The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1905-05-04
TAKES UP The FIGHT
President B. J. Arnold, Of Street
Railway Co., Sends an Open
Letter on Transfers.
WOULD MEET CITY HALF WAY
Mr.. Arnold Says That the Company is
Ready to Carry Out the Provis-
ions of the Ordinance
to the Letter.

President B. j. Arnold, of the Ke-
nosha Electric Railway company, ar
rived in Chicago yesterday, and to-
day he has addressed an open letter to
the people of Kenosha, in which he
gives his views of the transfer mud
die. Mr.. Arnold is certainly deserv-
ing of hearing, but it is evident
from his letter that he is not CONVEX
SAINT with the real conditions in Keno
sha and the point that is being raised
by the city officials and the people
who desire that the company shall
live up to its contract.
Mr.. Arnold evidently does not I'M
derstand that during six or eight
months last year, on Saturdays, Sun
days, holidays and at other times the
company ran more, or at least as
many, what he calls especial" cars
as it did regular cars, and the so
called Especial" cars we're run regu-
lar all day long, and they were run at
regular intervals land we're just the
same as the regular cars, and no one
on earth could tell the difference be-
tween the Specials and the regu-
lars, except that when a person got
on a regular Especial" car he found
out when he reached Market square
he had to pay two fares if he was not
going the way the car happened to be
going. The fact of the matter is, the
so called Special cars are not
special, but regular cars, and the
company ought to give transfers on
them the same as other cars.
Here is Mr.. Arno1d's letter:
Chicago, April 81, 1905.
Editors, KENosHA EVENING NEWS,
Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Gentlemen: = On returning from
New York this morning and looking
over the clippings from your paper
see that there has been considerable
commotion relating to the operation
of the Kenosha Electric railway,
which eliminated in the stopping of
the cars by police authority on the
10Th inst. I am informed today that
through legal authority the cars have
been started, and am quite surprised
to learn that they we're ever stopped
at all.
Since became connected with the
street railway enterprise in Kenosha ]
have endeavored!lto keep my ob1iga-
tions to the city to the letter, hoping
thereby to win and retain the esteem
and respect of the reasonable and
fair-minded citizens of Kenosha for
not only myself personally, but for
the Railway company which I repre-
sent.
believe that the Kenosha Electric
Railway company has not only in fact
complied with every condition of its
ordinance, but is endeavoring to com
ply absolutely with the spirit of the
ordinance.
Instead of giving a thirty-minute
service as required by the ordinance
it is giving twenty-minute service,
which was inaugurated on the open
ing of the road, for believed that the
better the service the better the citi-
zens would be satisfied and the better
the property would pay.
The Railway company also from the
outset put conductors on the cars,
who, so far as / know, have been
courteous toward the public, for l be-
1ieved that the cars would be more
safely operated in this manner, and
the public better served than though
they were operated with but one man
in accordance with the practice il
some cities even larger than Keno.
sha. Fortunately the traffic has been
such as to make it possible to retain
conductors on the cars, and it is the
intention of the company to give the
city just as good and as frequent ser.
vice as the receipts of the road will
warrant.
am, therefore, quite surprised to
find your paper taking the attitude
that it does against the company,
especially when the criticisms are
based upon so little grounds as the
contention that the road is not issu.
ing transfers.
You seem to have conflicting ideas
as to what a transfer is, and in this
connection it will probably be of in
terest to quote from the opinion Of
Charles Quar1es, Esq, of Milwaukee
which has just been received by me
and upon which opinion the cour'
commissioner has issued an injunc
ton preventing the city from furthel
interfering with the operation of the
cars. Mr.. Quarles says
Concerning the right of the city
under section 4 of paragraph of or
ordinance No. 254 granting a fran
chise for a street railway in the city
of Kenosha, to demand the Stree
Railway company that it issue print
ed transfers, there would seem to bt
no doubt that such demand cannot b.
enforced, and is not within the term:
of the paragraph referred to. AL
that snch paragraph secures to The
traveller is the right to travel from
point to point on the railway within
the corporate limits of the city for thu
sum of five cents, and that, when nee
essarv, to secure this right. a transfe,