The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-03-02
Quincy Paper Says Opportunity 10 at
Hand and That Road Should
be Made EIeetrlS
lnterurhan.
WOULD PAY FROM START
Points Out That Survey is Made and
That There Is Strip
Awaiting an
Outlet.

The Quincy Journal believes DICK
Marsh has given up his proposition
of an interurban. The Journal sus-
gests that opportunity has thrown
aside her mask, and urges that the
road be made an electric interurban
between Quincy and Keokuk Follow
ing is the Journals viewpoint on this
matter:
It is practically certain that Dick
Marsh has given up the Marsh line
proposition. Dick has not said so,
but there is every other indication
that he has Withdrawn from the
proposition.
This being true, 1t is clearly up to
the people at the terfninalsI and
along the line. to take up the work
and build the road.
There is every reason on earth
why this should be done. and not
single valid reason against 1t. There
is everything to gain, and nothing at
all to lose. The road win be built,
as sure as fate! Why not make 1t a
home company and keep the millions
of money the road will earn IN the
territory where 1t originates?
The survey of this line has been
completed between Warsaw and GUM
cy, which is practically the same as
saying between Keokuk and Quincy
The grade has been built through
Lima township, this county, which is
one Of the most difficult and costly
stretches of right of way to grade ON
the entire line. All Of the other pre-
liminary work has been done and the
proposition is right up to finishing
the grade and laying the steel,
Use keokuk Power.
Dick Marsh proposed to make the
line q steam road. Why should it be
a steam road when Keokuk dam pow
er is at hand all along the line, and
the power house which furnishes
Juice enough for a Thousand electric
lines of the same length Is located
at the upper terminus of the road?
Make it ali electric interurban and
get the current from the dam. This
is the rational and sensible thing to
do.
The right of way has largely been
secured, much of 1t being donated,
and if it became known that local
people were to build the line, the re-
mainder of the right of way would
likely be handed over to the COM
pany on a silver platter. so to speak;
that is, land owners along the line
would not only donate the right OF
way, but would help with the grading
and would furthermore, take stock
literally in the PROJECT.
Pay From the Start.
AS to the road being paying
proposition from the start, of that
there can be no doubt Any one who
knows anything about the territory
through which the road will run will
concede at once that an interurban
line through that section will earn
liberal dividends if 1t is conducted in
even halfway business-like manner.
The route as surveyed skirts the foot
Of the bluffs. On the west there is
bottom land protected with levees-
the most fertile and productive farm
ing land in the world, beside which
the famed valley of the Nile is an
arid desert. This strip of bottom
land is perhaps five miles wide on the
average, extending to the river There
is now no way to get the immense
crops of grain and other farm prod
lcts out OF these bottoms except by
wagon to the nearest railroad town
on the bluffs, and thence to KeokulS |
or Quincy. The poultry and hogs,
alone, that are hauled out of this
strip Of territory to market would
make business enough to justify an
interurban line to maintain freight
equipment, while the grain business
alone from the bottom fields would