Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-04-14
RAIL co. GRANT
FINALLY PASSED
Rock Island Council Votes IL
to on Tri- City Company's
Ordinance.
WORK TO BEGIN AT ONCE
TO Prepare Twenty-fifth Street for
Long View Professionalism to
Be Here in go Days.

By vote of II to the Rock Island
council last evening adopted the fran
chise extension ordinance of the Tri-
City Railway company, on which it
had been celebrating for many weeks.
The negative vote was by Alderman ].
E. Ellinwood of the Seventh ward He
opposed the ordinance chiefly for the
reason that the company would not
agree to the insertion of a stated sum
as its portion of the expense of the
grading of Thirty-eighth street, Sew
enth to Eighteenth avenues, on which
one of it's proposed extensions is to be
built. The company was willing that
the ordinance specify that it pay for
the portion fixed by previous ordin-
ances on all thoroughfares where it
builds lines. and in addition fair pro-
portion of the remainder, but it would
not go any further. President J. F.
Porter warned the council that if it
insisted on naming the amount in the
ordinance the measure would not be
accepted by the company.
Arbitration, Clause Modified.
The labor arbitration clause was one
of the features that had delayed the
ordinance in the past two weeks, but,
as finally settled, it is agreeable to all
parties concerned. In its original
form, the clause provided for COM
mission of three members. one an Off
cial of the company, another represent
ing the MISREPRESENTATION and mo-
tormen-and these two to select the
, third member, the decisions of the
l.
The company contended that, under
such a condition, the corporation was
the only party to the contract that
could be held legally. and therefore
the clause was not fair. AS finally &C
cepted, the clause provides for CON-
mission of three, one member each to
be named by the company and the en-
ployes, and the two TO select a third,
and their findings to be binding on
both parties to the contract. Archie
NJ Hart, spokesman of the employees, /
was present at the meeting last even F.
ing
THE employees of the railway COM |
pany wish to express their gratitude /
TO the city council for safeguarding !
their interests and those of the public |
in providing for arbitration Of labor !
disputes in the new ordinance of the |
company" Mr. Hart said, addressing |
the council I'VE are all familiar with |
the disastrous experiences in other cit |
les, following railway strikes, that, we
believe could have been avoided |
through arbitration We wish to tell |
you that we are satisfied with the ar |
bitration clause in the ordinance be- |
fore you We have always been treat |
ed fairly by the officials of the COM |
pany, and we hope and believe it will !
never be necessary to resort to arbi- |
tration, but it is well in any event to /
be safeguarded for an emergency. The |
men are confident that such guaran- |
tee will rebound to the benefit of all |
concerned"
Mayor G. W. McCaskrin secured the |
addition to the ordinance of a section |
providing for an all-night service on
the Bridge line, a car to be run hourly |
from midnight to a. M, the regular
service to be resumed at the latter
hour.
Council Does Good job.
The ordinance, as finally adopted, is
accepted by the public generally as a
reasonable one in all respects. The
council wrestled with it night after
night over a longer period than has
been devoted to other grants of equal
Importance, and secured every possible
concession from the company. In fact,
the aldermen carried their demands to
the point where the company insisted
upon a halt; that it had its limita-
tons, and that if these were exceeded
the ordinance would be withdrawn.
The council got everything that it
could from the company. There was
general demand that the company
build an interurban to the lower end
Of the county, and there was a feel