Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-10-03

CHlCAUO, OcJOper -'-lne IhlCdSo city council last night took preliminary steps toward enacting into law the most sweeping railroad identification ordin- ance ever offered to any municipality in the United States.
 Aimed primarily at the Illinois Cen tral Railroad company, the measure hits every railroad line operating within a radius of eight miles of the city hall It contemplates identification improve ments that eventually will cost in the vicinity of $l5O,000,000.
 If it is passed in its present form and upheld by the courts, every one of the twenty-six trunk lines entering the city, and every terminal, transfer, belt or industrial road within the prescribed 2 limits will be forced before January l, 1912, to substitute electricity for steam power or quit doing business.
 Its going into effect will mean prac' tically the abolition of the smoke nui- sanee and the final dawning of the City Beautiful era in Chicago's history, The ordinance was introduced by Al derman Bernard w. Snow of the Sew enth ward. It is the fruit of months of investigation by Corporation Counsel Brundage and the staff of the city law department It is an, administration measure, backed by all the power of the city government and indorsed in prin- ciple by virtually every member of the city council.
 When it was introduced last night, ordered published and referred to the committee on local transportation there were no evidences of dissent from the aldermen. Subsequently large number expressed themselves as strongly in fla vor of it.
 The provisions of its various sections are as follows:
 'sAfter January l, 1912, every rail road operating lines within eight miles of the city han shall employ electricity as motive power.
 "Within one year after the going in to effect of the ordinance, every rail road now operating in the city shall S submit to the commissioner of public 4 works plans and specifications for oper- S ating its trains by electricity.
 "That within six months after these plans and specifications have been ap- proved the railroads shall begin the ae- t tual work of identification and shall continue that work with reasonable dil- igence.'
 'After one year from the going into z effect of the ordinance no railroad which has not submitted and had approved # the plans and specifications referred to # shall be permitted to operate its trains # by any other power than electricity.
 "Anv railroad violating any of the terms of the ordinance shall be fined S2OO for each violation, and every day that any railroad shall continue to vlo- 8 late any of the provisions Of the ordl- N nance shall be regarded as a new and 8 separate Offense.
 s.Tbe ordinance shall go into effect Al from and after it's passage. approval ana # publication.
 The city claims from two sources the M authority to enforce this measure, us N first tight, 1t contends, arises from lts # general police powers, giving the mu- nicipality the authority to provide for # the health and safety of it's citizens. It is asserted that the smoke, soot and VI cinders thrown off by steam railroads form a constant menace to pubhe health and source of loss and danger N to property. This condition, it is charg- ed, amounts to nuisance which the city has the right to abate.
 This section reads:
 'It shall have power to regulate and Y prohibit the use of locomotive engines within the city and require railroad ears to be propelled by other pawer than N that of steam; to direct and control the location of railroad tracks and to re- uuire railroad companies to construct at their ow nexpense such bridges, tunnels sS or other conveniences at public railroad W crossings as the common council may deem necessary; also to regulate thd running of horse railway ears, the lay ing down of tracks for the same, the # transportation of passengers thereon and the kind of rail to use v
 The corporation counsel's office has made 9 thorough investigation into the legal standing of this paragraph, and has arrived at the conclusion that 1t IS ~ now as effective as the day it went into effect.
 It is understood that it was copied originally from the charter of the City M of Baltimore. There was at that time, of course, no thought that electricity ever would come to be a substitute Tor steam as the motive power for loeomo' tives, but in Baltimore and other large M cities there was the general popular fear # for trains which ran faster than seven miles an hour, and in Baltimore an or dnance based on the section of the char ter just quoted provided that trains m side the city limits should be drawn by horses.
 In Chicago at the time the charter was y" fs .4r