Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-20
MOTOR COMPANIES CLASH
Manager Dimmcck Tries to Steal March on
the New Corporation.
STARTS TO LAY TRACK DURING The MIGHT
Opposition is Notified, nm Injuncti
Taken Out and the Gang Ar
rested for Violating the
sabbath.
STARTS TO LAY TRACK DURING TIL: MIGHT


sabbath.
Early yesterday morning Sixteenth avenue
! In the vicinity Of the Burlington round
house was the scene Of clash between the
Omaha Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge
! company and the Omaha, Council Bluffs &
Suburban Railway company. General Man
/ ager Dimmock of the motor company, with
a large force of men, attempted to lay
small portion Of track adjoining the round
| house and the new company, feeling that
| such action was treading on it's toes and
| its rights, not only served an injunction,
/ but had General Manager Dmmock En-
gineer Tostevin and fourteen Of the con-
struction gang arrested for violating the
Sabbath.
| The new company selected Sixth street as
Its route to Lake Manawa and trolley poles
have been set from First avenue to the end
of the street. At Sixteenth avenue slight
jog occurs in the street This jog is sufli-
| cient to bring the track Of the new company
| so close to the east property line Of the
street that the old company, should 1t wish
to extend it's Main street line by this route,
would be shut out except by making at
least two and probably three crossings over
the tracks of the new company.
Between the roundhouse and Sixth street
formed by the jog is piece of ground form
ing part of the right f-way OF the Burling-
ton and across this the new company had
made arrangements with the railroad to lay
its track.
The new company by keeping we'll to the
west of this piece OF ground could have left
sufficient space for the motor company to
have also built it's new track there. The old
company had a presentiment. however that
the new company would, when it laid it's
tracks, place them close to the round
house that the old company would be prac-
tically frozen out In order to forestall such
an event, Manager Dimmock OF the old COM
pany decided to steal a march on the new
corporation and get his track down on this
strip of ground while everybody else was
in bed. 1t happened. however, that one OF
the officials was up somewhat later than
usual and caught sight of the Irish mall"
or construction car, of the motor company
going down Main street loaded with rails.
This aroused his suspicious and he at once
took steps tc notify Secretary Reed and
Charles r. Hannah of the new company that
the old company intended some move The
arrests for violating the Sabbath and the
issuance Of an injunction promptly followed
and for the time being Manager Dimmock
found himself checkmated.
Work Begins.
1t was shortly after midnight; that Man.
ager Dimmick and force OF about thirty
men started in to lay the piece of track
They would probably have succeeded in lay
ing the greater part Of it had not a Mil 4
waukee stock train barred the way so that |
the wagon containing the rails was over |
half hour late in getting to the place. |
About fifty ties were laid and four lengths |
of rail when the officers of the new COM
pany swooped down on General Manager |
Dimmock and his men.
AS soon as he learned what Dmmock was
up to. Emmet Tinley who is attorney for |
the new corporation, sent a messenger to |
Justice Viens house and had him come to
his office at once. Then Tinley filed infor-
nations against Dimmock, Engineer Toste- |
vim and twenty-five John Does" the latter
to cover the men working under the former
two. This step was taken in case 1t might |
have been impossible to secure a Judge at |
that time in the morning to issue an in
junction. Also there was a grave question
whether a judge had the right to issue an
injunction on Sunday
Constable Alberti was brought from his |
home and armed with the warrants. He and
Attorney Tinley repaired to the scene of the
midnight trackaying. In the meantime W.
S. Reed, secretary OF the new company, ac-
companied by Charles r. Hannah hastened
to Judge Aylesworths residence and reused |
him from his slumbers. Judge Aylesworth,
when the situation was explained to him
at once issued the restraining order and
Deputy Sherifs Baker and Slead were then
called upon to serve It,
Dimmock Submits.
Seeing that the other side were backed
by the powerful arm of the law General
Manager Dimmock decided there was but one
thing to do under the circumstances, and
that was to gracefully submit He and En-
gineer Tostevin, with fourteen OF the labor
ers, accompanied Constable Albertl to JUS
tice Vien's office, where they gave bonds
for their appearance tomorrow morning
Deputy Sherifs Baker and Slead were left
on guard to see that no further attempt on
the part Of the motor company to lay the
track was made, while three men in the
employ of the motor company also stood
guard to prevent the new company from
tearing up the ties and rails that had been
laid.
When this formality had been gone
through 1t was past o'clock, and all the
principals decided 1t was time for them to
return TO their homes and their beds from
which they had been aroused
The new company takes the stand that
the motor company has no right on the
property where the piece OF track was laid
and that it was laid for the simple pur-
pose OF annoying and interfering with his
company. Its representative said: I'VE Of
fered to sell to the motor company Lake
Manawa and the railway but they refused
to buy 1t except at their own price. which
was $4,000. We have no desire to injure
the old company. but We are in the field TO
stay and will insist on our rights being pro-
tected. We secured right OF way through
this property from the Burlington people
and the motor company has no right here.
1t has no franchise on Sixteenth avenue or
on Sixth street so the fact that the motor
company wants to build a track on this
small strip, clearly indicates that 1t is done
for the simple purpose of annoying u.s."
w. S. Reed of st. Louis, secretary OF the
new company. said: when We first decided
to build a line here we had no intention OF
running our line except from Omaha to Lake
Manawa. IT, however, the motor company
intends TO parallel our line to the lake, We
will show them a thing or two. We will
simply take them at their own game and
parallel every line they have in the city and
then show them what can be done with low
fares. II will be good proposition anyhow
for the Deonle of Couneil BluffS The old |