The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-24
A MAN OF MANY EXCUSES,
MIR. Winnings Suave Treatment
of the South Side Resi-
dents.
WILL CONSULT HIS CHIEFS
Another Conference to Be Had as
Nothing Came of Yester-
days Talk.

Superintendent Vining of the Market
street Railway Company proved himself
man of many excuses, conversational
gifts and smiling polish of manner when
called upon yesterday morning by the
committee which the residents south of
Golden Gate Park selected, Wednesday, to
personally interview him about the with
drawal of the Metropolitan electricians.
The committee obtained no satisfaction
from Mr.. Vining, other than the sensation
of talking with an urbane man, who for
many years has cultivated the easy graces
of the East, and is not perturbed by the
opportunities of the aggrieved citizens of
his adopted City. Like II. E. Huntington,
he has the happy faculty of making his in
reviewers feel charmed in his presence
without their receiving any substantial
benefit. He did, however, go far enough
to make the slight concession of promising
to lay the grievance before Messrs. Hunt
ington and Croker, and with that the
committee withdrew to call again Monday
morning and hear the fiat of those two
powerful persons.
The committee, which is composed of F.
W. M. LANCE, w. III. Jones, D. L. West
over, R. T. Harding and Eugene NJ. Fritz,
and which was accompanied by the chair
man of the Wednesday night Indignation
meeting, George w. Hansbrough, thought
it would be prudent not to press matters
too hard on Mr.. Vining at its first confer
ence with him. 1t did not, therefore, say
to him in just SO many words that the
Market-street combine had forfeited the
Metropolitan franchise by not complying
with its conditions. According to ex-
Senator George III. Perry those conditions
were: A fifteen-minute service, the pay
ment of per cent of its receipts into the
City treasury and the building of the line
all the way to the ocean within three years.
Neither did it ask Mr.. Vining whether the
street railway monopoly would choose the
alternative of relinquishing its franchise
and giving somebody else chance in the
event of its continued refusal to give a
proper service on the Clayton, Waller, Cole
and Carl streets branch. 1t did not yet
threaten to begin legal proceedings to have
the franchise adjudged forfeited.
The excuse of Mr.. Vining for the with
drawal of the cars which stood out with
firm majesty above all others was the
simple business one that the cars-even
the two-car service-"did not pay" The
expense of running a car per day, he said,
was about $40, while the receipts had been
only from So to $13 so daily. Chairman
Ashbury Heights alone and a calculation
of residents who would have to ride to get
from home to place of business and back,
said the receipts from that source alone
would probably amount to $500 month.
But Mr.. Vining was doubtful and insisted
that the service did not and would not
pay, and the conditions of the franchise
were for the nonce apparently forgotten.
Eventually Mr.. Vining did a gracious
thing. He offered to give service of one
car to run every half hour between the
hours of and 8 A. NJ and the hours of $50
and IL 80 P. NJ. 1t is for just such COM
promise as this that the Market-street
Railway Company is having a petit
ton now indnstriously circulated south
of the park. Mr. Vining, of course, had
nothing to do, it would seem from his
plausible reasoning, with any attempt to
hurt the value of the site offered by
Adolph Sutro for the Affiliated Colleges
he is simply the superintendent of the
company, he said, not its controlling ami
mus, and looks at things from purely
business point of view. When, therefore,
expenses exceed receipts, as business
man he SO manages, in the interests of the
company by which he is employed, to
SO arrange the service as to make it more
profitab BILE to the company. It was purely
matter of dollars and cents.
The committee played checkers with
him somewhat, as it were, and began
making suggestions in the mutual interest
of the company and the property-owners.
| 1t suggested that he run the cars out Ma
sonic avenue and Frederick, Cole and Carl
streets. In response, Mr.. Vining said the
difference of gauges prevented that, the
Carl street and Frederick street tracks
being of different widths, seeing that the
Frederick-street line had been constructed
for cable service. The grades, too, he
said, were very bad. Mr.. Fritz remarked
that the grade ON Frederick street, be-
avoided by running the track all the way
down Clayton street to Carl. and assured
Mr.. Vining that Messrs. f. w. M. LANCE
and William D. Meyer would allow the
company to go through their property on
whatever portion of the streets has not
been formally dedicated to the public.
Mr.. Vining said he had not yet looked
into the feasibility of that route. but he
would, and he suavely marked it out ON
his map. As for the Ashbury Heights
route, he thought that was altogether out
of the question owing to the steep grades.
The Ashbury Heights route means that
from out Masonic avenue to Frederick,
! and thence running out Frederick, Cole
and Carl streets.
There was yet one more little matter to
which Mr.. Winnings attention was called.
That was the removal of the little shanty
used as waiting and transfer station
from the corner of Page and Clayton streets
to the corner of Stanyan and Frederick
! streets. In case the company concludes
to give a service on the Clayton-street
branch, passengers would have to stand
out in the cold and wind without any shell
| ter. Mr. Winnings excuse for this removal
was that the station stood on leased ground
and was therefore expensive to the COM
pany. He suggested without any appa-
rent effort at making bold, that the prop
erty-owners themselves secure a site at
their own expense for waiting station for
! the company.
The committee left with mingled hopes
and misgivings as to what the Monday
conference would develop.