New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-08-25
THE POLITICAL CAR

HOW IL GUT INTO POLITICS. WHAT =,
DOES THERE. WHO RUNS IT, AND ia :
WHAT EXTENT THE INTERESTS nm
FIFTEEN THOUSAND CAB.DRyv-
ING VOTERS MAY PREVAIL
OVER THOSE OF THE
PUBLIC.
London. August "A
| Once more the cab trade Is quiet or a, L.,
quiescent. The Home Secretary found h,,."1..
In the rather peculiar position Of having given :.
award which fixed higher price for one eI,..
Of cabs than the men were willing to pay-,h..
Is not peculiar-and higher than the ovn.,.
were willing to accept. He had contryed -
other words. to dissatsfy both parties--vh,..
again 10 not pecuar--and to give q deciso.
which both agreed In wishing altered in ~.
| same way. The Office OF arbitrator does In IT,
circumstances appear superfuous. Mr. Asou,,s
seemed to feel It to be. and. under what mr..
be called natural irritation, was reported !.
saying that he thought his efforts a. pess.
maker failure and that he hoped to A.-
nothing more to do with the cab trade. M.
| morning, however, he writes to the papers IA ~.
| that he had been misunderstood. What he n.u,
said was that he had necessarily failed to sus'
| ~ the extreme demands OF both partiea n.
| adds that ION the whole" his vafious "a.
varyinD decisions had been cordially accept.S
and loyalty carried out or both Sides That Il +.
certificate which ought to content both part.s
| and perhaps Mr.. Asquitn as well. II he n NJ
competent to give himself certificate, know a
| nobody who, in this matter, could do it more AZ.
| isfactorily for him.
| 1t seems an odd time to choose for 4 nsv
strike, or for threatening a new strike. II.
| dead season Of the yea Is upon US, fan
House Of Commons legislators remain In Lon.
| don for a few days, fortnight at most IL /.
| now thought, and the streets strewn with
Peers who have toiled UP to London In order I.
vote on the Tenants Arbitration bill, and to siv.
the British taxpayer a chance OF saying whether
| he wishes the Irish tenant to be relieved at ha
| expense. But for these two classes OF PATRON
belonging respectively to-as they are still SONS.
| times called-the Lower and Upper houses of
| Parliament and but for the transient money.
spending Americans on whose heads rain down
blessings from the West End shopkeepers thu
| West End itself would be empty. The demand
| for cabs must, in these desolate circumstance
| fall off, and strike would put comparatively
| few people to inconvenience. But the cabman
| struck at the vulnerable point, the railway sta.
| tons and their arriving and departing multi.
| tudes. The words privileged cabs" are for.
ever ringing In his ears. A privileged cab, in the
slang OF the cab trade, is a cab which has the
privilege Of entering a railway station. There
are In the whole metropolis about Two thousand
OF them, and each one Of the two thousand con.
sttutes, In the eyes OF the unpriyleged. .
grievance. Everything is grievance which
limits the area OF competition. The railway com.
panies long since found by experience that to
insure a supply Of good cabs al all hours TO meet
arriving trains they must keep some control
over their own stations. They enter into ar.
rangements with a certain number Of owners
who pay fixed sum daily for the privilege" Of
sending cabs TO a particular station, and are
under some sort Of obligation 10 send them. Cabs
not belonging to these owners are excluded
One company. indeed, the South Western which
possesses the most complicated railway station 10
the world. admits all corners on payment Of one
penny each. This arrangement Is said to wo1
we'll do not think II does. There is no station
at which good cabs are so difncult 10 procure
But the South Western has never had reputs.
ton for consulting the convenience OF It's pas'
sengers. When the arrangement Is said 70 woT
we'll. that means that II works well for the COM
pany. They get as mucn money BY kvy'ns
tax Of one penny per cab for each time II enters
the yard. as II they were paid sixpence Gay
per cab by the privileged owners That oens
So the public may whistle for cabs at It's leisure
and sometimes the cab comes 10 the whistle saa
sometimes It does not. AT other stations "
unusual for passengers to be kept wsiuns' INV
supply OF fairly good cabs IS ample, because
Is for the interest Of both owner ana oH'e.
see that II Is ample. No doubt, the RUE aSa"s'
outsiders Is rather strictly enforced A Gao SCI
ting down a fare Is not allowed to PICK up Au'
other inside the gates. The driver VINO sec.
good business going away from him, uses hA'e
language against the interfering omcla' a'.N
against the privileged system as "hoe' '.'
has sworn to abolish it. He has presented pea'
tons and circumstances without numoer =" Wv
Home Secretary and other proper AUTHORIZES NV
has caused questions 10 be asked IN the fiou"
OF Commons. where he has champion III Wv
person OF Mr.. Tough. the Irish MEMBER ior "e'
Islington. Finally this and otner Gao ques"oN~
have been referred 10 Departmental |o"''N''"
OF the Home Office which has sat sixteen u'"eS
and intends to make report next year VI pe'
haps the year after That committee Is pres'ues
over by the Under Secretary OF the home o''''
who can be relied upon 10 take poh'ica' any
partisan view OF 4 subject with Wh'sf. . '
sight party politics have nothing TO DO ou' .
matters now stand In this country 'ne'e
hardly any subject with which politics nave '''
much 10 do: which must be the excuse VI '1'
Journalist for referring 10 them SO muen "s'
often than ne. and probably his readers u."
There are fifteen thousand cab-drivers III w
DON Nearly all OF them probably nave ~
They have a brand-new trade-unton; nfe-"
new would better describe II. They. or l" ""
their union I'm the hands Of its present oneA~
seem to take no thought OF the general we''sS
and a great deal OF thought for the parucal..
welfare Of the cab-drivers. The cornmuh'v
not consist entirely OF cab-drvers. II 1t dd ".
business would be worse than IL is now s"s
the cab-drivers reduced to driving eacn o'n'''
would probably earn less money than they nv"
obtain from the despsed general public "nA.