The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-08-26
The oopsoliaa ,ea monopoly ordin-

&AOCs
In articles published Thursday and
yesterday. THE JERSEY CRY News
has established certain points regard
ing the ordinance recently vetoed by
Acting Mayor Simpson, and awaiting
review by the Street and Water
Board on Monday, which show that
the reckless or corrupt action of that
body, were 1t not checked by His
Honor, would have ahenated forever
enormously valuable franchises, with
ont any. adequate return to the city,
aud would have given the eonsoii-
dated Traction Company an impreg-
nable monopoly of the street railway
business in this city.
In order that the facts established
by our analysis of this ordinance may
not for a moment be out OF mind,
either as respects the public or the
Street and Water Commissioners, we
here ones again .repubiish a summary
of them. IL the Street and Water
Commissioners have the efYroutery to
pass this. ordinance over the Mayors
veto on Monday morning, it shall not
be said that they have acted through
ignoraRce or misunderstanding of the
facts Of the case. Here they are con-
densed into a few sentences Of plain
English
The ordinance establishes . perpetual mo-
nspoly In street car traffic in this city.
1t does so by giving the Con aolidated Traction
Company prior right ovsy all other corporations
to use every street A~ffording q fs asihie route Of
travel In the Gpeenyills, Bergen and Lafaystte
sections OF the city and in aA the lower city
south of Newark syenus.
There d no provision Ia the ordinance By
watch these grants expire. whether the com :
pany use them. or not, Il may hold them for o
hundred years and neither eonstrpcr and
operate them itself, nor permit anyene else 70:
do so.
These grants once made can new err be recalled
or modified, As the law Of 1898, IN er which the
ordinance is drawn, constitatss that ordinance
a contract hatween the city and the Console
dated Traction Company. Such a contract,
upder the Constitution of the United States,
can never be altered or revoked or rescinded
except BY the consent and agreement of both Of
the parties to il.
The syndicate which has incor porated the
Consolidated Traction Company recently
beu hit from the Pen nsyiyania Raj lway Com
pany the control Of the Jersey CT ty and Bergen
Ceml any for $4,000. The on}y value which
it received in return for %, 5oa.0 900 Of that sum
wss the right pr franchise to use abo ut thirty
miles Of single track now laid In Jer sey Oity's
streets. Simple calculation will show tina t this
payment OF ss,50),e00 for thirty miles o. track
represents an annual rental value, at s per cent .
of-SiT5. 000.
The ordinances .reeenty Yetosd by Acting
Mayor Simpson. and be taken up for passage
over the veto by the Street and Water Board on
Monday merning, grants the syndicate Just
fifteen miles Of track. If it is worth the
syndicate's while to make q payment equivalent
to- SlFAse zoe q yea< for the thirty miles. it will
seem no more than right that it should pay one
half tharsnsn, or $s7 500. as yearly compsnsa-
ton to the city for fifteen miles.
The fact that no such payment is contem-
plated is shewn by the s~sarguments'' and induce-
ments presented by Mr.. Dave Young, who has
BEEN imported from Newark to manage the
affairs of the Consolidated Company. This
gentlemen hes boosted Of the fact that the
syndicate pays the city Of Newark t he annua,
sum Of 81 1000 for even more extensive fran
- .--- --zx- - Ls~ tlyr ~
h;gh compensation to that city H ere, then, We
have the outside estimate Of what the CONSOLE
dated Gompapy proposes to pay this city
$4,000 for privileges which they could not buy
for less fnan sss. 900, if they were dealing with
another private corporation. and p OF with q
rotten Street and Water Board.
But it j. exceedingly doubtful II any such SUM
as $4,000 cap be ebtainsd from + he company
under the present drafting OF the ordinance.
The company does not propose to cons truct or
operate about ten out Of the fifteen miles of
franchiscs granted, at the present ii ms. Com
peusationn viii, therefore. be paid to the city at
present upon only five miles Of track, out Of q
total railway s-ystem-coupting the Jersey City
and Bsrren-of thirty-hss miles. The very most
this could possibly mean would be that the city
should get Ave per cent. on eue-seyenth Of the
compapy's receipts.
3 an ingepieue juggling With the terms
'.lipss'' and sEeptes,r zoe city psy yet sven
get that. The company Is Left this sole judge
as to what tslinss'' the new strontes'' granted
by tho ordinance are to bp attached to. The
percentages Is then only TO be pa id on these
s~lines.r Thus some Of The post profitable Of
the prefsHt Jersey City and Bergen lines can be
withheld 4rou paking any contribution Ehat
eyH to the tseempensatioa ~
The company is bound to give transit ers from
one ling tq smother. How is the percentage to
be levied sp account Of passengers tF an sfsrred
from saA5ola '.iinssv te Zines" msds up Of old
and new .sroates, - and vice versaf
WHOM = jew route u worked into several
siines.v how Is ITS relation to them to DO caieu-
latede Say II is 2 mile long, is it to be one mile
out Of seven 10 sLips'tA and one out Of six in
Line B. and one .eut Of tro in ''Liper {, or j.
ii to be one out Of ffteea in Lines ; 4, p and
G. TIT differences Is q Eital matter in figuring
the percentage.
The compensation clause il fer these reasons
an imppdent fraud. Il means nothing and
guarantees uofAiny, It appears tq hays been
deliberately drawn 70 mean nethigg. The ppr-
pose IF jfA Is n place the City in svch q position
that X must compromise with the COMPANY on
the conipany's own terms whoa the hepIossness
Of eoAseriag anything under such 9 clause Il
realized.
AcIause giving the city author Ties the right