New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-09-29
STREET CARS AND CABLES.

Another stage is about to be reached IN I'M
| long and persistent struggle of the Third Ave
nue. Railroad Company for permission TO uS'
cables instead Of horses on its main line. De
feated on its original application to the city an
thorities and in subsequent proceedings in The
courts, the company was finally successful a
the last session of the Legislature in securing
the passage of a bill, which Governor Hill
signed in the face of considerable opposition
granting to all street railway companies au
thority to employ any motive power except
steam locomotives, certain conditions having
been complied with. OF these conditions the
approval of the Railroad Commissioners, fol
lowing the consent Of a majority in interest o
the property holders along the line of the road
or falling that, of three commissioners appoint
cd by the Supreme Court, is the one vital PIE
liminary embodied in the law. This approval
is now understood to have been obtained by
the Third Avenue Company, and final appea
to the courts, without which in these days no
body expects to see an undertaking of such
magnitude actually accomplished, will be made
shortly. Issue will be joined between the
municipal authorities and the company on the
question of fhe laws cOnstitutiOnahty. The
city government would not care whether the
law was constitutional or not if it were not for
the fact that it dspenses with the services OF
the Board of Aldermen altogether. 1t may be
assumed that this exclusion Of the city fathers
from any shaFe in the business is not offensive
to the people jim general, but it is absolutely in
tOlerable TO IGammany Hall, and accordingly
the Court Of Appeals will be asked to say that
the law is void. The case will probably be
expedited, and before next summer the Third
Avenue Company will know its fate. Possibly
not its ultimate fate, however, for the company
has shown such determined and persistent
spirit as to have no room for doubt that it
would follow an adverse decision as to the ex-
listing law wi5h another application to the Legis-
lature.
The people of New York have cause for sat
sfacton as we regard the matter, in this siren
uous effort to substitute cables for horses upon
an important surface line. 1t is almost il not
quite safe TO say that cables will not furnish
the ultimate motive power for street cans.
and, of course, they have only the slightest
connection with the problem of rapid transit
but at the present time they arc, in our 0pn-
ion, better fitted to take the place Of horses
than any other existing appliance under the
conditions which surround transportation in
this city. We have little doubt that they will
eventually be succeeded to a great extent by
some application of electrical energy, though on
the steepest grades they may always hold their
own against all other methods Of propulsion.
But continual experiments have not yet de-
mcastIated TO the satisfaction of capitalists or
Cf The public that any. electrical device which
would be tolerabe in crowded streets can do
the work required Of i.
The conditions upon (which the Railroad Com
mSsiOners are reported to have based their
consent to the use OF cables are altogether rel-
sonable and the ThiIp Avenue Company will
be very shortSighted, if it declines to accept
them. They include a last farewell TO the
abominable centIe-beating rails, which ought
to have been sold fer old metal before ever
they we've permitted to be laid; the removal Of
snow and ice from tise tracks and from a mar
gin of three feet on each side of them, and the
honest restoration Of all pipes and payements
disturbed in the process of construction. These
requirements are so just that except for tho
theory, long successfully practised, that the
people have no rights in the streets which
corporations are bound to respect nobody would
think Of calling them unreasonable or vexatous.