Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-03-01
BICYCLE BAGGAGE BILL.
Whee1men Make a Plea-Railroads Re-
serve Argument.

serve Argument.
Madison, Wis, Feb. pa Special l.
The two committees on railroads in joint
session yesterday had a lively time with
railroads to carry bicycles free as bag.
gage. Representatives Of the railroads
were present and there were quite a
crowd of wheelmen on hand to speak III
favor of the bill. The railroads repre-
sentat1ves are very much opposed to the
bill and will do everything in their pow
er to defeat it, but they did not make
eny argument before the committee, con-
tenting themselves with asking questions
of the Wheelmen.
Senator Whitehead said that he had in
trOduced the bill at the request of the
wheelmen and that thousands of petit
tons had been received from the people
Of the state justifying his action. He
said that he had a personal interest in
the matter and was fully of the opinion
that bicycles ought to be considered as
baggage.
He introduced NJ. c. Rotier as chief
consul of the Wisconsin division of the
L. A. W., who read an address to the
committee and called attention to de-
cisions Of the court in which it was held
that bicycles were baggage The Green
Bay road he said, carried bicycles free
now and the Wisconsin Central was will
ing to do it, but the Western Passenger
association objected. He called attention
to legislation in other states where the
railroads had complied with the statute
without a protest He thought thas tc
refuse to carry bicycles was discrimina-
ton and argued that bicycles should be
placed on the same footing as guns, dogs
and canoes, which the railroads always
carried free.
Judge Hartman agreed with Mr.. Ro-
tier that the railroads Disseminated
nYr1c1f ynf1n! pN1OJN M :
roads had discovered that it paid them
to allow passengers to carry baggage
and the day would come when they
would be perfectly willing to carry
wheels free. The railroads of New York
had resisted similar measure, but they
were now we'll satisfied.
William Bradberry of Madison made
a plea ON behalf Of the travelling sales,
men, to whom, he said, it would be "a
great convenience to be able to carry
wheels so they could use them in cross
country trips. He gave his experience
in states where wheels had beal declared
to be baggage and gave an account of the
way the roads in those staFcs handled
wheels. In all of those states, he said,
it had been found that the returns Of
the railroads were increased through the
carrying of wheels.
Ex-Mayor Oelrich of Oshkosh took tile'
ground that wheels were now necessities
and that the roads should be compelled
to recognize the fact. There was q CON-
bination. he said, which preve lted the
Wisconsin Central from carrying wheels
and the Legislature ought to pass the
bill to break it up.
C. E. Buell.. the Madison attorney
who drew the bill, said he had no feel
ing against the railroads and admitted
that he could see some grounds for the
objection that it was: not fair to ask the
railroads to carry bicycles which were
in legal sense vehicles, but the same
objection had been raised years ago to
other things which were now considered
as baggage and to which the railroads
raised no objections. He then save a
short history of the development Of the
law in relation to carrying of baggage
He thought his bill was very conserva-
tive and said that he had been careful
to eliminate everything that might APP
pear to be radical.
Frank P. Van Ealkenburgh of Alil-
waukee quoted the passenger associia-
ton rules defining baggage as wearing
aDparel and then read a number o. de
cisions in which many of the things had
been decided to be baggage. When he
said that the Wisconsin Central was
willing to carry wheels free Mr.. Wis
we'll asked him where was his authority
for the statement and he said it was the
general passenger agent of the "oaef.
The representatives of the railroads
were not ready to argue their side of The
case and the matter was laid over until
March 10, when the final hearing Will be
given the measure.