The Iola register., 1900-11-16
The Santa Feis Keeping an
Eye on the Pacific and
Will Retaliate For
Every Invasion
BOTH For lola BUSINESS.
The Former Wanting the
x East SmelterS, the Lat
ter Hungerng for the
Cement Plant.

w lIUOuI any OuLWdFu eNluenCe Oh
the struggle, and without any talk on
the subject for the benefit of the peo-
pie of lola who are interested, the two
railroads which reach lola are fight
ing a sharp contest, the stakes being
the freight traffic of lola and the fac
tories of the gas belt.
OF course the hostility is not person.
al, simply a keen business rivalry,
and it is not new. Every: factory
which has been located in the belt has
been considered by the head offices Of
both roads. Representatives have
been here and discussed the location
beforehand, and the result has been
that the honors are about even. The
first factory was located atthe ecrossing
ofethe two roads without trouble The
second factory was on 1.-THE Santa Fe
and finally reached by long spur
from the Pacific. Then the latter road
had the best of the chickering's. In
rapid succession the brick plant, the
Lanyonville smelter. the George f..
Nicholson smelter, the McRae-Daly
and Cherokee-Lanyon smelters were
Cbuilt-all on the Missouri Pacific line
and from a mile to six miles from the
Santa Fe. BY this time there was a
bloody pink tinge TO the perspiration
which exuded from the pores of the
Santa Fe. But they had things up
l,,air claavoc an1 annntnpnad no 10
and again balanced the score by To-
eating the cement plant on their line,
mile from the Pacific
The last named factory is the cause
of the present contention. 1t is ship
ping out train loads of cement and
when the market has been opened up
and the plant as IL stands today is
working full time and full capacity
the freight will he tremendous. The
capacity will be fifty car loads a day,
which means fifty empties in and fifty
loaded cars out daily. That is equiv
alent to several trains a day and both
the roads could stand such Il strain
without making wry faces.
The Missouri Pacific, having six
smelters-the whole thing and a
brick plant on her line, looked over
into the Santa Fe's back yard, saw
the cement plant, aud wanted TO get
it too. The Pacific already has an
engine at work here and runs pas
senger coach three times daily from
lola to LaHarpe thus furnishing five
cents fare for the workmen. 1t was
easy to figure out that with switch
to the cement plant that same engine
and train crew could handle half of
those fifty cars u day without any
trouble at all.
So the Pacific has had surveys made
and has planned switch from right
east of lola close TO the Rock Greek
bridge, then south to Elm creek, a
turn west and bridge between high
rock banks and then short run to the
works. A mile or less of track will
do it and then more business.
1t is Just as easy for the Santa Fe tC
see these things. The Santa Fe says
such doings are not good railroading
inasmuch as roads usually by mutua
consent divide up the earth and dc
not force each other to build parallel
lines and cut rates when avoidable
But the plum is too tempting and The
Pacific is very, very probably goinG
to climb the plum tree. AS soon al
it does this the Santa Fe intends tC
get even by building a line from loli
to LaHarpe. This intention comes
straight from ''way.up." Six miles
of line will connect the santa Fe will
the east brick plant. Nicholson's Nc
Rae Dalys, the Cherokee Lanyon anC
the Lanyonville smelter, none of whicl
it now reaches. This is the immediate
and positive result Of the extension
while to have line reaching out tn
long way through the gas belt Is als'
something to be desired as it gives {
whack at things that are to be. Fo
instance that zinc rolling mill whicl
the Lanyon Zinc company has planne'
and has never given up. 1t is
probability. Where it will go non
seems 10 know.
But it is all interesting to watch