The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-11-27
BROOK|NGS WANTS
ELECTRIC RAILROAD
CITIZENS IN MASS MEETING VOTE
TO GO AFTER ELECTRIC
SHORT LINE
COMMERCIAL CLUB COMMITTEE REPORTS
Seven Members Are Heartily in Favor
of Going After Line, While W
Present Minority Report

The people of Brookings assembled
in the opera house on Monday evening
to decide whether Or not this city
wants the Electric Short Line Rail-
road. The meeting was one of the
largest attended citizens meetings
ever held in the city, every seat in
the house being taken and many We're
standing up. Besides Brookings citi-
zens there were also present represen-
tatives of Bushnell and the country
east of here to the Minnesota line
through which the road will build,
There were also present representa-
tives of the country between here and
Candy who hoped that the other
branch of the line will be built south
to Brookings. There was also an enl
thusiastic delegation of nine from Mad
ison, headed by Editor Frank Mease
and the mayor, who want the Luces to
take their line there. Messrs. Luce
and Ough were also here from Min
neapolis.
The meeting was a very good one on
the whole, and every phase, good and
not so good, of the situation was frank
ly discussed. The committee sent by
the Commercial Club to Minneapolis
made it's report, or rather reports, as
there was a dissenting n presented
by two members of the committee
from the highly favorable report given
by seven members. At the conclusion
of the discussion the majority and
favorable report was adopted without
a dissenting vote, and Brookings de-
cided to go after and get the railroad.
The meeting was called to order
shortly after 8 o'clock by Pres. Hall of
the Commercial Club, who gave
a short talk on the Electric Short
line. The Commercial Club has been
in communication with the Luces rela-
tive to bringing the road to Brookings
for the last year, and a couple of weeks
ago E. d. Luce came to Brookings and
met with the club. The impression he
made at that time was so favorable
that a committee was appointed, as
mentioned above. Mr.. Hall then intro
duced Mr.. Luce.
Mr.. Luce gave a talk on the pro-
gress during the past eight or ten
years, from the conceiving of the idea
to the present time when about twen-
ty miles are actually completed. His
talk was very much the same as given
before the Commercial Club a couple
of weeks ago and which was fully re-
ported in last weeks Register. He
said that he liked Brookings and it's
people and would like to bring his road
here, but the Electric Line was not
urging itself upon any community and
if this city did not want them it would
not disarrange their plans to go else
where. He gave three good reasons
why B~rookings should have the road.
The first of these was as an invest
ment; second, the increased value it
would place on all farm and city prop
erty and third, the convenience it
would mean to the people of the city
and country along the line. 1t would
cut down the distance to Minneapolis
by about fifty miles and would natural
ly reduce the passenger and freight
rates to a considerable extent.
Chairman Hall then told Of the pre-
paration of majority and minority re-
ports by the committee, and said that
it was the desire of all that both sides
of the matter be threshed out fully and
fairly and that final judgment would
be left with the assemblage. He first
I6du d ICpOit, ol6uCu NY IuC CuIilC
committee of nine, in which the bust
ness ability, integrity and financial
worth of the Luces were most highly
spoken of, these facts having been
ascertained by the members from
prominent business men and bankers
Of both Minneapolis and st. Paul. Mr..
Hall then gave the minority an oppor-
tunity to be heard and this report,
which was signed by Van Fishback
and M. e. Culhane, was read by the
former. 1t looked to us as though it
was a series of suspicious and fears
that the Luces could not float the
bonds necessary to complete the road.
1t was very fair, admitting the honesty
and financial worth, in SO far as could
be determined, of Mr.. Luce and his
father, but continually expressed a
doubt as to their ability to build the
road. No tangible reason why they
could not was forthcoming. DR..
Harris next read the majority report,
which wa signed by himself, Philo
Hall, T. L. Chappell, G. F. Knappen,
Charles e. Hall, J. P. Ashbaugh, and
G. N. Kennard. 1t too, was fair, but 1t
looked at the matter in an optimistic,
instead of a pessimistic, light. 1t told
the visit Of the committee to Mime
apolis, their trip over the terminal site
and twenty miles Of line, and of their
conversations with leading business
men and bankers. They had ascer-
tanned that the terminal property is
worth anywhere from two to ten mil
lion dollars. This terminal extends
from the western edge of the city to
the heart Of the business district and
consists of 157 acres. They found the
work on the line being pushed rapidly
although the country through which
the line passes out OF Minneapolis Is
rough and billy, and the construction