Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-02-19
How the Managers May Make Them.
selves Famous and Rich.

Our remarks refer to the street railroads
Of the city.
No class of improvements Of public
character, especially wherein the import
ance of conveyance ia concerned, more
thoroughly commends itself to the entire
masses or more completely depends upon
the entire masses for prosperity and
profit than does that of street railroads,
and none should, therefore, more readily
adapt its purposes to their wants and
cessities.
Cheap travel, cheap transportation
and cheap conveyance are the chief con-
siderations now occupying the attention
of oil railroad lines and transportation
companies of the country, and investiga-
ton shows that those lines and those
roads running through populous coun.
tries and diverging from and convergirg
to Aourishing commercial cities, which
have reduced their fares the lowest, are
respiug the largest and most substantial
harvests of pecunisry profit and enjoy
ing the highest degree of popular favor.
The same considerations are equally
applicable to street railroads. Really
they apply more forcibly and affect more
Immediately the interests of the street
railroads than highway carriers, because
the moving aggregated massee of the city
are more directly concerned.
There is no city of any sort of metro
politan pretensions or aspirations which
has street railroads where q higher fare
than five cents is charged for car ride.
In New York you can, from almost the
remote parts OF the city, penetrate to its
center and return for this amount. In
Cincinnati you can 90 from Main street
to the outskirts, or return for the same
and in Louisville, from the Louisville
Hotel to Portland, from the Louisville
and Nashville depot to the steamboat
landing, or from any Of the hotels to the
various retreats in the suburbs, five cents
is the charge. The consequence is the
cars are always crammed, and there is
no better paying stock than the city rail-
road stock.
In New Orleans you can go from tie
Sock Landing TO the glittering prospect
on Canal street, or from any of the hotels
away down toward Lake Poutchartran,
or out on Jackson avenue, for the same
little sun. AS a result, the cars are
always full, and although the Crescent
City, as shown by statistics, has more
miles of street railway than any city on
the continent, the stock in the same is
among the best paying in the country.
These facts speak for themselves. We
have in this city as good street railroad
tracks, as careful drivers, and as high
| spirited men controlling the same as
there are anywhere Knowing this fact,
and knowing also that these roads should
be feature in which ell should feel and
hare an interest, as hour after hour we
see large street cars numbering almost
empty through the streets, we can but
ask ourself the question why they are
thus empty when hundreds of persons
are walking, often through bad weather,
too, in the same direction. The same
ANSWER has invariably forced itself upon
US, that is, the charges are too high.
Persons who make two trips day on
the cars, at ten cents each, spend in the
year the sum of seventy-three dollars; if
he make one trip at the same fare it is
thirty.six dollars and fifty cents Re-
duce the fare one-hslf, bring it down to
five cents, and sell package of twenty
FIVE tickets for one dollar, and the cars
would always be filed. The clerk, the
laboring man, the market woman, the
school children, and, indeed, everybody,
would patronizs the street cars. Last
winter and spring the street cars in Gal
weston charged ten cent?. The stock was
down twenty-five cents on the dollar, and
the cars went cumbrously along the beau
tifrl and level street with no passengers.
By persistent energy on the part of the
public press the fare was reduced to five
cents, as An experiment for one month.
In two days the cars were thronged.
Men, women and children poured to the
beach, to the coast and to the Point, on
the street cars, and before the month was
past the number of cars and teams had to
be doubled, and the stock in the railroads
bounced to forty cents. 1t worked like
charm. 1t proved highly profitable to
the roads and conferred vast benefits
upon hundreds who before were utterly
Indifferent to the street railroads. It is
needless to say the reduction was never
changed. Now, il those land they are
liberal public spirited men) having our
city railroads in charge, would pursue
the same course, we venture 10 affirm
that they would see the same gratifying
results. We hope they will take these
suggestions into kind and candid con.
sideralion, and at least try the expert
ment
FINE dressed turkeys, ducks, chickens