charlton Writes a Characteristic
Letter to Chairman Finley.


Letter to Chairman Finley.
CHICAGO, ILL, June 90 General Passen-
ger Agent Charlton of the Chicago and
Alton railroad addressed the following COM
munication to Chairman Finley of the
Western passenger association this after
noon:
Il have your favor of the Gath inst. de-
clining to grant relief on the appeal of the
Chicago and Alton for reduced rates from
Chicago to ST Louis, Chicago to Kansas City
and Chicago to Denver. You do this on the
ground that the Chicago and Alton is not
entitled to have the agreement admins
tered in its favor, and it is therefore not
necessary for you to pass upon the merits
of the application. 1t appears to me that a
decision of this character could as easily
have been made at the meeting of the 23rd
instant and still earlier, when yOn
received my letter Of the Goth, and ought in
ordinary fairness to have been made at the
earliest date and not now. You were the
first to delay the hearing until the 25th,
and then on being urged YOU named the
23d To any disinterested outsider all this
will have the appearance of being an effort
on your part to cause delay and put US
at serious disadvantage for
several days. l have the pleasure to adj
wise you that we have notified the interstate
commerce commission that We will place
IN effect on Monday the following reduced
rates: Chicago to ST Louis, s.; Chicago to
Kansas City, $40; Kansas City to Chicago,
S1l. These rates are rendered necessary by
the mileage tickets and excursion tick
to bearer on the lines of our competitors
and by the mileage of one-way tickets from
the territory in which such tickets are being
sold for the express purpose of being
Scalped over the lines of our competitors
Complete evidence of all this was placed
before you at the meeting of the 23d and in
communications from this Office prior to
that time. You had also obtained on
your own part direct evidence of all this by
tests in the market and on the trains of our
competitors, and you were good enough
to explain at the meeting that on two
lines, at least, the mileage tickets that were
manipulated in violation OF an agreement
was most unsatisfactory to you. 1t was
shown at the meeting that on three lines
mileage tickets were made practically good
to bearer and only one way, while the rates
named hereon between Chicago and Kansas
City make no lower rate for our COMPETE
tors than they are now making on excursion
tickets, which are sold out at
$40 for the round trip and are made
practically good to bearer. A reduced
one-way ticket will not affect any of our
competitors and is absolutely necessary for
our protection. The same applies to the
rate from Chicago to st. Louis. We are
unable to take any other course, as the mar
ket is loaded with tickets at the scalped rates
and our competitors are reaping harvest
because of our forbearance, on which they
are evidently counting too much. We held
in reserve the right to make rate of s.
Chicago to Denver, contingent upon the be-
havior of our competitors. After this warn
ing if they fail to reform we shall have
to apply the proper remedy"