OCR Text |
Show ( 'llirACf) is in no end of trouble over its lake frv.nt south of the Chicago river. Tho Illinois Central railroad was piveu riht-of-vvay into tho city along tho shori! of the lake before tho value of the riparian rights dawned upon the public luiml. 'I'hese rights are. worth tens of millions of dollars, and they aro pertinaciously perti-naciously claimed by the railroad corporation. cor-poration. The city cannot maku a move of any kind without being con-fronted con-fronted by the railroad's assertion of its undivided lit'ht to all ground Hindu by liiling in, ami nothing can de done without bargaining with it. The city ! oumot ntl'oid to ri'cogiiie the claim in j any such negotiations, and tho lawyers J are k pt busy d raw ing no n.in-commit-1 t.il Conti acts. The propooitioli to util..e ' i.ake I 'rout park as a fcito for a dis-I dis-I p.ay in connection with tha expu.-ilion j involves some tilling of the lake and I he reiiiin al of the company's tracks, j This ronp-ns the old ijiiestion and sels i the leual fencers at wnik again. The iniiUcr has given riso to more corrnp-I corrnp-I lion in the legislature and the city ! council than any other with which the ( h'.cago people have had to deal, and :t is peculiarly suggestive of the overpowering over-powering iiilluouce that corporations are permitted to seenro under our system sys-tem of laws in the miuagiiiiieut of public pub-lic tilTairs. |