Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-03


gross receipts: in st. Louis they pay 81, ,5o'
year on each franchise, s25 annually pol
car, and keep the streets clean summer anc
winter and In Detroit the city gets
city gets per cent of the gross earnings
amounting last year to Sl7,7A. In Mime
apolis the one company paves the streets be
tween its tracks, keeps them in repair ant
pays $25 per car per year Buffalo exacts
per cent of gross receipts from car com
panies and compcls them to repair the
streets. Cleveland charges $40 per car ano
compels them to pave and keep the street!
in repair between the tracks. Philadelphia
takes percentage of each company's gross
earnings, a license of $50 for a two-horse car
property and compels them to keep thu
whole street occupied by them in repair. Ir
Baltimore all companies pay 0 per cent o.
the gross receipts, IS on each car and keeI
Mr.. Magee-And great repair they keer
them in. A dog would break his leg or
them.
A Comparison With Baltimore.
Mr.. ODonnell-They got $11,9l6 Il ir
Baltimore last year and with It maintained
the most beautiful park in the country
Pittsburg only got S2oe
Mr.. Magee-I know what rapid transit has
done for Pittsburg: the city assessors have
shown us that. 1 don't know any more ad
vantageous deal the city has ever made
The section in which I live has had more
benefit from rapid transit than anything
that ever aided it< The city owes more to
three men-Joshua Rhodes, William Finn
and c. L. Magee-than any other three men
who ever lived here; to their pluck, their
energy and their money. They risked their
termination and the peoples property that
was worth thousands is now worth millions.
1 have an interest in the section affected by
this Exchange Railway. The concern am
w
Fourth avenue. We paid S., 600 q foot front.
The Vandergrift property. almost across the
street, has been sold for 81 600 a front foot.
Between the time We bought and the time
of the Vandergrift sale the whole Duquesne
system has been put on Fourth avenue, and
property has gone up 81 900 a foot. l can't
see how the cars have injured us. can t
see how they will inJure Market street Bust
ness down town will be benefited The
Mayor says 10000 walk across the town. The
cars will carry them and relieve the walks.
Instead of these thousands being dis
charged at one end of Market street they
they will be carried up Market street up to
the market house, up to Wood street. AS to
Mr.. ODonnell's argument that the roads pay
nothing, think him mistaken. They pave
between the tracks and one foot outside.
The streets were bad, and the city could not
afford to repair. but when the traction COM
panies paved ten feet in the center, it was
easy enough for the city to pay for the strips
have to-day mean to the property owners,
and had it not been for the men I named,
those lines, with all the advantages they
have brought us, would never have been
built.
Mr.. O'Donnell-I want to make correc-
tion in my remarks. When I said the Du-
quesne would go down Virgin alley | meant
alley In py to M dMssse
the per cent the companies keep the
street in repair for "a inches outside the
tracks and pay s. q car besides.
Getting Pointers for Speculation.
Mr.. Ferguson-The gentleman speaks of
property going for 1000 or u 900 foot. 1t is
easy to buy to advantage If you know what
gigantic schemes are to be started. Why, in
that market house one lease has a 30-day
quit notice and upstairs the tenants have no
leases at all. The gentlemen says the
streets were no good until the traction COM
panies came Soho hill, Ellsworth avenue,
asphalted at the peoples expense, and the
came along aud broke up the mid
die of it ana had a fine bed of metal for
their tracks. Wasn't 600 spent for block
stone on Penn avenue?
Mr.. Magee-Yes, and you tried to knock it
out.
Mr. Ferguson-Yes, and we are trying to
knock out something to-day in the interests
of the people.
There was some mild applause in the
lobby which the Chair stopped at once, and
Mr.. Ferguson continued. He asserted
that the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks on
Liberty street were changed for the traction
and that the Schenley Park
bridge was really built for them. -
Mr.. Magee asked how far the app.opria-
tions made for street repairing would have
reached had not the railways paid for the 16
feet in the center of the street.
Mr.. MeHugh made another plea for the
Fourth avenue and Liberty street route.
He thought monument should be built for
Messrs Rhodes, Finn and Magee, but
thought, too, they had made money out of
their investments. To compare Fourth ave-
nue. with Market street he held was an eva
sion of the question: one was street of Of
fees, the other a business street.
A vote was taken on the question "shall
The bill become law notwithstanding the
objections of the Mayor" The result was
that it did The vote stood:
How the Vote Stood.
Ayes-Messrs. Bigham, Bradley, Brown,
Donley, Dressing, Dunn. Finnerty, Finn,
Fox, Franz, Geissenhainer, Groetzinger.
Hagmaier Hartlep, Johnston, Lowry,
,iagee, Morschell. Mccarthy, McEldowney,
Mcguire, holden, Piatt, Pit
,airn, Rheam, Shannon, Thorn, Voskamp,
Williams, Wright and President
NoesEMessrs. EiIer. Ferguson. Giltinan,
King, Mcclure; McHugh, o'Donnell, Russell
Absent-Messrs. Dugan,, Gallagher. Nc
Moran and Wainwright-.
Under the law % votes were required to
pass the ordinance, so that it had five votes
TO spare.
The Pittsburg, Allegheny and Man
chester ordinance came next The veto
was read, and Messrs. King and Ferguson
spoke in support of the veto.
The vote being taken the bill became q
law, 80 affirmative and negative votes
being cast The vote was exactly like the
Exchange vote, except that Mr.. Giltinan,
who voted 'no" on the first ordinance, had
left the Chamber and the force back Of the
veto was one less in consequence.
The contract to the Schultz Bridge Com
oany for repairing the Penn avenue bridge
across the P. R. R. for s., ,453 was approved,
md an ordinance for grading, paving and
,urbing Mckee place was presented and re-
erred.
The Chair read letter from Chief Brown,
n which he said that he had received the
'esolution asking him to prepare a resolu-
Ion for taxing street cars. He had exam
ned the evidence prepared by Controller
Morrow and presented by Mr. O'Donnell,s
md found it to cover the ground, so he
Isked that it be passed.
Henry Hagmaier, of the Twelfth ward,
ook the oath of Office yesterday.
PATRONS Of tho cent-a-word column of
THE DISPATCH will notice the great in
,rease in the "Rooms To Let" and "Board-
rs Wanted' classification. The expiana.
ion is that by far the best returns are OBJ
aimed from THE DISPATCH.