The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-08-25

previous to the first day OF January.
Said company shall theraupun pay TO the
Comptroller for the use of the city as partial
compensation for tn q franchises hereby granted.
five per cent. OF said gross earnings.
When any line of the Consolidated Traction
Company is operated partly on any route grant
ed by this ordinance and partly on any route
nov operated or heretofore granted, the said
company shall thereupon pay to the Comptrol-
Ter as partial compensation for the franchises
hereby granted such proportion Of five per cent.
Of the gross earnings Of any such line as the
length of the route operated under this ordin-
ance bears 10 the entire length of said route.
In such computation each single foot OF track
shall be the basis OF calculation and in the first
payments made hereunder fractions of a year
III the operation of any part of the route herein
granted shall be computed.
And 10 ascertain when said company COM
mences to operate on any of the routes granted
by this ordinance, said company shall file with
the Comptroller a statement in writing, signed
by IFS president and attested by its secretary.
in which shall be stated the date when said
company commenced to operate on said
routes.
In the first place, the company does
not propose to construct or operate
| about ten out of the fifteen miles of
franchises granted at the present
time. Some miles. it will probably
never construct or operate, merely
holding them to block competition.
Other miles, it will not open up until
population grows enough to make
them pay. Compensation" will,
therefore, be paid to the city at pres
emit upon only five miles of track, out
of a total railway system-counting
the Jersey City and Bergen-of thirty
five miles. Is not this in itself enough
to show the hollow mockery of this
compensation clauseS
The very most it could possibly
mean would be that the city should
get five per cent. on o~ne-seventh of
the company's receiptsl
But by an ingenious juggling with
the terms, Lines" and routes" the
city would not even get that. The
company is left the sole judge as to
what Zines" the new routes"
granted by the ordinance are to be
attached to. The percentage is then
only to be paid on these Zines"
Thus it is plain that some of the most
profitable of the present Jersey City
and Bergen lines can be withheld
from making any contribution to the
Compensation" Thus the Newark
avenue "Belt" line and the line to the
Erie ferry will not be supplemented
with any new routes, and SO they will
not contribute to the five per cent.
But, we hold, the entire scheme in
wolves a bookkeeping impossibility.
The company is bound to give trans
fers from line to another. How
then is the per centage to be levied on
account of passengers transferred
from all-old ''linesn to .slines'' made
up of old and new routes" and vice
versa. When a new route is worked
into several lines how is its rela-
ton to them to be calculated? Say it
is a mile long, is it to be one mile out
OF seven in Line" A and one out OF
six iii Lime" B, and one out Of two
in slime" G, or is it to be one out of
fifteen in Lines" A, B and C. The
difference, you see, is = mighty inn
portant matter in figuring the per-
centage.
We repeat what we have said be-
fore:-This. Compensation Clause is
an impudent fraud. It means moth
ing and guarantees nothing. We be-
Iieve it was deliberately drawn to
mean nothing. We believe the pur-
pose of it is to place the city in such a
position that it must compromise with
the Company on its own terms when
the hopelessness of collecting any
thing under this clause is realized.
We draw attention to the fact that a
clause giving the city authorities the
right of access to the company's books
was deliberately eypunged from the
ordinance before its passage. and we
ask If there is any escape from the
belief that this was a corrupt and
| fraudulent act.
We denounce the action OF the
Street and Water Beard ia passi ng
this atrocious measure. We shall de-
nounce them to Mayor Wanser and
Governor Werts and demand their
removal from office If they pass it
over Mayor Simpsons veto.
In few days now, it will be the
| dftv az Judge L~pnjAeott that frua