Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-05-01
Minnesota's Two-cent Fare Does
Not Apply to Interstate
Rates
COSTS TO GET OUT OF STATE
Fare to over-the Border Points Much
Greater Than to Nearby Cities
Some Striking lnconsruities Are the
Result-The TansIe of Rates-Joke
on Northern Pacific.

~ ehihiS SOlioltlOiS VIA NC PlOuuSCu Wy
the new Minnesota rate law, which
goes into effect today.
The new 2-cent passenger rate vir-
tually raises a barrier around Mime
sofa, against thru passenger travel,
which will mean that passengers bound
for foreign cities-foreign as they
are situated beyond this Scent bar
rier-must pay tribute in dollars or de-
lay, to the fact that there is no ma
tional rate law.
Nowhere is this more forcibly illus
,trated than in crossing the Red river
of the North, which is the boundary
between Minnesota and North Dakota.
AT least three flourishing Minnesota
cities are on the east bank of the Red
river. They are Breckenridge, Moor
head and East Grand Forks. And
across the river are Wahpeton, Fargo
and Grand Forks, N. D., with railway
stations only a mile or so from those
OF the Minnesota cities.
Where They Pay to Get Out.
II a passenger buys a ticket from
Minneapolis to Wahpeton today he
will pay $1.44 cents more than the pas
senger who sits in the same seat with
him. who bought ticket only to
Breckenridge, a station lin sight of
Wahpeton, across the Red river. II
passenger boards q train in Mime
apolls for Fargo, his ticket will cost
him $2.3S more than it will cost an
other passenger whose ticket entities
him to ride to Moorhead, less than a
mile east of Fargo In the case of the
Cast Grand Forks passenger he will
ave $S.06 by walking across the bridge
o Grand Forks, for If he bought a
icket to Grand Forks it would have
cost him 1925, whereas the rate to
EAST Grand Forks is only 1913.
To-day we are doing big business;
tomorrow we'll be doing a lot of eX-
planning" This is the way one of the
city ticket agents estimates the mixup
hat will begin today when the new
a-cent passenger rate law goes into eff
feet. He was wading thru a package
of ten rate books which his line had
gotten together hastily to comply with
the new law. The perspiration on his
face was only a suggestion of what
streams of sweat must have poured
from the face of the rate clerk who
compiled the books. Another agent,
with the same sentiments at his tom
CUES end showed long white sheet
which his road had issued. that re-
quired $500 rates to be figured twice
TO comply with the new law.
The TangIe Of Rates.
The difficulties into which the lines
have been plunged and the idiosyncra-
sizes which have developed result from
the lack of time for the railroads to
lire up the interstate rates on the basis
of the interstate rates. The North Da-
kota 2 ia cent rate is not effective until
July j, and the Iowa 2-cent rate is not
effective until July 4 the Illinois rate
may be reduced by the commission to
2 cents at any time In the face of
these legal inequalities and the fact
that the Minnesota law was put into
effect so soon after passage the thru
rates will remain where they were for
time.
To the travelling man with a mile
age book the difference in rates cuts
no particular figure, because he is
travelling at 2 cents mile anyway.
But the occasional passenger who
wants to go to Fargo at the cheapest
rate has to do some figuring as to how
to get there with his baggage. He
must either buy ticket to Moorhead.
for instance, and then pay his local
fare to Fargo. trusting to luck to get
his baggage rechecked at the boundary
line in liz minutes: or he must get
off at Moorhead and hire a wagon to
haul his baggage across the line to
Fargo.
Joke on Northern Pacific.
1t would take some time to pick out
all the jokes which the new law has
perpetrated For instance, on the
Northern Pacific road the rate to
Breckenridge will be s4.51 and to Wah-
peton, across the river $685.. On the
Great Northern line the rate to
Breckenridge is $4OS under the
new law and -s4.15 to wahpeton The
reason for this is that the Great North
ern line takes a shoot into North Da-
koto to Wahpeton. and then f1ustles
back into Minnesota. The Northern
Pacific rate clerks evidently had for
gotten this incident and seem not to
have lined up their rate on compete
tive basis.
An Outrage.
It's an outrage to let your skin suffer
without help. when burned or wound
ed Use Ruck1nn's Arnioo Calyo Ok