Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-02-15
RAILROADS MUST KEEP DEPOTS CLEAN
And Must Keep Ticket Offices Open atNNight-RailrOad Commission to Make Statewide In.
 yestigation.

Within few days a statewide in vestlgation of the conditions of pas senger stations in Arkansas will be begun by the Railroad Commission Recently complains of violations of the commission order No 345 have been frequent and, although few of these have been pressed because of the trivial character of the trouble. the pravelance of many of these , abuses justifies a general investiga- tlon, the commissioners believe.
 Order No. 354, under which the in vestigation will be made, was drafted and introduced by Commissioner. R. P. Allen of the Northeastern district and was enacted December 4, 1907. The present move to look into the condition of passenger stations is to be 1naugurated at the suggestion of MT Allen, who, in the course of a number of recent extensive trips, has had oc- casion to observe the condition of a O. AAA1S oIoIlouS III Cu6 northern and western parts of the state.
 Orders Flagrantly Violated.
 Tn going over the state on commits sion business and otherwise, I have visited Commissioner Allen said. "Not a few of them are in poor sanitary condition or scores of stations within few months,' poorly heated. The regulation requiring stations to be open one hour before the arrival of night trains is wantonly disregarded III some places. While no particular person perhaps has enough interest ill any one violation to prosecute it. stlll in the aggregate these infractions ot the commissions order are a great annoyance to the public and should be remedied Most of this is probably through the negligence of railroad employees, and the purpose of the in vestigation is as much to draw the at tention of the higher officials to how things actually stand as anything else"
 The most frequently violated sec tions of this order, judging from the complaints the commission has receiv- ed, is paragraph B., which provides:
 'All railroad ticket offices and waiting rooms of depots must be kept open during the day, and all ticket offices and waiting rooms must be opened at least one hour previous to the schedule time for the arrival of night trains, and remain open until b minutes after departure of the train, and said depots must be kept at all times when open, comfortably heated and supplied with wholesome drinking water and kept in a sanitary condition
 Some Stations Unsanitary.
 Another section of this order per- taining to sanitary conditions has al- So been frequently violated, according to information which has reached the commission.
 In most cases the violations of the provisions of the order, while annoy ing to the public, are too small to stir people of the place where they occur to make a formal complaint to the commission. Most of the instances which have come to my ear of the commissioners have come through word of mouth of some friend calling on them or through personal letters.
 One feature of the alleged viola tions is that most of them occur at the very small stations. Practically all of the larger stations in the state. particularly those of the Iron Moun- tain and Rock Island, are carefully tended by the railroads themselves and there is seldom cause for con- plaint. The smallest stations, particu- larly along the smalelr lines, receive less attention, however, and it is there that most of the complaint has arisen. It is to call the attention of the Railroad Commission to these conditions and work a general inn provement over the entire state that the investigation is to be undertaken.