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

TRACTION Sompauy orolnauc5
yesterday, we led by a some
what lengthy argument up to
the following conclusions, to
which we particularly directed the
attention OF the Street and Water
Commissioners, and of the residents
and property-owners of this city
whose rights are Affected
The ordinance establishes a perpetual mo-
nopoly ia street car traff: In this city.
1t does SO by giving the Consolidated Trac-
ton Company prior right over all other corr
porations TO use every street afording o feas-
ibis route Of travel in the Greenvilie, Bergen
AID Lafayette sections of the city and ia all the
lower city south of Newark avenue.
There is no provision in the ordinance by
which thssc grants expire. whether the com
pany use them or not. Il may hold them for 9
hundred years and neither construct aud
operate them itself nor permit anyons else to
do so.
These grants ones made can never be re-
called or modified, as the law OF 1898, under
which the ordinance is drawn, constitutes that
ordinance u contract between the city and the
Consolidated Traction Company. Such a con.
tract. under the Constitution Of the United
States, can never be altered or revok I'd or re-
scinded except by the consent and agreement
Of both of the parties to is.
Today we propose to supplement
these conclusions by showing that this
monstrous monopoly is to be given to
the Consolidated Company for prac-
ticaliy no compensation to the city
whatever.
The syndicate which has incorpor-
ated the Consolidated Traction Com
pany recently bought from the Penn
syIvania Railway Company the con
troll of the Jersey City and Bergen
Company for So. 700. 600. 1t can be
easily shown that the only value
which it received in return for that
vast sum vas the right or franchise to
use about thirty miles of single track
now laid in Jersey City's streets. The
proof of this proposition has already
been furnished by THE NEWS in an
editorial from which we extract the
following
The syndicats which has taken hold OF the
local transit business brought the control of the
Jersey City and Bergen system for So. 100000.
What did they get for that sum Of money!
TrackFs
No. They are tearing them all up and laying
new ones.
Horsesf
No. They are going to sell of all the horses
for = few thousand dollars and INTRODUCES cleo.
trie traction.
Cars.
No. All the cars on the road would not
represent over one per cent of thar sum, and
the announcement IS MAIDS that they are to be
sold, TOO, and new and modern ones introduced.
What, thea, did the syndicate pay S., 200, 900
FORT
SSimply for the right to use Jersey City's
streets. Including real estate, they may have
got Anyvhere from 100000 to $4,000 worth of
taneible property. the rest or 49, 1000 was
the price OF the franchise to use about thirty
miles Of single track laid 10 the city streets.
A very small expenditure of arith-
metical force will show that this pay
ment of So, SOC, 900 for thirty miles of
track represents an annual income
value at five per cent. of SITS, 900.
We may say that the syndicate re-
garded thirty miles of track as worth
an annual rental of that mount.
The ordinance. recently vetoed by
Acting Mayor Simpson, and to be
taken up for passage over the veto
by the Street and Water Beard on
Monday morning, grants the syndi-
cate just fifteen miles of track. It
will appear to most persons a fair In
ference that these fifteen miles of
track are worth about the same aver
age rental as the thirty miles bought
from the Pennsylvania Railroad. If
1t is worth the syndfcate's while to
make a payment equivalent to $175. 600
ayear for the thirty miles. it will seem
no more than right and proper that it
should pay one-haif that sum, or
ss7. 500, as yearly compensation to the
city for the fifteen miles.
1A
The fact that no such payment is
contemplated is best shown by the
arguments and inducements pre-
scented by Mfr. Dave Young. who has
been imported from Newark to a
age the affairs of the Consolidated
Company. This gentleman has talked
extensively Of the fact that the syndi-
cate pays the city of Newark the an
nual sum Of So, 900 for sven more X
tensiye franchises. Here, then. we
have the outside estimate of what the
Consolidated Company proposes to
pay this city-$12.00 900 for privileges
whiel. they could not buy for less
than 1000. II they were dealing