The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-06
Grain Men in Iowa Complain of
Rock Island Service.
Say They Are Unable to Get
Freight Cars.
FRESHNESS n MI IN
BUSINESS ED.
Shops Full OF Bad Order Cars
Bad Management.
Gossip and Matters of Interest
in Railroad Circles.

Des Moines. Ia, Oct. 6-The probable
tiles are that within very short time
grain men doing business along the
Rock Island road, and especially those
with houses on its branch lines. will file
complaints against the company, either
r with the railroad commissioners of the
states or with the interstate commission
because of the failure of the company
to provide cars.
For weeks the Rock Island has been
curtailing by laying off shop men, men
in the operating department. and last
by a wholesale reduction of the forces
employed in the maintenance depart
ment. The reason assigned has invar-
iably been dull business. Now the
charge is made by shipping interests
that, despite its claim that business is
dull, the road is refusing to furnish cars
to move freight offered.
The resident manager of one of the
elevator companies doing business in
Iowa yesterday said:
I am at a loss to understand the
policy which is being followed by the
present Rock Island management and
it commences to look very much as
though we would have to resort to the
railroad commissions to fathOm it. The
cry of dull business is unwarranted. My
company has tried to get cars to move
grain without success, the answer being
that the company has not got the cars
Why, on the line between Des MoineS
and Sibley there are at this time not
less than thirty train loads of grain
in storage in elevators awaiting ship
ment, and the cars for the shipment of
this grain axe not forthcoming. The
same condition prevails on other
branch lines in Iowa On the main line
the traffic is being taken care of, but
the failure to furnish cars on the
branch lines has amounted practically
to Generalization of the business, and
if long continued will result in de-
moraliZation of the grain business
Storage facilities will be exhausted and
grain men will be forced to quit buying
because of the uncertainty as to when
they will be able to get the grain out to
market.
The fact is that the company is not
working sufficient snop force to keep
rolling stock in condition to care for the
business and we find the railroad yards
in Valley Junction and Des Moines full
of bad order cars while our agents re-
port these cars in large numbers all
along the system. The company is not
making effort to put these cars in
condition to care for the business, and
so has not the rolling stock to furnish
the present demand for cars. The bad
order tcars are. not Rock Island cars
alone, but the cars of other companies,
which axe being kept here for weeks at
a time and on which the Rock Island
must pay a demurrage of 81 a day.
Inquiry among grain men revealed
that the complaint is quite general
among those depending on the Rock
Island, while a trip through the yards
at Valley Junction Friday showed whole /
tracks filled with bad order cars. At |
the snop but a small force is working, |
while members of employers grievance |
committees who have recently called |
on the general officers to inquire what |
they could expect in work this winter, |
reported that they could get no salts |
faction A representative of the back |
shop men here said: - Il asked the |
superintendent in Chicago and his reply |
was: I wish 1 could tell you what to !
expect. 1 don't know myself, and I'm /
darned if know who does know under |
this management