Saline-Adrian Road

SALINE-ADRIAN ROAD

Finds Kickers on the Franchise in Tecumseh.

WANTED TO COME HERE

And Now Doubt That the Road Will Be Built.

But They Are Mistaken in Thinking the Ypsilanti Road Franchises Simply Speculhtive as the Road is to be Built.

All the franchises for the electric line from Ypsilanti through Saline Macon and Tecumseh to Adrian have not yet been secured and Capt. Allen is having a little trouble over the Tecumseh franchise. When the work of getting these franchises through this section was first commenced all our exchanges from the section of the county passed over spoke of it as the line between Ann Arbor and Adrian and were enthusiastically in favor of it. It was of course what it is now the Ypsilanti line, the franchises being taken in the name of Messrs. Glover and Hemphill, of Ypsilanti, and not in the name of any company. After a time a change was noticeable in the spirit of the references in these local exchanges. Their enthusiasm had cooled. Most of the franchises have been secured. But the franchise through the village of Tecumseh has not been granted and the people are taking sides as to whether the proposed road shall be run through Chicago St. or not. As an example of this we extract the following from the Tecumseh Herald:

"When a foreign Corporation, or still worse, a corporation still to be found, desires the best street in Tecumseh for a passenger and freight railroad with no clause saying that cars shall be run oftener than three hours apart in the same direction and this for no compensation whatever, then it is time for every newspaper and every man to have an opinion and say no to any such proposition. As a matter of fact, Capt. Allen desires Tecumseh to bind herself to conditions which will last for two years, that he may be able to sell the franchise. No company should be given a franchise of any kind to use the streets of Tecumseh for any purpose without filing an indemnity bond of at least $20,000. Suppose at the end of two years, Mr Allen decides not to build this road what pay has Tecumseh for keeping other companies away from here for that length of time. Tecumseh desires to be a station on a long distance electric line, but no franchise should be given till there is a company that will give a bond to do as they agree. The council will certainly grant no franchise to a man for speculation and the Herald has no idea that Capt. Allen would give a bond for one dollar."

All this trouble would have been avoided had the powers that be started the proposed line from Ann Arbor. For years there has been talk along the line of the road after it leaves Saline of a railroad line of some kind between Ann Arbor and Adrian. There are many people who have friends here who would be pleased to visit there. Ann Arbor is better known than Ypsilanti throughout this section and the people would have felt much more confidence that the line would be built and also that it would be well patronized and hence of more value to them when built.

But the Argus, which has managed to keep in close touch with electric railway matters from a news standpoint and has been tied up with no railway interest so that it has not dared to publish what it learns as quickly as it gets the facts, may assure the Tecumseh Herald that it is mistaken in its intimation that Capt. Allen is seeking this franchise for speculative purposes. He is simply acting as attorney for Messrs. Glover and Hemphill and they intend building the road. No promoters will put up $20,000 bonds to build a road, for some unforseen financial difficulties or change in management of a road may so alter the plans that it may be no longer desirable to build the road as originally planned and as they are now making arrangement to do. It may be stated also that this line is to be built as a feeder to ie D., Y. & A. A. system and will undoubtedly be eventually owned by them. At the same time it may be added that the partiality of the two public spirited Ypsilanti citizens for their own city is standing in the way of their making the Adrian line a much better paying investment as it would be did the line terminate in this city.