Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-10-02
RAILROADS HAVE
MORE LITIGATION
ATTORNEY GENERAL MOODY TO
ENFORCE LAW REQUIRING
SAFETY APPLIANCES
President Roosevelt Is Back of the
Action-Packers Are to Have
Trouble With State of Arkansas
Violations OF the Trust Laws.

washington, d. c., Oct. LIN &C.
cordance with instructions issued by
attorney General Moody, suits will be
instituted shortly against forty or more
raliroad companies to recover penal
Ties for violation OF the safety an.
pliance law.
The suits will affect railroads In
every section of the country They
include the Chicago and Alton. Chicago
Great Western, Chicago. Milwaukee
and st. Paul, Rock Island, Great North
ern. Northern Pacific. Pennsylvania.
Missouri Pacific, and Wabash. The
total number of violations of the act
is 1S1. The largest number. 81 is
charged against the Delaware and Hud-
son company.
President Roosevelt is responsible
ior thls action. He has been appalled,
oy the large number of persons killed
ana injured through railroad accidents.
many or which were due to failure on
the part of the roads to equip their
trains with recognized safety ap-
pilances. In the last eleven years S4,-
244 persons were killed and 555, $50
injured in railroad accidents.
During the last session Of congress
resolution fathered by Representa-
tive Mann of Chicago was passed dir
Getting the interstate commerce COM
mission to investigate the use and
necessity for block signals and ap-
pliances for automatic control of rail
way trains.
Block Signal Particularly Probed.
The commission assigned to former
Senator Cockrell, member of the
commission, the duty of making this
investigation. He has been inquiring
particularly into failure of roads to
equip their lines with block signals
This system is in use on only 1000 OF
the. 100000 miles of railroad in the
United States
President Roosevelt recommended
the general adoption of the block sys
tenn in two of his messages. because
4 he believed itwould prevent collisions
and reduce the heavy casualty list.
Would Fine Packers.
Chicago, Oct. ii Ogden Armour
and other Chicago packers have been
asked to go before Commissioners
Lyle D. Taylor in the Ashland block
today and tell what they know about
the operation of packers trust in
Arkansas. Sixty witnesses have been
asked to testify, including heads of de
partments, agents and bookkeepars.
| If legal representatives of Arkansas
win their case the packers must in all
probability abandon their warehouses
and depots in Little Rock, Texarkana
Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, Helena, and a
dozen other cities and towns in the
state.
Attorney General Robert L.. Rodgers
and his assistants, ]. e. Bradshaw and
James H. Stevenson, are in the city in
the capacity of collection agents fo1
the state of Arkansas. They have
brought suit against Armour 6 Co.
Swift & Co.. the Cudahy Packing com
pany, Morris & Co., and the G. Fl. Ham
mond company for violating the anti
trust laws of their state.
Figure on Big Fines.
The Arkansas attorneys figure that
they can collect a minimum fine of $20C
a day from each of the big packers re
presented in their state, for six
months violation of the law during
the latter part Of 1905. This would
give them in round numbers 100000
or ten times the sum the international
Harvester company paid Arkansas for
violating the antitrust laws several
months ago.
Inquiry among the high priced at
torneys of the packers indicated that
either they did not take the prosecu
tion of the Arkansas suits seriously
or did not want to admit they knew
anything about the proceedings. They
said that H. M. Armistead, represent
ing Morris & Co., and Judge w. E
Hemingway, who will appear for the
other packers, and both Of whom are
from Arkansas, would know what
steps to take when the time came.