Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1907-01-23

Thursday of this week until Tuesday,
Jan. 20, to allow the committees TO
visit the various state institutions.
From that time on there is every indi-
cation the session will not be inter
rupted, and the members hope to ac-
complish the work before them and
adjourn earlier than usual.
Two Cent Fare Bills.
Senator Dan Turner Of Adams coun-
ty and Representative Frank F.. Jones
of Montgomery county are already on
deck with bills providing for two
cent fare on railroads for passenger
service in Iowa The bills prepared
by these two members are but Begin
ming of the measures which will come
before the railroad committees of the
two houses on this subject. The Re-
publ;cans in their last platform prac-
tically pledged themselves to enact
legislation. reducing the cost of rail-
road travel. while the Democrats alb
solutely pledged their members to
favor a bill reducing passenger fares
to two cents per mile.
The bills prepared by Messrs. Jones
and Turner differ only in detail and in
classification of the various roads.
The Turner bill makes the provision
that divides the roads OF the state
into three classes. Glass A roads are
to have maximum charge Of not
more than two cents per mile; class
B roads may charge two and one-half
cents per mile, and class c roads
three cents per mile.
The bill by Representative Jones
fixes the rate for class A roads at two
cents, fiat; for class B roads at three
and one-half cents, and for class C
roads at four cents. If either of these
measures should be adopted the pres
ent railroad systems or the state.
would be divided as follows
Glass A-Ames and College; Atchi-
son, Topeka and Santa Fe; Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy; Chicago Great
Western; Chicago, Milwaukee and St.
Paul: Chicago and Northwestern; Chi
cago, Rock Island and Pacific; Chica-
go, st. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha
Des Moines Union; Des Moines West
ern; Dubuque and Sioux City; Iowa
Central; Mason City and Fort Dodge;
Omaha Bridge and Terminal; Union
Pacific; Union Terminal Wabash and
Wilmar and Sioux Falls.
Glass B-Colfax and Northern and
Minneapolis and St. Louis.
Glass C-Albia and Centerville; Chi
cago, Anamosa and Northern; Crook
ed Creek Railway and Coal company;
Davenport, Rock Island and North
western; Des Moines, Iowa Falls and
Northern; Iowa Central and western;
Manchester and Oneida; Muscatine
North and South; Newton and .,oT.h-
western; Tabor and Northern; Wis
consin, Minnesota and Pacific.
This is the classification of the
roads as made by the railway commis-
sion in August of last year.
While 1t is practically safe to pre-
dict that some measure providing for
q two cent fare will pass this session
of the legislature, it is certain the
members are not going to be in great
haste to place such law on the stat
ute books. The railroad committees
of both houses are made up of the
strongcSt men in the assembly, and
the leaders say they intend to make
thorough investigation of conditions
and only act after mature deliberation
and after hearing fully any arguments
the representatives of the roads may
have to present. AS for the roads
themselves. prominent attorney of
one of the trunk lines has declared
they will not make strenuous effort
against the two cent fare bill. He
says the roads will simply ask permis-'
sion to state their side of the case
and to show wherein they believe
that such an act at this time might
work an injustice, but he realizes it is
only ouastiOn OF time until the roads