The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-05-29
THE PEN THEIR WEAPON
INDIANAPOLIS SOUTHERN AND CIT
liens COMMITTEE USE 1T.
A Caustic Reply Sent to the Company
by the Committee-Munic-
ipaI Affairs.

The fight which the committee of South
Side citizens is making against the grant
ing Of a right Of way to the Indianapolis
Southern has led both the committee and
the railroad company to indulge in a cor
~respondence which has become very inter-
esting TO those acquainted with the facts.
The executive committee appointed by
South Side citizens, in its opposition TO the
railroad, sent out a circular 10 business
men who had signed the petition which the
Indianapolis Southern presented TO the
Board of Works, which stated that the
railroad company had not filed the plat Of
its proposed route into the city with the
board until after many of the signatures
had been obtained to the petition which
the road afterward presented to the board.
The railroad people. as soon as they be-
came cognizant OF the letter sent out by
the committee, addressed a circular letter
to it in which they characterized some of
the statements made against the road as
false. The communication particularly de-
MED that any signatures had ever been OBJ
tanned by the road before the filing of the
plat with the Board of Works.
COMMITTEES LETTER.
Yesterday the South Side ad-
dressed a letter to Charles e. Barrett, sec
rotary of the Indianapolis Southern, stat
ing that it might have been mistaken in it's
assertions. The letter is in part as follows:
This was led to believe that
the signatures were obtained prior to the
filing of the petition and plat of right OF
way from personal interviews with some OF
the Signers, who stated that they had
signed two or three months ago. AS the
petition as published is not dated we may
admit that they may be mistaken as to the
time they gave their signatures.
THE petition signed by the merchants
and manufacturers bears no date, but in the
published advertisement OF the company in
the daily papers of May 6 and Z ii is joined
TO the resolutions of the Commercial Club.
the only document bearing a date. leaving
the impression that they are concurrent.
In this same advertisement in the News
Of May . and in the Journal and Sentinel
of May Z these resolutions of the CONNER
cial Club are dated April IL, 1901, as if in
Endorsement Of the c~Ompany's petition for
the proposed right of way, whereas they
are merely commendatory of the enterprise
of bringing a new line OF railway TO the
city.
You are very well aware that these COM
mandatory resolutions of both the Board
of Trade and the Commercial Club were
not passed April II, 1901, as published in
your advertisement, but were passed April
IL, 1900, about two weeks after the organl-
cation of your company, and nearly one
year before the proposed route into the
city was officially announced. Whether
this change of date was an accident or by
design we are unable to state. Certainly
the advertisement, which. it was intended.
should be read by the public. leaves the i'm
preston that the commercial bodies OF the
city have petitioned for the route as desiS-
mated by your plat, and If this impression
is incorrect we have not observed any
strenuous effort on your part to correct it.
This Is hardly giving to the public the fair
and honest treatment you are so very de-
sirous for yourselves. Wrong impressions
may be created by suppression OF the truth
as we'll as by direct misstatement
at does not appear to the committee of
much Importance whether the signatures
were obtained either before or after the
filing of the plat of right of way. That
many who did sign were not aware of the
proposed route when they gave their sigma
lures is evident from the letters which this
committee has received directing the Board
OF Public Works to withdraw their names
from the petition referred to.
"As for the concluding paragraph OF your
letter referring to the remonstrants as OBJ
~tectors to every public enterprise We have
but to repeat what is well known to you
and to the public that the remonstranLs
object neither to your enterprise nor to
any other of benefit to the city, but they
are exercising their rights as citizens in OBJ
jecting TO a line of railroad through the
most densely populated portion of the city
as damaging to their property and as
menacinC their lives