Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1903-11-11
Illinois Cent-al's Telephone Lines.

The Illinois Central railway has
completed the construction of it's own
telephone lines along its right-of-way
in Iowa, and with their completion it
is announced the general Offices of
the road in Chicago are connected
in this manner with all stations west
from that point to Sioux City and
Council Bluffs and south to New Or
leans. The work of installing the in.
struments and switch-boards in offices
OF the company at division points will
now go forward, and as soon as this
is completed a great number of train
orders and other business of the road
will be conducted by telephone. This
does not mean the railway company
intends to do away with it's telegraph
instruments or it's dispatchers, but
the telephones will be used as a COM
plement to this method of handling
trains and men, with the expectation
that it will In cases aid in the trans
action of business and will relieve
the telegraph instruments from being
overcrowded. The experiment of the
Central will be watched with much
interest. The line built by the COM
pany from Chicago to Sioux City has
been strung on the telegraph poles,
but it will cost total of $21, 1000, at
the rate of $40 a mile.
Historical Building Too Small.
Curator Charles B. Aldrich of the
Iowa Historical department already
finds that the fine new building erect
ed by the state as a depository for
matters of historical interest is too
small for the demands made upon 1t,
and he will ask the coming legisla-
ture for an appropriation of 100000.
This sum will be devoted in part to
the operation of the department and
in part to the erection of an addition
to the building, If the legislature sees
fit to grant the request of the curator.
Among the deficiencies in the new
building which Mr.. Aldrich cites in
his letter submitted to Governor Cum
minis, Is that fact that the rooms de-
voted to the history of the state are
too small. Tho files of state newspa-
pers which Mr.. Aldrich has taken
great pains to collect cannot be prop
erly handled and are practically use
less for reference because of the
cramped space in which they must be
kept All portions of the new build
ing are filed. The law provides for
the removal of the state library from
Its present quarters in the state cap
itol building to the rooms Of the his
torical department leaving the state
library rooms now In use for the use
Of the state library of law. The fol-
lowing out of the law in this particu-
lar has been prevented heretofore by
the lack of space in the historical
building. The total number of books
and pamphlets now filed away by the
state department reaches 11,754. This
does not include the bound volumes
of newspapers, nor the volumes re-
Gently transferred from the state Ii
brary. During the past year Curator
Aldrich has made special effort to
collect books of biography and gene
alogy; also works of local history. He
tuiuhS tiS iluidiy ohOuiu NC iuIiCooSu
by the purchase of several hundred
volumes Of the older works on these
subjects. as well as the securing Of
new books as rapidly as they come
from the press. The state board of
health has recently turned over to the
historical department under charge of
Mr.. Aldrich 322 volumes of vital sta
tistics, making a valua"le collection
to be preserved. There are now in
the department 2,940 volumes of news
papers bound for preservation. and
the department is receiving regularly
800 representative papers and six