Evening star., 1894-03-07
ALL THEY WANTED
Metropolitan Bill to Be Reported
With Company Amendment.
AVOIDS MOTIVE POWER FORFEITURE
The Question of the Judgments
Left in Abeyance.
T H E BILL IN FU L L

The House District comrattee today acted
upon the Metropolitan railway bill and gave
| the railway company what ii asked. The
proposition to compromise the debt of S147,-
! 50I05 for $5o.0D0 having been declined by
| the Commissioners, the committee this
morning decided TO report the bill with the
| following amendment:
PROVIDED, That nothing in this act shall
| be SO construed as to invalidate or in any
| wise affect the suit now pending in any
court of the District of Columbia against
| the said company for the forfeiture Of its
charter for non-performance of its duty in
respect of having the spaces between its
tracks and two feet beyond its exterior rails
and the non-payment Of the cost thereof
but the said proceedings may be prosecuted
to final judgment as though this act had not
been passed and this act shall not be ken
or held to be waiver of any existing right
| or cause of forfeiture asserted in the said
proceedings; and provided further that If
in said proceeding it shall be adjudged that
! the charter of said company be forfeited
then such judgment may and shall be fully
Cancelled and vacated by the payment by
said company to the District of Columbia
of the sum of l47,507.O5 within ninety days
from the rendition of said Judgment ard
thereupon the said company shall be vested
WIN all the corporate rights. powers, and
ferred or imposed upon 1t by its original
charter and the amendments thereof
Inns proposition was submitted by the
railway company to the committee last
Week. as reported in The Star, and was the
company's choice of three alternative pron
ositions then submitted.
The Dill.
The bill to which the amendment was
offered is as follows:
That the Metropolitan Railroad Com
pany, Incorporated under the act of Com
gress approved the Ist day Of July. 1864. be
and the same is hereby required to euuip
ana operate the lines of their cars upon and
along all the streets and avenues of the
cities OF Washington and Georgetown with
IN the District Of Columbia where the lines
or their road or any part thereof are now
lalu ana operated, except as hereinafter
PROVIDED, with the underground electric sys-
TEN Tor propulsion of such cars: Provided
that said change to said underground svs
TEN shall be first made on the streets ave
nues ana at the places following to wit:
beginning at 4 - street and p street south
west; running thence north on 41-o stree,
to Missouri avenue; thence west on Missouri
avenue TO 9th street; thence north on 9Th
street to b street; thence west on y straat
10 "tn street; thence north on 9th street To
Florida avenue: thence northwesterIy on
Florida avenue to 10th street
Sec. > That said change so required TO
be hrst made, as designated in the proyiso
or the first section of this act shall he
commenced by said company without an
reasonable delay after the approval of this
act ana snail be fully completed within one
year after said approval And in the event
that said substituted mode of propulsion tv
electric underground system shall upon
and after sufficient test and trial by actual
use at the places aforesaid prove to he a
practicable and sufficient mode of pronuI
sion OF the cars of said company. then and
in that case the said company shall nro
ceed, within one year thereafter, to place
10 81 .Ala et.ig,
propulsion of their said lines of cars unor
every other part and portion of their lines
as now existing within said District in
cluomg an extension therof on East Cap
itol street from 9th street east 70 I9th
street east, around both sides of Lincoln
Square. '--
Sec. 5. That the said company is hereby
authorlzed and empowered to issue its
ponos, secured by mortgage on its fran
chlses ana other property to such amount
as may be necessary to pay the cost of the
work TO be done and of the materials re-
CURED and the expenses incident to the
change to be made as provided In this act.
but not in excess of such cost"
Trouble Over Conclusion.
The committee was almost an hour in
reaching the final decision, and 1t is un
derstood that some opposition was at first
manifested TO the amendment President
Stephenson of the railway company was Et
the Capitol all the morning. and was in the
hpglD
No representatives of the government were
present.
MIR. Richardson of the committed who
with Mr., Cooper of Florida formed the sub
committee having charge of the nerotia-
lions Tor a settlement in speaking of the
committees action, said:
The committee has devoted itself as
siduously to efforts to reach a lust settle
ment and protect the interests of the pub-
lie. Some members had desire to make
the railway pay something to the District
and l was of that number The proposal
for the payment of S5O.ooo would have gone
through but for the opposition of the Com
mlSSloners. The attorneys for the District
and the government were willing, but the
Commissioners were not.
The Effect.
The amendment proposed by the COM
mittse does not vacate the Districts suit
for s1i15O7; it does. however, yacata the
first ground upon which the District brings
suit for forfeiture of charter on the ground
that the company failed to change its mo-
tive power within the required time. The
committee thought that inasmuch as the
company has spent s3S4,009 in experiments
on the storage battery system, which has
proven a failure, and that no other method
OF motive power is available, the COMPANY
should be permitted to use the system in
dicated by the BILL