The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1908-09-25
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL ON
RAILROAD MILEAGE BOOKS

"One of the greatest bardsb5ns
which the travelling men of Georgia
have TO endure at the hands CT the
railroads is the requirement that Al
ter having purchased a thousand or
two-thousand mile book as provided
for by the agreement between the rail-
roads and the commission some
months ago, they must exchange the
necessary amount of mileage for q
special ticket before the prospective
traveller is allowed to get on the
train.
I'VE called attention to this injus-
tice at the time, and insisted that il
would be a violation of at least the
spirit of the agreement.
Experience has shown that the in
convenience of using mileage in this
way is even greater than was an.ici-
pated at the time, and there is 8
very earnest demand on the part O.
the travelling men Of the state that
there shall be return to the Old
system of using mileage.
1T was one of the principal adyan-
tages in purchasing mileage book
that the holder of them could get on
the train and decide, even while he
was on board, where he would make
his first stop. If he changed his
mind, and decided to travel a station
or so further, after he was on board.
1t was an easy matter to have so
much more mileage pulled from his
book without inconvenience.
"And yet this was the very small
est part Of the convenience To put it
adversely, it is not the most inconven-
lent feature that he cannot do this
any more. The fact is that since a
passenger is required to produce his
mileage book and exchange so many
coupons for a regular ticket, it fire.
quently happens that he has to stand
in line waiting his turn at the ticket
window until it is literally too late to
catch his train. If he is comparative
ly late in arriving at the station he
sees his train pulling out because he
has not time to go through the red
tape of making the exchange.
This is not an imaginary instance.
We are informed that things like this
occur in actual experience every day,
when the whole theory of mileage
books, as they were formerly used.
was to avoid this inconvenience and
delay.
Under the old system the travel
ing man could send his mileage book
to the station, along with his bag
gage and have the latter checked,
which was a great convenience in the
early hours of the morning.
Eve repeat that the entire arrange
ment is contrary to the spirit of the
agreement into which the railroads
entered when they offered to issue
these mileage books. 1t was natural
ly expected that they would carry
with them all the privileges which
have been associated with them in
the past
"IS this a studied effort on the part
Of the railroads to discourage the use
Of mileage books as much as possible?
do they wish to force the travelling
man to pay the higher rate incident
to the purchase of regular tickets
rather than be subject to the addi-
tional inconvenience of making this
1T looks very much as if that were
the case.
"At any rate we feel that it is a
matter that should be taken up by
the railroad commission. We have
asked, from the very beginning, that
the railroads make these mileage
books, subject to all the privileges
and conveniences which formerly
marked them.
"They have persistently refused to
do so voluntarily, and now we feel
that the commission should take up
the matter.
There is no reason why a traveller
should be compelled to buy two tick
cts in order to make one trip, and
this red tape should be abandoned" -
Journal
A TRAVELLING MANS EXPERIENCE