The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1903-04-24
MORE HOUSES FOR GOODLAHD.
Business Men to Relieve the Sore
Need Of Houses for Railroad Men.
Conference Between Citizens and Rock Is
Hand Omeials Is to Bear Fruit-RaiIrOad
to Increase Force OF shopmen
and Make improvements.

and Make improvements.
Gocdland is to have more houses and
more people. The citizens Of the town
are going to furnish the first and the
Rock Island Railroad company the sec
Ond. That was the understanding Of all
the business men Of GOOdland and the
officials of the Rock Island, of this d.
vision, at a meeting in the Leonard
real estate Office Wednesday night.
For long time the Rock Island com
panY has been seriously hampered at
this place by want of sufficient force
Of men, especially in the shops, to do
the necessary work at this division. So
pressing has this condition become that
A. Abbott, superintendent of this d.
vision, requested that meeting be held
: to consider ways and means to provide a
considerable number of residences for
machinists and the various classes of
railroad men who cannot be kept here
because accommodations are absolutely
out of the question.
This meeting was held at the Leonard
Office at 8 o'clock Wednesday night The
officials representing the railroad were
A. A Abbott, superintendent; ". J.
Aurand, trainmaster and W. E. Ander-
son, master mechanic. On the other
side, representing the city of Goodland,
was nearly every business man of the
town
]. II. Stewart was chosen temporary
chairman and W. S. Coleman, secretary.
After this was done Mr.. Abbott present
ed the matter to the meeting. He said:
''The intention and purpose of this meet
ing is to confer with the citizens and
business men of Goodland with refer
ence to adding more houses to your
town. The Rock Island Railroad COM
pany at this place has found it very
difficult TO maintain the necessary force
of men here because Of the sore need of
accommodations and houses for the en-
ployes. This condition has become so
embarrassing with the company that
something must be done We have been
short Of help and have even sent men
all over the country to secure machinists
and boilermakers to come here. But
We have been unable to keep them by
reason of the need of residences. Many
of them are married men with families,
which they have to maintain at other
places. This would not be so bad if the
men had some prospects of getting hOus-
Is in a reasonable length of time, but
none are in building, and there being no
prospect of renting they become discOur-
aged and leave the service at this place.
It is the desire of the company to make
improVementshere, and is DESTROYS of IN
creasing the force considerably but the
way matters stand We are unable to do so.
"We have to turn work away from this
point, continually on account Of this
shortage, which, were it done here
would help the town and add to the
business.revenues. Last years business
was the heaviest in the history Of the
road along these lines. This increase OF
traffic calls for more men, more work,
more houses. And I should be pleased
to hear a discussion of ways and means
of alternating this unfortunate condition
in your town"
MiIlisack, Ennis, Calvert, Murphy
Leonard, and many others responded
with their views of the question. a
great deal of the history Of the town was
reviewed touching the building of the
houses, the success and failures recorded
and the conditions which might effect
the matter in the future The citizens
seemed anxious about two things con
corning the building of more houses
The first was, will the railroad build The
houses; and second, if the citizens Of TIT
town should go ahead and invest theil
money in erecting buildings would thert
be any probability Of the railroad work.
being moved from Goodland.
These were important questions IN TIT
meeting. In regard to the first Nh
Abbott said that the company had no
established the precedent anywhere tina
he knew of in building houses for thei
employees in the different towns wher
the need was similar to that in Good
land. He said that Herington was il
about the same condition when he wa
there, as Goddard is now, and that tn
citizens Of that town got together an
supplied the need by building houses a
a personal adventure and that nothing
but good results came from it. Tn
same thing was done to a certain exten
in Horton.
As to the railroad works remaining a