Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-10-06
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
To the editor of the DEMOCRAT:

Sir-For several months the common council of the city of Waterbury has had under consideration the advisability of granting to the Horse railroad company a valuable franchise which shall permit the stockholders of this corporation to sup plant the present system of animal pro pulsion, with one of which electricity shall figure as the motive power. There can be no doubt but that the members of this branch of the city government are actuated by desire to secure better and quicker service. They recognize that the day of horses is passing away and that all of the leading American cities are equip ping their street railway systems with more practicable methods of rapid and safe transit.
 Electricians tell us that the subtitle fluid is infinitely better than horse or cable traction, and at the pr esent time there are several hundreds so called trolley systems in the United States, some in the crowded parts of cities like Boston. That electrici ty will cause death is an established fact, although at one time the papers of New York state encountered untold difficulties when electrocution was first introduced in securing conclusive scientific information. Most men are afraid of electricity, and the men who make up the common council of our city are classed as average men. It is not supposed for an instant. that they are opposed to a change in the present system of car service, but if change has to come, they want the best and safest to be had.
 The companies who have just succeeded in securing the franchises in New York city and which are valued at millions of dollars, are to use the trolley systems, and it is not supposed that they exerted every energy to secure the passage of the bill because they want to kill and main peo- pie, but because they are sure they can render better and safer service. It is not at all likely that any company will advo- cate the adoption of a system which may strew the streets with human corpses as the trolley is represented to do. Killing people is expensive business and naturally the policy of most railroads is to kill some, but as few as possible. The use of cleo tricity for street railways is of compara- lively recent origin. Five years ago cleo tric railways were practically unheard of and of the few that were in experimental operation nothing was expected and they were regarded as valuable mechanical toys.
 Waterbury has got to have better ser vice and electricity is sure to be used as motive power. The principal thing urged against the adoption of the trolley system which is in use in nearly every large city, | is the matter of danger. Carefully gathered statistics prove that fewer people are hurt by electric cars than by others, and that no one has been killed by cleo | tricity coming from trolley wire. People | are killed by horse cars, by steam cars and | by cable cars, but no one has ever heard of city which has barred out horse cars because people have been killed by them.
 Many of the opponents of the trolley system, which do not champion, urge l the adoption of some other system which ! .I, ! xuit hn wi and yet employ electricity. But, as the small boy said with a ruthless disregard l for grammar, 'There hain't none." And he was right save for the fact that his re- mark applied to ghosts. Electricians tell us that there is no practical method of electrical propulsion other than the trol- | ley. The storage battery system amounts | to nil. Much money has been spent and much brain force wasted in experiment. ing in the hope of finding such a system. l The amount of money which has been
 spent and which is still being spent yearly ] in endeavoring to find a practical method of electrical propulsion without the over head wire is enormous.
 There is a storage battery system in op-
 eration in the sleepy little town of Mil
 ford, Mass, which place l visited short time ago, for the purpose of seeing the system in actual operation and of satisfy
  fects of the methods in use there. My in vestigations made in company with some of the foremost electrical engineers in New Eugland, and members of the Bos- ton press, nay be embodied in few
 words. The system is an admirable and
 magnificent toy, but the expense is so
 great and the other inconveniences so for
 midable, that it may be termed hopeless
 failure.
 The men in charge of the plant are
 backed up by unlimited money and natur-
 ally are enthusiasts, but in my mind, they
 are deluded. It is simply impossible tc
 secure from them any conclusive state
 ment in regard to the operating expenses
 of the road or in relation to the methods
 in use at the plant or on the cars. All
 remarks of an interrogative nature are
 avoided whith facility and ease which if
 indicative of experience and caution. The
 electricians in.the party of which was member did not deny that propulsion by
 storage batteries was impracticable, nol
 didIthey denythat communication with the Inhabitants of the plant Mars would never
 come to pass. They said the secret might be discovered in day or month, or il
 might be hundred or 8 thousand years
 before it could be made success.
 The town of Milford where this plan and system is in daily use, is about thirty | nV6 miles 1rOm DOStOu anu 10 ACdChCl after most tedious ride over the Bosto1
 & Albany road. It is n t particularly
 prepossessing town and has that air O. masterly ina tivity which characterizes {
 majority of the dismantled shoe towns O.
 the old Bay state. Rows of struggling
 frame houses, devoid of ornamentat.ol . and built up fueh with deserted streets shelter the families of the operatives O
 the few shoe factories which rise up il Of hn Rorry
 There are few stores and an old tim
 hostelry in the immed d1ate neighborhoot of the center of population and the adven of half dozen newspaper men and engi neers primed with a generous amount l enthusiasm and electricity, almost sen f some of the loungers off their hinges. They couldn't understand why stranger ? should awaken the echoes in the silen 9 streets merely for the purpose of look1nI l at the cars on street railway. A specia
 car met us at the depot, in charge of on e of the expert electricians employed by tn