Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-01-12
NE T|NC OF :.
CITY COUNCIL
Communications Received From
Railroad Officials in Regard to
Gates at Crossings.
MAKE FAIR PROPOSITIONS
If the Roads Garry out Promises in
Good Faith Will be Few
Accidents.

CtlFSu, III WHICH tue ItiilOdu Ol1'-
ials make promises which if carried
out in good faith will render these
dangerous crossings reasonably safe,
perhaps safer than they would be
with gates. The matter will again
be taken up at the council meeting
next Monday night, when represen-
tatives of the railroads will be pres
ent to further discuss the subject.
The communications from the Illi-
nois Central and Northwestern Of
ficials are much the same and EN-
brace practically the same promises,
hence it is unnecessary to publish
both in order to let our readers
know what they propose to do. The
from the Northwest
tern division superintendent is as
follows:
Eagle Grove, Jan. 7th.-To the
Honorable Mayor and City Council
of Webster City, Iowa.-Gentlemen:
Referring to the conference held
with you yesterday, in regard to pro-
lection Of street crossings in Web
ster City, will say that railroad COM
panies hold in adherence above ev-
erything else accidents that cause
personal injury or death, and We
try. in every possible way to avoid
them. If such accidents could oe
permanently eliminated by putting
ins crossing gates, as was proposed
byss you in the conference, 1 do not
think that the Northwestern or any
other road would hesitate to put
athom din. But from our experience
We know positively that they do not
have that effect, and that more ap-
palling accidents have occurred at
highway crossings protected by gates
than anywhere else. We find that
the present tendency in all larger
communities is to get away from the
gate proposition and adopt other
means of preventing accidents, for
it has been found that school chill
dren and many other persons pay no
attention whatever to the lowered
gates: train and enginemen and the
public in general are more apt to
take it for granted that the path is
clear and go ahead without using
the ordinary precautions on going
over street crossings. In other words,
people get so careless that the gates
do not protect, but in fact become d
trap for the unwary.
Now the Northwestern wants to
protect your people, and we have a
plan to propose that we believe VIII
obviate to a very large extent the
danger of accident on the Des
Moines street crossing, and other
crossings in your city, and will do
away with the necessity for gates.
We make the following as propo-
sition, which if accepted by your
city shall be faithfully carried out
on our part, and to be in lieu of the
requirement of crossing gates:
We will place slow signs at places
to be designated by your city coun-
Gil, and will slow down all trains
to six miles per hour through the
district specified by the slow signs,
and in addition will use our train
order form 81 (Which is the most
positive and emphatic form OF order
we have), until the next issue of our
time table when the speed restric-
ton order will be embodied therein,
to insure that trains do not exceed
the above limit, and will see to It
that these rules are strictly observed
by our employees.
When our trains are switching In
your city, we will see that each and
every switching movement across
street crossings, especially Des
Moines street, is protected by Nag
man who shall be one of the train
crew.
At any time that you have any
unusual crowd in town, such as
watermelon day, circus day, baseball
day, or anything of that kind, and
will notify US, reasonably in ad-
vance, we will provide additional
protection in the way of crossing
fagmen at the different street cross
ings that are likely to be most used.
This offer is bona fide and intend
ed to be carried out by us, and II
accepted and put in force, we shall