The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-15
IN RAILROAD CIRCLES
Good Time Made on the New
Schedules.
A PASSENGER RATE WAR
Fear Is Expressed That Another Is on
Hand-The Eastern Lines Will
Be Brought Into the
Fight.

from the East by the way of Butte ar
terday morning, only IS minutes late.
A large crowd of people, incluiing
| many railroad men, were at the depot
to see the big, handsome train pull in.
No. 4, from the West, due in Butte
at LAS o'clock, did not get in until 2
O'Clock, owing to dellv encountered
| on this side of Garrison. The Logan
| connection with No. last night was an
hour and quarter late.
There had been some local misIndel =
standing relative to The $25 cut rate
| from st. Paul to coast points put into
effect by the Northern Pacific ana
| Great Northern on Monday, and The
Great Northern city Office yesterday
| posted the cut rates effective crt m
| Butte west, but they We're shortly
| afterwards withdrawn, as It was dis
covered that the rates applied only
| from the Eastern terminals Of the two
roads.
Fear of another great transcontinen-
tai passenger rate war is freely express
ed by both Eastern and Western pas
senger men. That it can be avoided,
since the Great Northern and the North
ern Pacific have both slashed $l5 from
the second class rate from st. Paul to
north Pacific coast points, seems hardly
possible. All depends upon what the
northern lines intend to do.
Il hardly see how another transcon-
tinental war can be averted," said a
Western passenger man to Chicago
Times-Herald reporter. THE Great
Northern has inaugurated what it calls
'One-Way cOlOniSt excursion tickets, and
these are to be sold after March 10 at a
reduction of SIS from the present sec
ond class rate, which is $40. In its an
nouncement the Great Northern says
it will sell these tickets to Seattle, Ia
coma, Portland Vancouver Victoria
and all north Pacific coast points. to all
points on its main line and branches to
which current normal second-class rates
are higher, to all points on the Montana
Central, to all points on the Oregon
Railway and Navigation company
lines and to Anaconda. There is an in
ference in the announcement that these
new colOnist excursion tickets are to
take the place of second class tickets.
The Northern Pacific seems to have ac-
cepted that as fact, 1t any rate, and it
has given notice that it will sell second
class tickets at a reduction of SIS.
AT the settlement of the recent trans
continental rate war between the Amer
icanl ines and the Canadian Pacific the
latter road agreed that it would quote
no lower rate than the lowest in eff
feet on the American lines. Since that
time it steadily has sought the lowest
rates it could find. There is no ques-
ton that it will at once adopt this
schedule reduction of SIS. The trans
continental lines operating through the
Missouri river gateways will consider
that they must meet the competition,
and the lines operating through Ogden
are certain to demand it. This means
a duplication of the conditions which
existed during the fight with the Ca
madam Pacific and of conditions which
led up to that fight. 1t is to be re-
GREETED that this trouble has broken
out so soon after the settlement of our
troubles with the Canadian road"
80 far as l can see the Eastern lines
are certain to be brought into this fight"
said the general passenger agent of
one of the great roads leading out of
this city toward the Atlantic. I'VE
certainly shall fell the effects Of Cana
dian Pacific competition in the northern
portion of the United States and it is
certain that we will have to reduce our
rates to retain a fair share of the bust
ness. This reduction in turn is likely
to result in lower charges from terri
tory farther south, and we will be in as
bad shape as during the last fight. If
the trouble can be confined to second
class rates we will not suffer to so
great an extent, but it has been my
observation that it is very difficult to
prevent first-class rates going down
when other are reduced
None of the roads operating through
the Missouri river gateWays has yet
met the reductions of the northern lines.
Chairman Caldwell Of the Western Pas
senger association. sent word to all the
lines members of that organization ad-
vising them of the action of the north
ern lines and urging that nothing be
done in the way of meeting the compe-
tton prior to the general meeting of
the western lines, which was to be held
in St. Louis yesterday. The whole mat
ter will be considered with great care.
A number of passenger men of western
roads said, however, that it seems i'm
probable that anything can be done to
prevent a disastrous war. The Great
Northern seems to have entered upon
this cheap colonist rate plan with the
intention of inducing settlement of the
northwest. Western men know how
difficult it is to get President Hill to
depart from a programme upon which
he has once entered.
Inc lneHfilCaDie move OF the lIreat
Northern, in making a $25 rate to Port
land, from present indications, will I'M
doubtedly be the cause of a fierce rate
war, says the Minneapolis Times. Ac-
cording to one prominent railroad
official interviewed yesterday the Great
Northern has made very unWise move.
He said that the road, having exhausted
its hold on the immigration movement
to Minnesota and the Dakotas, has now
determined to get the bulk of the three
or four thousand immigrants that are
expected in the territory in the neigh
borhood of Portland this year. The
Northern Pacific. under the circum-
stances, could not do otherwise than
follow the lead of the Great Northern
in order to protect its interests. But
these two roads are not the only lines
interested in the matter and that is
where the rub" comes in. Take the
500. That road has a good hold on the
movement as far as Min
nesota and the DakotaS are concerned.
If it should meet the rate of the other
lines just exactly as it is, and make no
further changes, the line would be serv-
ing the interests of its competitors and