The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-08-12
The Consolidated Ordinance and Its
Five Per Cent. Clause.

Five Per Gent. Clause.
The following is the full text of the
alleged five per cent. clause from the
ordinance passed by the Street and
Water Board, last Monday, giving the
Consolidated Traction Company a
monopoly of the use of Jersey City's
streets for passenger transportation
T~welfth-Said company shall file with the
Comptroller of Jersey City, annually between
the first and fifteenth days of each January of
each year, a statement of the gross earnings
received upon the tracks operated under the
previous to the first day OF January.
Said company shall thereupon pay to the
Comptroller for the use of the city as partial
compensation for the franchises hereby
granted five per cent. of said gross earnings.
When any line of the Consolidated Traction
eum y by this 0P ordnance and partly on any any
route now operated or heretofore granted, the
said company shall thereupon pay to the
Comptroller 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 ordinance bears to the entire length of said
route.
In such computation each foot Of single track
shall be the basis Of calculation and in the first
payments made hereunder fractions of a year
In the operation of any part of the route herein
granted shall be computed.
And to ascertain when said company COM
mences to operate on any Of tue routes granted
by this ordinances, said company shall file with
the Comptroller q statement in writing, signed
by its President and attested by its Secretary,
IN which shall be stated the date when said
Company commenced to operate on said routes.
With this clause in its present
shape, Mayor Wanser or Acting
Mayor Simpson should eve consent
to sign this ordinance.
Still further, if the Street and
Water Board should dare to pass the
ordinance over a veto based upon the
imperfections of this clause, Mayor
Wanser should Immediately proceed
to remove them for gross incom-
petence, involving the wanton sacri-
fee of the public interests,
he could see his way to enforcing even
a more serious charge. The Mayor
should further bring all the facts in
the case before the next Grand Jury,
which will not be a joker one, an d
procure the Indictment of the COM
missioners for so gratuitous, SO Grim
inal a surrender of franchises of fabu-
lous value, practically for no compen-
sation whatever.
1t is only necessary for a person of
ordinary common sense to read over
this clause, to see that it is wholly
illusory. In the first place, the city
officials are obliged to accept the com
pany's own statement. There was in
the original draft OF the ordinance a
clause authorizing the city to exam
inc the company's books. This, the
Street and Water Commissioners
obligingly struck out. Why was this
done?
But we are willing to grant that the
company would file truthful state
ments; let US see what follows:
Observe first of all that the state
ment of gross earnings is only to
cover the lines granted by this ordi-
Now there is not n single
complete route of travel granted by
it. The concessions are for a few
blocks here and a few blocks
there, to supplement the Jersey
City and Bergen system. For
instance one route runs from
the corner of Grand and Washington
streets, along Washington to the gap.
Plainly, nobody is going to ride over
such a route as this for q complete
ride. 1t is merely a completion or
supplement to some ride made over
the jersey City and Bergen lines. The
same may be said practically of every
route in the ordinance. It is not
credible thai any passengers will ever
travel over them as distinct routes.
Every passenger h rides over them
will. for the same fare. be carried
over some part of the Jersey City and
Bergen tracks. In other words, the
new tracks will have no distinct
earnings of their own. They will
merely be credited with a pro rata of
of the receipts of the Jersey City and
Bergen system.
This is plainly acknowledged in the
clause itself, which we are discussing,
aud what purports to be q method of
overcoming the difficulty is provided.
The company, we find, is to pay the
city such pro rata of five per cent, on
the earnings of any route operated in
connection with one previously
owned by the company as the length
of such route bears to the entire line
made up of the old and the new
routes. Nov VINO, in the name of
common sense, is to tell what the
earnings of such a line are. Some
sections Of track may figure in two or
three sIines.n Part of a new route
may figure ia enc line and part ia
another. Transfers may be granted
from other lines to it, and from it to
other lines. The complications aare
endless a definite basis of calcula-
ton can neYer be reached.
The eAtire clause, whether by pHr-
pose OF accident is a mere deception.
1t pretcnds to do what it does not and
cannot do If tpe company wanted
TO be honest with the eity-we as.
sumo that it does want TO be honest
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