Spirit Lake, IOWA, February 2, 1885. E. G. MORGAN, ESQ., Secretary Railroad Commissioners, Des Moines, Iowa: DEAR SIR-Your favor of the 15th January has not been answered. It was addressed to Rice & Begun, which firm has been dissolved and the business transferred to this one. The communication was in reference to the draw-bridge of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. You say the railway officials raise the objection that the lakes are not navigable waters. The question as to these identical lakes has never been determined, except by the "nisiprius" courts, which was affirmed by the Supreme Court, but not discussed by them. Van Steenburg v. Milford Water Power Improvement Company—a late case. In the survey, the United States caused the lakes to be meandered. You ask for evidence upon several points. The question as to the length of time the lakes and their connections have been used by boats, including steamboats: There had been no use of the waters to speak of until the railroads opened up this country. They were used by steamboats, however, before the C., M. & St. P. R'y came in here. The question is, are these navigable waters now, and were they at the time said road came in here? The answer is, they were, and have ever been navigable. There has never been any artificial means used to make them navigable. We will send you some affidavits as to the facts. E. G. MCRGAN, ESQ., Secretary Railroad Commissioners, Des Moines, Iowa: DEAR SIR-Your letter of the 25th to Mr. Cary has been called to my attention. Upon receipt of your letter of the 9th ult., I referred it to Mr. Cary, and requested him to make the brief desired; but since that time he has been absent much on account of sickness in his family, and is now on that account east. I shall therefore have to ask for your further indulgence in the matter. Yours truly, ROSWELL MILLER, Assistant General Manager. ROSWELL MILLER, ESQ., Assistant General Manager C., M. & St. P. R'y Milwaukee, Wis.: DEAR SIR-On February 27th you wrote us that Mr. Cary was absent, but that on his return he would prepare a brief in the Spirit Lake case. The Commissioners would like to close this case at the earliest day possible, and as there are a number of very interesting cases decided by the Wisconsin court covering navigable streams and lakes, a brief from Mr. Cary would be of great value to them in reaching a conclusion. Please inform us when we can have it. As the season for using the lakes is approaching, the matter cannot be delayed much longer, particularly if it must go to the courts after we are through with it. By order of the Board. E. G. MORGAN, Secretary. MILWAUKEE, April 27, 1885. E. G. MORGAN, ESQ., Secretary Railroad Commissioners, Des Moines, lowa: DEAR SIR-Referring to the Okoboji bridge matter, and your favor of the 22d Inst. Mr. Cary is still absent, but as you desire to make a decision immediately, I would say, without regard to the legal question, that if you think the needs of the business require us to keep a watchman on the bridge between certain dates and certain hours, we will do so during the coming season. We would suggest that in view of this determination you look carefully into the necessity of the case, and if you decide it to be necessary, that you limit the hours and the dates as closely as possible. Yours truly, ROSWELL MILLER, Ass't Gen'l Manager. TRAER, IOWA, May 11, 1885. E. G. MORGAN, ESQ. : DEAR SIR-Messrs. Dooley & Begun, of Spirit Lake, have requested me to write you in answer to your favor of April 30th, in regard to the opening of the season for boating on the Okoboji lakes. I will say that the season opens about June 1st and closes October 1st. There are no regular hours for running boats. They run sometimes early in the morning and on evening excursions they are out quite late at night. We have paid the station agent at Okoboji $1.50 to get up in the night and open the draw to let us pass-as he would not do it without pay-after detaining the boat some time. I go to the lake to fit out my steamer this week. Hope we may not be annoyed with the bridge this season as we were last. ROSWELL MILLER, ESQ., General Manager C., M. & St. P. R'y, Milwaukee, 1. Wis.: DEAR SIR-In reply to your statements in your letter of April 27th, 1885, with reference to the Spirit Lake case, that "if we think the needs of the business require us (you) to keep a watchman on our bridge between certain dates and certain hours, we (you) will do so during the coming season," we have to say that in our opinion the season should run from June 1st to October 1st, and the hours from 7 A. M. to 10 P. M., during which dates and hours we suggest that you arrange for the passage of boats. By order of the Board. E. G. MORGAN, Secretary. We have set out the correspondence in this complaint, that any one can follow the methods adopted by this Board to reach conclusions. The letters. give a fuller history of the proceedings and at their dates the views of the parties than any summary we could make. While gratified at the amicable termination, we regret very much that the case could not have been fully argued, some conclusion reached, and the matter brought before some tribunal that could finally settle the rights of the parties, and become a precedent for future cases. The position taken by Mr. Miller in his letter of April 27th seems to concede at least that it is not policy to enforce his rights, even if he adheres to his first proposition that steamboats pass from one of these lakes to the other merely by the sufferance of the Chicago M.1 waukee & St. Paul Railway Company. This complaint was not brought to a determination in the year 1884, because of a tailure to procure testimony needed for the proper ascertainment of the facts. On the 14th of March, 1884, complainant made a complaint against the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, stating that in November, 1881, he shipped twelve car-loads of cattle from Ackley to Griswold, Iowa, over the Central Iowa and O., R. I. & P. Railways, upon which he was charged sixty dollars more than the agreed price, and that although he had applied to the officers of the C., R. I. & P. R'y for adjustment, he had never received the amount of overcharge. Upon investigation it was found that the shipment in question was ten cars instead of twelve, and that the consignees were Messrs. Johnson and Taylor; that the C., R. I. & P. R'y Co. had, on the 25th of September, 1883, paid to Mr. Taylor the sum of thirty dollars, or three dollars per car, an admitted overcharge, and that Mr Taylor had executed a receipt therefor in the name of the firm of Johnson & Taylor. It appeared that