St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-18
A Roast Agreed Upon and a
Contribution Taken Up
on the Spot.
Aid. Warpen'S Picture of the
Desperate Condition Of
the Como Line
Only Equaled by Those Pre-
Sented by Aid. thinner
man and Franklin.


common council on street railway held
another warm session last evening.
Those present were Chairman Woter-
Stortf, Aids. Franklin, Warren and Zim
norman. All four were in warm
frame of mind, and everything went.
The unanimous expression was that Mr..
Lowry has completely ignored the pc
titions of the people for better street
car service; worse than that, he has re-
duced the service and made it poorer
than ever since Oct. 1. 1t was the
unanimous expression that not
right not already acquired by Lowry
should be granted him until he
comes down and does the square
thing by the city. Not long ago he
stated to this committee that only two
street railway lines in this city pay.
these being the Lafayette avenue and
Rondo street line and the Selby avenue
line. This assertion is hooted by the
committee. One of the committee
stated that test had been made on
what Mr.. Lowry termed the poorest line
in the city, and by this test it was found
that the average gross earnings of the
line were over S25 car, while the ex-
pense was only little over SIS car.
But" said one of the committee,
''there is 10 justice in Mr.. Lowry'S
claim that every line in the city must
operate ON paying basis. Mr.. Lowry
has the exclusive franchise of the city,
All that Mr.. Lowry i'll justice can ask is
that he receive reasonable profit on his
franchise as whole. | do not believe
there is a steam railway in the United
States that does not have some feeders
that 1t operates at loss. In fact, very
few roads make profit on their pas
Senger business; most of them lose
money on their passenger traffic; but
these feeders and the passenger traffic
must be kept up. for, though there is no
Immediate money in them. they help to
make the other business profitable. But
the fact is Mr.. Lowry does not operate
line in st. Paul which is not turning
in big profit to the company"
Every member of the committe pres
ent went there with the
Matter Settled III His Nzind;
so that really the only business before
the meeting was to formulate a report.
Every member submitted something to
be Incorporated into the report; and
then the meeting adjourned, subject to
the call OF the chairman.
Mr.. WolterstOrff took up the Lafayette
and ROndo line, and started out with
the statement that Mr.. Lowry had
promised to improve the service on this
line, which he asserted was about the
best paying one in the city; but in
stead of improving be had decreased the
service. During the summer cars were
operated Oh this line ten minutes apart
with extra cars morning, noon and
night, giving a five-minutes service
While the travel was the heaviest in the
day. 1t was while this service was be-
ing afforded that the magnate promised
to make the service still better. The
people were looking forward TO the
time promised, and then on Sept. l.
without warning, the service was re-
duced, the extra morning, noon and
evening cars being taken off. also TWO
OF the regular cars and every other car
after s O'Clock in the evening. But he
increased the speed of the cars left OH
so as to give a ten minutes service:
this, however, lS not satisfactory, for
the reason that the great speed required
to make time renders the service very
irregular; sometimes the cars run and
minutes apart, and sometimes IL and II.
Therefore, concludes Mr.. Wolterstorff,
the service on that line is not reason
able. Mr.. Wolterstortf embodieS i'll his
fragment something concerning the
Mississippi street and West st. Paul
line, stating that the service ON the line
up to Oct. l was cars every and 10
minutes, and that on that date the serv-
ice was reduced to cars every Is min
utes. This he thinks is also an unrea-
sonable service. Mr.. Wolterstorffs con-
tribution 10 the report met the approval
of the meeting.
Aid. w arren'S contribution, which
related mostly to the Como avenue line,
was couched III much more vigorous
terms than was Mr.. Wolterstorff's frag-
ment. 1t was as follows:
Warren's Hot Roast.
The Como avenue line consists of only
one car operating between Rice and
Front street, the latter street being one
mile and half from the park. We find
this one of the poorest excuses for a
service in the city, and that it does not
accommodate the people of this large
and rapidly growing section nor the
public at large, although it is a paying
line. Mr.. Lowry has neglected and re-
fused to extend the line to Como park
and the orders of the council unless
some change were made in the .transfer
system or other concession made to
him. Therefore, your committee unani-
mOuSly recommend:
First-That no change be made in the
transfer system.
Second-That as Mr. Lowry has re-
fused to meet the reasonable request
and petition of the public, we recon-
mend that no further concessions be
made to Mr.. Lowry or the Twin City
Rapid Transit company until they COM