Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-23
STREET RAILWAY PROJECTS.
An Interesting Talk Between Messrs
Ingalls, and Hale.

Ingalls, and Hale.
THE KANSAS SENATOR SAYS STREET RAILROADS
ARE FOR THE PooR-sENAroR HALE URGES A
vIaILAST SCRUTINY or SCHEMES To TAKE Fos-
SESSION OF THE STREETS.
During the debate in the Senate yesterday af-
ternoon on the District appropriation bin
Senator Hale objected to the appropriation of
money for the grading of a street which was to
be occupied by a street railroad company and
had made sharp fight for his position when
Senator Ingalls, arose and said: The Senator
from Maine (Mr. Hale) in his dissertations
seems to speak of the street railroads as il they
were constructed simply for the benefit of the
owners of the roads. I have no doubt that
they are built for profit: but the street rail-
roads of this and every other city are built for
the poor. They are built for the laboring peo-
pie. They are built for the artisan. They are
not built for the patricians and the plutocrats
iney afford cheap and easy transit TO the
soldiers Home and to the other delightful
suburbs OF this city, enabling man who Is not
able to support a retinue and eqGipage for five
cents to breathe the cool evening AIR under the
shades OF these outrageous walks know of
no reason why street railroads should not be
constructed know of no reason why the rails
shouId not be laid on the easiest and most ac-
cesslble route 20 enable the great mass of the
people TO have access to their little homes i'm
the suburbs"
The Senator remarked that he believed that
the whole system here was begun wrong In
stead OF giving these franchises TO corporations
Tor these purposes Congress ought TO have done
long since as they have done in Glasgow, Scot
land, where they provide for an annual street
rental, sometimes as hlgh as $50 n mile. for
the privilege of LAYING tracks IN the streets.
and then for certain proportion OF their an
nuai income to lay aside a sinking fund for the
purpose of extinguishing the liability. But
that, he said has gone by; there is no longer
any use in talking about it,
PUBLIC NEcEssIrr
'These street railway corporations" he said.
''are public necessity. Instead Of being the
object of execration and of obloquy and mis-
representation, under proper restrictions they
ought TO be encouraged and we should have
more of them. They increase the value of
suburban property in every direction. They
relieve the congestion of the city. They in
crease the public health. They are great SAM
tary agencies that enable people OF small
means to escape from the heat and from the
crowd and from the Inconvenience. the unsani-
tary condition of the city, into the country. and
L object, so far as L am concerned. to the con-
tinual hostility which is exhibited here against
these corporations, as If they we're in some way
public enemies
hiiab AL inallH NdN % IlGN OuEDb 10 De
restrained. There are restrictions which ought
to be laid upon them. They ought to pay a
larger proportion than they do OF the cost of
the paving of the streets through which they
run. 1t may be that there ought to be a differ
ent variety of rail laid But so far as their
right to exist here, so far as their being objects
OF public benefit is concerned. say il Is no
longer question of dispute. Instead of be-
ing denounced they ought to be encouraged"
SENATOR HALE's REPLY.
Senator Hale in reply said: There is not a
convict that is rotting in the penitentiaries of
New York because of his fayoring and urging
forward the work of these monopoiies against
the public benefit who has not made the same
argument that the Senator has made as to the
poor There has not been a man IN the New
York legislature that has been driven out of
public life because he was supposed to have
completely with these schemes who has not
stood up in the legislature of the state of New
York and defended these monopolies ON the
ground that they were for the benefit of the
poor. These roads are not built at
the demand of the people, There has not been
before the committee on appropriations that
reported this bill, and | venture to say before
the committee on the District OF Columbia
which meets in its humble apartments off at
the right any great rush and tide of public
sentiment and petitions from the poor for
these roads. Everybody knows why they are
asked for
4 IN hot h.,
debate and ILL ~ 10 IN the
of Land omt ~ ~ o, ,,,lnne large tract
its fnrtnoas ~ =. 'n SII ~ seeks 10 better
and - Jas;.s utu ueuie aus money,
there. There is no movement on the part of
th o iaooleis OF oi the poor OF the city to build
,r;th out inns synIlcaSe comes forward
IN -ss pans anu MESSY taxes possession
-. a,onue 'nat tne people Oh the District
Irxnr,o,', .aa.e no. oLlhFI! 'nose VINO ron III
"a "a Aui Ious CARRIAGES as many tlme have seen
.ne SENATOR from Kansas 40 and enyled him