Milwaukee Southern

The new Milwaukee Southern RR is having hard sledding particularly since it ran up against the nine Socialist aldermen who form one of the unique exhibits of Schlitztown How they came to fall in lin_e with the representatives of the 10cal traflic trust is not easily explained they haven t been able to give any intelligent explanation but it looks as though their votes might block the whole scheme Poor Milwaukee seems fated to be second in railroad facilities to thousands of country cross road stations that have some choice of carrying routes However protest meetings of citizens may have some effect Receivers here are greatly interested in the opening of the Rosebud Indian Reservation for the reason that it lies directly west of a rich territory recently tapped by the Milwaukee road on one side of the Missouri and the NW on the other which is furnishing heavy shipments for this market The differentials are so low as to place Minneapolis practically out of competition and local dealers are thus enabled to recoup a portion of the losses which they have sustained to that terminal in the sections lying farther north It is hoped that rails will speedily be laid through the land now made available for settlement which is said to be very productive Private advices to local receivers indicate that while there has been much dainage from rust in certain sections it will be fully or more than oflset by the enormously increased production in others particularly in Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa Barley oats and rye are bringing forth bumper yields and the outlook is favorable for corn so that local grain men are looking forward to a big year Such new grain as is coming in proves to be of excellent quality being in most cases plump sound and dry the three requisites for prompt and favorable sale The only exceptions are samples of rust blighted wheat although fit only for chicken feed However feed of any kind is a profitable commodity nowadays

It will be of interest to the trade at large to know what connections are promised by the new Milwaukee Southern R y which is now contending for the right to build into this city They are as follows C B & Q Great Western Ill Cen Rock Island Santa Fe Iowa Cent Ind Ill & Ia Alton Vandalia Chi Peoria & St L Big Four Lake Erie & W Toledo Peoria & W Peoria & Pekin Pere Marquette by car ferry and Wis Cen at Burlington Wis It can readily be seen what the building of such a line means to Milwaukee and the citizens are thoroughly aroused over the action of the common council in holding it up Hamlet's remark about something rotten appears to apply very handily so much so that mass meetings of protest are being called

Grain Dealers Journal Vol XIII No.1   July 10, 1904

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The ordinance recently passed by the city council of Milwaukee granting a franchise to the Milwaukee Southern Railway opens the door of Milwaukee to more railroads and loosens the grip of the two great corporations that have hitherto enjoyed a complete monopoly of the railway business into Milwaukee Lake Michigan with its car ferries and numerous lines of steamers fortunately ensuring an open outlet to the commerce of the city That the new road will be the means of bringing us into closer communication with the numerous trunk lines running into Chicago from the west and south and possibly opening the way for a direct new road to Chi cago seems highly probable The Illinois Steel Company alone can furnish almost or quite enough freight to keep one road profitably employed between its works at Milwaukee Chicago and Joliet and every road running into Chicago from the southwest will welcome an additional outlet at Milwaukee Chicago no longer possesses adequate harbor facilities to accommodate the immense freight traffic of the roads concentrated at that point and South Chicago is not as readily accessible to them as Milwaukee will be in the future with its unrivaled harbor and twenty one foot channels to every part thereof The harbor of Chicago is practically inaccessible to the big steame rs that are now carrying the great bulk of the commerce of the great lakes The tunnels prevent their taking full cargoes either in or out and the drainage canal has created such a swift current as to render navigation on the inner harbor extremely hazardous to the big carriers Already Chicago has lost the heavy lake coal trade which is every year increasing at Milwaukee and other lake ports It is only a question of time when the grain trade of Chicago will seek the same channels and if Milwaukee is awake to the opportunity a large share of it will come our way

Annual Report of the Trade and Commerce of Milwaukee, Volume 48

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Milwaukee Southern Ry Co Press reports state that Milwaukee Wis may be on the direct lines of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy the Wabash and the Illinois Central railroads providing the Milwaukee Southern Ry Co succeeds in building to Milwaukee and securing a desirable West Side terminal HD Judson Gen Supt of the Illinois district of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy RR in company with Attorney Miller of Chicago have recently made a trip to Milwaukee to investigate preparatory to the consideration of a proposition to enter Milwaukee over the lines of this road from De Kalb or Rockford Ill under a traffic agreement to which the Southern would be a willing party The Southern is the road which proposes an air line from East St Louis and has already secured a right of way into Milwaukee

Engineering World Vol IV No 8

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Milwaukee Southern Defunct The Milwaukee Southern Railway Company a corporation which two years ago secured valuable franchises from this city and which agreed to build a road from Rockford Ill to this city is defunct It has given up all its real estate holdings in the city and county as well as its franchises A lack of financial aid to build the road is given as the cause

The Commercial West - Saturday Aug 17, 1907

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WILL SPEND MILLIONS That the United States Steel Corporation is in earnest in its reported plans for a railway to connect Milwaukee Gary and Joliet was made evident during the week when a trust deed was executed at Chicago to the St Louis Trust Company at St Louis for $20,000,000 to provide funds for the road The plans grew out of the failure of the Milwaukee Southern deal which road was to connect Milwaukee and East St Louis by way of Joliet and by acquisition of the Illinois Iowa and Minnesota Railway Of the money raised at St Louis $5 500,000 is to pay for the later road which will form part of the new system_ It is said that the Steel Corporation is work ing through St Louis capitalists in securing the construction of the new I O Hl which will connect the Allis Chalmers Company's plant and the Bay View Rolling mills of the Illinois Steel Company at Milwaukee with the Steel Corporation's ary mills and the Joliet plant of the Illois Steel Company There have been heavy transfers of land along the proposed right of way of the new road near Milwaukee recently and it is said that the preliminary work has all be done The new road will be a Steel Conporation belt line around Chicago intersecting every railway entering Chicago

Industrial World, April 27 1908