The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-09-03
NOT A SQUARE DEAL
Milwaukee Officials | gnor
Madison's Request for
Better Railroad Ac-
commodations

facilities for Madison, and it will be
a surprise to the business men and
citizens generally of this city TO see
how little they have been able to
accomplish. There is an apparent
tendency on the part of the officials
TO ignore the needs of the city and the
travelling public having business in this
city. The specific request of Messrs.
Waskey and Mackay was a continuation
of the sleeping car service from Chi.
lcsgo by the south route which now
terminates at Sioux Falls. Many let
tiers to the proper officials of the
company have elected replies of which
the following is a sample:
Reply to yo1r letter has been de
layed to enable us to more thoroughly
Investigate the situation as to through
sleeping car service between Madison
and Chicago. The investigation is
not yet complete, but hope within a
few days we may be able to give you
definite reply as 20 the practicability of
performing the service asked for by
you"
After perhaps weeks of delay Mr..
Waskey or Mr.. Mackay would again
write the officials and would be favored
with a reply similar to the above.
Again there would be delay and the
officials again communicated with and
back would come the same ~stereotyped
reply.
Deeply interested in securing the ser.
Il riaa aoEaA For FOR tho hanac4 - 49,
city and the travelling public, and
smarting under the injustice shown
them by the railroad officials, Messrs.
Waskey and Mackay took the matter
up with the state railroad commission
and their secretary, Mr.. Cassill, ad-
dressed the officials i'll regard to the re.
quest. Sec'y. Cassill's letter had a
tendency to make the officials take n
tice. and instead of iollying along as
they had been doing with Messrs.
Waskey and Macksy their reply shows
that they had never intended to comply
with the request of the Madison citi-
zens but had been staving them of
with replies to their letters to the effect
that they were Investigating their
proposition. Following is the letter
received by Sec'y. Cassill:
II. E. Cassill, Sec'y. s.. ID. board
K. r. commissioners, Pierre, s. D.:
Dear Sir am in receipt of your letter
of Aug. J in reference to the extension
of sleeping car service north of Sioux
Falls to and from Madison. The dis
lance from Sioux Falls to Madison is
40 miles and it can hardly be conceived
that it is a great hardship for Madi-
son passengers to use coaches between
the two towns. The amount of sleep
ing car business which we could ex-
pect to receive from Madison is not
large and comparatively few people
would use the sleeping car. Madison
has a population of about {, 1000 people
and the monthly ticket sales amount
to about $3, 600 to all points to which
tickets are sold. /. Under our pres
ent schedule we have much difficulty
in making tho time between Madison
and Bristol with u trains to and
from the west and additional equip
ment on the line between Sioux Falls
and Madison in either direction would
place an additional burden on the
trains and make it still more difficult
to maintain connections at Bristol. /
cannot find that in previous letters
which / have written Messrs. Waskey
and Macksy that any other promise
has been made than that the matter
would be investigated and decision
made accordingly. We have gone in
to the matter very thoroughly and
have been unable to find it practicable
to comply with their request. f. A.
Miller. passenger traffic manager"
1t has taken a whole year to get Mr..
Miller to say what he says in the fore.
going letter TO Sec'y. Cassill, and any
citizen of Madison who pays any at
tention to the train service accorded
this city could produce the best of
argument against his statements. The
equipment of trains entering and
leaving Madison which Mr.. Miller
says is so difficult to handle consists
of one day coach and smoker for the
accommodation of passengers and other
cars necessary for the conduct of bust
ness on each train-nortb, south, east
and west. Now to a lsyman 1t would
not seem IA very difficult matter to
handle trains of that ize with reason
ably good engines and tracks. 1t is a
fact. however. that the track tetwe cen
Sioux Falls and Bristol, especially
betw cen Madison and Bristol, is in
such poor condition that reasonable
speed cannot be maintained with safe
ty. and this condition also applies to
the S. NJ. division from the Minnesota
line west to Washington Springs, and
this has been the case for several years.
The road has been ballasted on the
is. NJ. division from Lacrosse west
nearly to the Minnesota state line,
but no ballasting has been done in
South Dakota Notwithstanding q good
paying business is had on the South
Dakota side of the line the year roun ]
both in passenger and freight traffic.
Another thing, the company obeys
the orders of the Minnesota railroad
commissioners while the South Dakota
commissioners have q fight on their
bonds every time they make a sug-
gestion for the betterment of condi-
tions in this state. This can be ex