The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-08-08
RAILROAD NEWS.
Railroads Are Confronted With
a New Proposition.
Freight Business to Oklahoma
VIII Be Immense.
BEHIND ON SHIPMENTS
Rock Island Unable to Handle
All Business Offered.
Big Passenger Business VIII Be
Second to Freight Business

Now that the heavy passenger traffic
TO the Comanehe Kiowa and Apache
Indian country in Oklahoma. incident
to the opening and the big government
lottery for the disposal of the same. is
practically over. another and perhaps
more serious problem confronts the
railroads. It is the matter of freight
and passenger business in the future in
this new country.
In this business the Rock Island rail-
way viii be a prominent factor The
Rock Island is the only road whose
lines penetrate the territory opened up
IN the three new counties The Choc-
taw railway comes the nearest on the
east and the Santa Fe extends nearly
to this country, but through the con-
Htruction of the new lines by the Rock
Island recently. that road has gotten in
on the ground floor, and to it Will nat
urally fall the largest percentage of the
business in the near future.
W. E Thompson, general passenger
agent of the system, has only recently
returned from this country Where ne
has been during the past three or four
weeks TT is the most wonderful ex-
perience I ever went through with, he
said. People generally have no con-
ception Of the situation as it was pre-
scented there. ! can hardly believe
things that I saw with my own eyes I
sometimes doubt the things I saw and
would have never believed them had
only heard of the affair and not seen 1t
myself. The number of people who at
tended the opening, the interest they
took, and the whole situation, l believe
7 may safely say was unprecedented.
And the story of the passenger bust
ness which nearly everyone IS now
familiar with viii be second to that of
the great freight proposition which
now confronts us
With 5000 claims to be given away
by the government. it can be easily fig
ured that this win cause a population
of $4,000. figuring five to a family which
will be a low estimate, and as many
more viii settle in the new towns which
have been laid out and ablished this
year This Will bring the total popula-
ton up to over a hundred thousand
When you stop to consider what this
really means, It will be seen that this
will be an entirely different proposition
than increasing a large city by an
addition of population amounting to a
hundred thousand.
THE supplies. material and freight of
all kinds are on hand to a large extent
4n the large cities while in this new
country 1t all has to be stocked up
anew, consequently the business in the
freight department viii be enormous.
While the passenger business was the
heaviest, all our freight trains. with the
exception Of the perishab bic freight, We're
6ldetracked to make room for the pas
senger business 1t taxed the capacity
of a single line track to the utmost,
and II Is a fine record that we have
made Only one accident occurred and
this was not the result of CareieSSneSS.
Thousands of cars of lumber and
supplies of all kinds are waiting to be
hauled into the new country and if
the Rock Island had a four track road
into that territory, it would be lmpOsSi-
Bile to keep ahead of the shipments Of
supplies and material And added to
this is the enormous grain shipments
- Id
ready to be moved. Oklahoma never
had q better wheat crop than It has
raised this year. and there are hundreds
OF cars of grain from Kansas to be
moved TO Fort Worth and other south
ern points. Much Of this is already
standing on the tracks.
At FL Reno there have been six
clerks and I'VE travelling passenger
agents in addition to the regular Office
force busy in taking care of the home
seeker business. 1t is estimates that
we have transported in and out of this
country UP 10 the present time 100000
persons
There are in the neighborhood of
1900 quarter sections IN Greer county
that have never been fled on and the
large majority of these are desirable
and contain much good land A large
number of the HON eseekers who went
to FL Reno to draw a farm and We're
disappointed are now looking at this
proposition and no doubt many of these
will take land In Greer county Tt was
the general belief that a large number
of the people who tried for a quarter
section IN the new country just opened
by lottery, would seek new fields upOn
their falling to draw any land but il is
surprising to see how many of them
Will remain Many attempts by outside
parties 70 Influence them to go to other
points had no effect. As ali az fhan,
seemed to be imbued with the feeling
Oklahoma OF bust. and are LOOKING
around the territory for locations for
a. lorv,a mr. hr,cf,,acS -