Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-02-09
WORTH $4,000, 900 A YEAR.
Railroads Engaged in a Sensational
Race for Mail Contracts.
[Chicago Daily News.1


7. [Chicago Daily News.1
4 Over glistening tracks hundreds and
i hundreds Of miles long there is now and
will be for the next Two months a race
for the richest stakes that have ever
been held out for contests against time.
Uncle Sam is now paying the COM
panies who run their steel chargers on
these tracks nearly s6,000.000 year.
One of them gets about million dol
lars year more than the other and the
latter has put UP a fight to even up
matters.
The tracks form two of the fastest
and best equipped mail routes in this
country. They reach from New York to
Chicago. One the Lake Shore &
Michigan Southern, is owned by the
| Vanderbilts and the ether by the PENN
sylvania company.
\ In the third contract section there are
| T68 railway routes that earn $16,0O0.O00
q year, but these two big Chicago routes
earn in the same section and in three
states of another section one third OF
| the aggregate amount paid nearly SOC
routes.
| Recently the Pennsylvania people
gave their route new shape. put on a
new train and incider tally made bid
for more money and .nere is now prom
| ised one OF the most noteworthy races
| that have ever taken place in this
country. This quickly followed move
| of the Lake Shore in running thru to
| Chicago train that formerly stopped
at Toledo.
L n iS odd fltnf tho m ont
has no such thing as contract with
any road in this country in the matter
of carrying the mails. 1t is rule OF
the department. to give the business to
the trains that make the best time, all
other conditions being equal.
BY placing on the rails new train on
a fast schedule the big Pennsylvania
carrier wants more Of the mail that il
carried by its big rival, and it wants to
have the increase by the time the mails
are reweighed, thereby earning more
| compensation. Notice Of this reweigh-.
ing process has now been sent to the
railroads.
The Lake Shore people have been
carrying the bulk of the transcontinen-
| tai mail since Sept. 12, 1875, when the
famous White Mail was put on the
rails
It is significant that Chicago is the
greatest mail distributing point in this
or any other country. There are now
no less than sixteen fast mail trains
| that leave Chicago every twenty -four
hours. and 1t Is to the head of Lake
Michigan that the roads race for this
lucrative traffic. For the transporta-
ton of mail and the use OF postal cars
between New York and Chicago the
Lake Shore and allitd lines are paid
annually $2,769, 1891. For its service
between the same points the Pennsyl-
vania company draws annually $685.
SS7.S3.
1t is thus seen that the Lake Shore
has an annual advantage over its rival
of about 100000. 1t may be said here
that the PENNSYLVANIA road has two
fast-maii routes to the west-west OF
Pittsburg-one by the Fort Wayne line
and the other by the Panhandle. 81.
Louis and big far-western. field are
reached by the latter. II the $1,013,-
56746 earned on the st. Louis Line be-
added to the compensation of the Chi
cago route the revenue aggregates an
nually s29es, SST.s3 or over $500
more than its Vanderbilt rival.
BY connecting the st. Louis train at
Richmond, Ind, and running special
fast train to Chicago. the Pennsylvania
people claim to have made gain of Ave
hours with large bulk Of important
nail. BY this deal the Keystone car
rier connects at least six fast mali
trains that leave Chicago at or about
3 a. M, besides haying given an i'm
IA f1p.aV hi
Pennsylvania is said to have "a card
up its sleeve" the playing of which will
connect the fast mails that leave Chi
cago at 10 p. M, gaining from two to
five hours on the present time OF the
same mail.
No one supposes the Vanderbilts will |
allow their rival t. beat them out OF
the traffic they have neld for more than
a quarter of century and when II
comes to making time there promises to |
be breaking of records that Will
startle the country.
1t is significant that all of the leading
men who have planned big mail races t
are westerners, and the western ROADS |
have made by far the best time. w. III.
Newman, now president of the Lake t
Shore, went from the Chicago & North
western. which now operates no less
than four fast mail trains out OF Chi
cago,s ramifying the great west and
northwest. w. G. Brown, now vice
president of the Lake Shore, was gen.
eral manager OF the Burlington, one of
the fastest long distance mail runners
in the service. H. H. Storrs, an Iowa
division superintendent. formerly with
the Burlington. is also with the Lake
Shore. and C. II. Dalv. another former
Burlington man. is chief assistant gen.
eral passenger agent OF the Vanderbilt
line located in Chicago.
The railway mail service divisions
under which these routes are operated
are superintended by Captain e. L.
West, at Chicago; o. T. Holloway. at
Cincinnati. and George w. Pepper, at
Cleveland.
Mysterious Circumstance.
Qua was male and sallOW and the