The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-11
Rock Island Employees Cele-
brate at Chamber of Commerce.
Business Men Pay Respects to
Big Transportation System.
200 PERSONS ATTEND BANQUET
H. S. Conrad, District Attorney
for Road, is Chief Speaker.
Says Rock Island Is Greatest
System Between East and West.

attended the banquet IN celebration
of the SEVENTEEN anniversary of the
Rock Islands passenger service, Tues
day night at the Chamber of Com
merce, a majority. but not all of them
were Rock Island employees.
There was present very liberal
of the business men of
the town and their wives at the
banquet to pay their respects to the
transportation system, whose import
ance in the conduct of their daily af-
fairs they recognize
There were as many women as men
in the crowd. The women were either
employees of the road themselves, or
the wives of men employed on the
system.
Most of the employees had been pres
ent during the forenoon at the cere-
monial tree planting in honor OF the
late Marcus A. Low.
w. H. Thomas, conductor on
trains No. 35 and SO, was the first
speaker introduced before the dinner
by c. E. Bascom, acting as toastmas-
ter. The next speaker was Albert
Pearson also conductor and the
head of the order of Railway Con-
ductors for the entire Rock Is and
system.
Withers - Oldest Employe.
j. X withers, the oldest employee,
in point of service. at the celebration.
who opened the station of the Rock
Island when the lines of that road
reached Hutchinson, was introduced.
and told the liners of having pur-
chased the office and lumber sheds
of a lumber yard at Hutchinson and
moving them to the tracks to serve
as the first passenger station and
freight house of the road at that
point.
Witflers was sent to Hutchinson be-
fore any station of any sort had been
constructed. with blanket orders from
his division superintendent to "get
station, somehow"
when I showed him the sheds
which I had ought, and told him
what they cost all he said was Well,
you paid enough for them,'" Withers
said.
HI. S. Conrad Speaks.
H. S. Cor-ad. district attorney for
the Rock Island at Kansas City, Mo,
the chief ~~aaker of the evening, was
introduced by Bascom following the
dinner.
Conrad stressed the part which the
Rock Island has played in the devel-
opment of the western and southwest
ern portions of the United States dur
tury, along fth the progress which it
has made as a transportation system.
The Rock Island" he declared. sis
the greatest connecting link between
the east and the west, in the United
States.
r1t is due to the pluck, vim and res
olution of the pioneers of the olden
times, supplemented by the achieve
ments of modern generations. that
Kansas is no more lit by the council
fires of savages. where bloody forays
are planned across windSwept Kansas,
where now there are fertile plains and
fields, homes and churches and
schools. The Rock Island has had
its part Il the development of this
country.
First Train Operated in 1854.
ION this day in 1852, the first reg
ular passenger train of the Rock Is
land lines was run on th& forty miles
of track between Chicago and Joliet
That was a gala day in the history of
the Rock Island. But October 10,
1922, is no less a gala day to the road.
Where there were forty miles of track
in 1852, the Rock Island now oper-
ates thousands of miles of track thru
the garden spot of the universe. The
Rock Island system has grown from
that forty miles of track in 1852 to a
system with qualifications in fourteen
of the leading states of the nation"
Conrad spoke at length on the vast
vision of the men who organized and
inaugurated the movement which has
resulted in the present Rock Island
system, both the men who actually
ciers who backed it in its struggling
infancy.
1T took the New York financiers
into new and untried fields, when they
had to pin their faith to the develop
ment of the road and at the same time
the progress Of the country thru which
it ran"
Conrad described the Chicago fire
of 1871. in which the Rock Island sta
ton, then the finest in the country,
was destroyed. and the rebuilding of
the new station, of which the train
shed was called the Hall of Courage"
because of a celebration lasting forty
eight hours held in it when it was
completed, and where speakers stimu-
lated the courage of the Chicag oans to
rebuild their devastated city. in enula-
ton of the Rock Island which had re-
built its station.
High Tribute to Officials.
He paid high tribute to the person.
mel of the road, to Judge James Grant,
the first presid It of the road; to
Antoine lie Claire, the Indian who do
mated of his ground for right of way
for the road when it entered Iowa.
and who gave his house t. serve as
the first railroad depot in the state.
Conrad eulogized Marcus A. Low,
whose vision and energy brought the
Rock Island thru Nebraska, Kansas,
and into the rich fields of Oklahoma.
ne pdiu tribute 10 raul Il. walker,
attorney for the road, who died sew
eraI years ago. and to the men of the
mechanical department, who have
stood back of the builders and finan-
ciers who made the progress of the
road possible.
The speaker soundiy raped the in
reference of government and public
officials in the administration of the
railroads today. He called attention
to the statement by y. E. German,
president of the road. that thru the
powers which have been conferred
upon public officials. 80 per cent of
the powers of the various railway Off
Gals have been taken away from them
and vested in these pubic officials.
Program by Radio.
a radio set. Installed in the parlors
of the Chamber of Commerce, was
tuned in to receive the program which
was being broadcast from the meeting