Mr. Johnson was not aware of these facts, not having examined the books of the partnership after the same was dissolved, and he thereupon withdrew his complaint. (See page 519, Report of 1884.) On the first of July, 1884, Mr. Johnson filed the complaint now under consideration, alleging that the contract was made with the C. I. R'y Co. for shipment of the cattle from Ackley to Griswold, Iowa, at a fixed price; that upon delivery an overcharge was made of sixty dollars; that the C., R. I. & P. R'y Co. had [refunded thirty dollars as its share of the overcharge, and claiming thirty dollars from the respondent. The matter being refered to the C. I. R'y Co., E. L. Dudley its Superintendent reported to this office July 15, 1884, that the records of that company, furnished no evidence that Messrs Johnson & Taylor were entitled to any other than the local rate, twenty-four dollars, which was the rate charged, and declaring a willingness to adjust any claim complainant might have for overcharge, if he would furnish proof of any arrangement for a rate below the local rate. Mr. Johnson was informed of Mr. Dudley's claim and offer, and on the 24th of September, 1884, he furnished the evidence of Mr. Taylor, of the firm of Johnson & Taylor, who states that he transacted the whole business through Mr. Given's station. agent at Griswold, by telegraph with Mr. Clapp, stock agent of the C., R. I & P. R'y at Des Moines, who telegraphed that the C. I. R'y would haul the cattle from Ackley to Grinnell for $18 per car, and the C., R. 1 & P. R'y would haul them from Grinnell to Griswold for $18 per car; that he himself read the telegram, and that he had nothing to do with the C. I. R'y in securing the rates. Realizing the importance of ascertaining the terms of the telegraphic dispatch referred to in Mr. Taylor's affidavit, the Commissioners required Mr. Clapp's testimony, who fully controverted all of Mr. Taylor's statements, and denied ever making or agreeing upon any rate from Ackley to Griswold, but alleged that he only agreed upon a rate of fifteen dollars from Grinnell to Griswold. The Commissioners then required the C., R. I. & P. R'y officials to search for and furnish the original telegraphic dispatches. On the 3d of February, 1885, said company furnished the affidavit of G. H. Williams, who states that since and prior to 1881, he has been in charge of the telegraph office of said company at Des Moines, and of the offices and telegraph business of said company at the different stations on its line, including the station at Griswold; and that it is the custom of said company and its agents to keep and preserve for a period longer than that intervening between November 1, 1881, and the present date, all telegraphic messages sent over the line on the business of the company. It also furnished the affidavit of L. P. Mattatall, station agent at Griswold: that he is in charge of the books and papers at said place; that he has examined the papers and messages preserved in said office, and that he finds no message from E. R. Clapp to Mr. Given, the former agent at said station, during the months of November and December, 1881, relating to any shipment of cattle for Johnson & Taylor, or either of them, from Ackley, Iowa, to said station of Griswold; and that if any such message were now in that office, he would have found the same. This evidence seems to establish the non-existence of any dispatch, and corroborates Mr. Clapp, who testifies that he never made or arranged any rate for the Central Iowa haul. Complainant has failed to establish any contract with the Central Iowa for a special rate, and the weight of evidence is against Mr. Taylor's statement that an arrangement with reference to the Central Iowa haul was made with Mr. Clapp. The evidence shows that Messrs. Johnson & Taylor were only charged from Ackley to Grinnell the ordinary published local rate for cattle; and in the absence of satisfactory evidence that some special agreement was made for a rate below the local rate, the Commissioners find that the complainant has failed to make out a cause of complaint against the C. I. R'y Co., the respondent, and that his complaint should be dismissed. DES MOINES, IOWA, February 25, 1885. 1 CITIZENS OF Allen's Grove TOWNSHIP, SCOTT Co., Iowa, 1 VS. CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY COMPANY, Filed October 29, 1884. DECISION OF THE COMMISSIONERS. Petition for station house at crossing. In the matter of the petition of C. A. Parsons and fifty others, for a station at the crossing of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul with the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway at Dixon, the Commissioners say: The date of the petition is September 28, 1884; since that time the B., C. R. & N. R'y Co. has completed the extension of its road from Clinton to a connection with its main line, and built a depot just south of and distant from Dixon about one-half a mile. The crossing where the petitioners ask for a station is from one-half to a mile east of Dixon, and also about the same distance east of the station on the B., C. R. & N. road. From all the testimony that has been presented to the Board it does not seem that the transfer of passengers from one road to the other at this crossing is of such a volume as to warrant the outlay of a station at this place. The design of the law (chapter 24, laws of the Twentieth General Assembly), was without doubt to accommodate such of the traveling public as might wish to change from one road to another where the roads cross each other, and where the Commissioners find the wants of the public demand these stations at such places, the law clearly confers on them the autherity to order them to be built. As said above, the Board are not convinced after a personal examination of the ground that such a public necessity exists at this crossing. The local business northeast and also southeast of this crossing would doubtless be much accommodated by a shipping station at this point, but as there are two stations within a reasonable distance, one on each road, and not farther off nor more difficult of access than the average of stations to the people of the State, the Commissioners do not feel at liberty to apply the above named law to this case. Des Moines, Iowa, August 5, 1885. S. E. CHAMBERS, CORWITH, IOWA, VS. Overcharge. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY Co. Filed November 17, 1884. S. E. Chambers, of Corwith, Iowa, complained to the Board that he had 'been overcharged by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company on a wagon shipped by him from Mitchellville to Corwith. Investigation |