The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-03-27
THE FRANCHISES.

The rivalry between the street railway
company and the company recently organ
lied for the purpose of constructing street
ear lines in the city has reached a stage
when the courts should be called in, and it
Eeems to US that the difficulty or dispute
that has arisen is not one to be decided by
the mayor or policemen. If the street rail
way company has no right to lay track and
run cars on First East or any other street,
1t twill be a very easy matter to establish the
fact in a court Of competent jurisdiction,
and an order from the court will put a
stop to track-laying i~nstanter. 1t is a
matter of a few minutes only to obtain an
effective injunction, the petitioners being
able to make a showing hat will warrant
the issuance of the writ. The track having
been laid without authority, an order for
It's removal can also be readily obtained;
whereas police interference adjusts and
determines no question involved. 1t is to
be regretted that Wednesdays affair was
not taken into court at once. 1t must go
there, it would seem, and the sooner the
dispute is settled the better for all con-
cerned, and especially for the public which
Ndlbo q L6A4l OcA0 VII IL obICG1
In question. The State road is one of the
most f%requented ~thoroughfares in the city,
and mas long demanded a line of cars run
ming from South Temple to the city limits.
The matter of franchises has lately been
much discussed, and one class of the peo-
pie appear 70 think that favoritism has
been shown IN the past and that new
corners are not given a "fair show" THE
HERALD is somewhat familiar with the
subject, and kaows how about all the fran
ehises came to be granted. We do not be-
iieve that the intention has been to
favor anybody. The policy has been
to benefit the city and encourage
the investment of capital in
enterprises which would help the town.
The difficulty has been to induce individu-
sls to put their money into these undertake
Ings. Thus, years after there was a de-
mand for gas, nobody had the courage to
erect gas works; and even after the fran
chise was granted the owners of it virtu-
ally failed to carry out the contract with
the city; other parties were coaxed into
taking up the enterprise, and there was
much difficulty in obtaining the requisite
money though everybody who wanted it
could have had stock. Lately we have
heard much about the giving away of such
available franchise as that held by the gas
company, but until two or three years ago.
gas shares were quoted at 25 per cent. dis
count from their par value, notwithstand-
ing the great value of the franchise.
It required a good deal of courage to
build q street railway, and mighty few of
Dur capitalists could be induced to invest
In the enterprise. A general franchise
was granted, but comparatively little of it
was used, for the reason that it wasn't re-
garded as worth the money which the
lines would cost. Lately, however. old
city councils have been severely denounced
for having ''thrown away'' valuable fran
chises to the street railway company.
whereas at the time they were granted and
for years afterwards the general public
would almost have sanctioned a subsidy