Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ We cannot take it to have been within the meaning of the direction to him that he should take a posse and begin to pull up the tracks. The order addressed to the companies to remove their tracks was simply to put them in the position of disobedience, as ground for a suit, if the city was right. ”

“ That said companies be, and they are hereby, ordered to remove all of their tracks, poles, and wires from the streets, bridges, and public places of the city of Des Moines, and to restore and repair the surface and pavement, where paved, of all of the streets along which they they are now operating their lines, and said companies are hereby ordered to commence said removal within twenty-five days after the passage of this resolution. ”