The Grangeville Globe

ANOTHER SNOW BLOCKADE.

For the sixteenth time this winter Grangeville has experienced the "pleasure" of being marooned, cut off from the outside world. This time it struck us last Sunday following the heavy snowfall, when the wind swept across the prairie from the southwest and soon filled up all the railroad cuts between here and Reubens. Of course there has nothing ever been done by the company to prevent the cuts filling up every time it snows and blows a little; the cuts are wide open, no snow fences, no sheds. When this last blockade came the rotary plow which had been imported to open up the way in the other blockades, had been removed to parts unknown, so far as any public information goes, and this line of road was left in an absolutely unprotected condition. After three days delay the rotary was located and brought back to this line and started in to relieve the conditions. In the meantime all mails, express, passenger and freight traffic were suspended. Stock that was to have been shipped out along the line had to be held in the stock yards by the owners and fed high priced feed. And for what reason? There can be but one answer, so far as we can see, and that is neglect and absolute indifference on the part of the railroad company to the needs and rights of the public.

The Globe is not a "ranter" against railroads, far from it. It believes that the railroads are absolutely necessary to a country and that they have their rights and should be fully protected in them. It also believes that the public has its rights, and that the railroads and all others should be compelled to recognize and respect those rights. Nine years the railroad has been operating this line one of the best paying feeders they have- and drawing down a substantial profit on its investment, and nothing has ever been done to prevent these winter blockades which have come with the persistent regularity of the snow storm. Not even a rotary has been supplied this branch line for its protection. How deep would the price of a rotary cut into the profits drawn by the company from the patrons of this line of road? Does any rational man, railroad man or otherwise, contend for a moment that this prairie country is getting a square deal in this matter? Is it not about time some steps were taken to see if these conditions cannot be changed!