Evening star., 1895-04-30

Even sherlock HolmeS-marVelouSly skill
full a deductionist-would, were he alive,
find himself in a bifurcated sort of situa-
ton If he attempted to reason out the
status of the bartender law in this city. In
response to public sentiment of the fatty
cutspoken sort. the District Commissioners,
after much delay. promulgated a police
regulation which had behind it the solid
support of direct Congressional enactment
a regulation which insisted that py April
every mechanically propelled street-car in
Washington should be equipped with suit
able fender and wheel-guard. Failure on
the part of the companies to complyswi
the law meant, If the law were enforced.
legal assessment to the extent of s25 car
for each day of offending The very recent
appearance of tenders on some of the
Fourteenth street cars of the Washington
& Georgetown Company might lead Mr..
Holmes to the belief that the fender-compel-
ling order has not been rescinded; for it Is
the custom of corporations to refrain from
Indulgence in extraordinary expenditures
unless there is application of governmental
force. But if the order has not been re-
scnded why Is 1t that no other mechanical
ly-operated road is engaged in following
the example set the Fourteenth street
line? Can it be that the Commissioners
are, with extraordinary deliberation and
unlimited secrecy but unflinching purpose,
engaged in compelling the Washington &
Georgetown Company to equip one-third of
its cars and have exempted. the other two
thirds and all the other companies from the
operation Of the law? 1t might be that Mr..
Holmes would, after careful investigation,
reach the conclusion that the order had
been rescinded and that the car-equipping
which Is being done by the Washington &
Georgetown Company was voluntary con-
cession made by a liberal corporation.
There are, however, obvious difficulties in
the way of ready acceptance Of this theory
even if 1t had the approval of such
genius as Mr.. Holmes appears to have
been. Appeals have been made to the
Commissioners for such direct information
on this point as the public would appar-
emily be entitled to, but of favorable re-
sronse there has not been any. With that
remarkable preference for being mysterious
which sometimes afilicts people who are
clothed with little brief authority" the
Ccmmissioners-or a majority of them-have
hot yet indicated whether they think they
have the power to suspend the law, or If
they have whether the law has or has not
been suspended, or, If the law Is not sus-
pended, why 1t is not enforced. Such
secrecy Is inexcusable, but the Commits
have made up their minds that If they must
blunder it were better to blunder in secret
than openly and as the people Of the Dis
trict of Columbia cannot hold them to close
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT is the weak point in
cur local form of government-the evil will
probably continue to be until the Commits
sioners-or a majority OF them-make be-
lated discovery of the fact that they are
servants Of the public and not dictators.
To the average resident of the District of
Columbia-the man who rarely goes very
far beneath the surface for material upon
which tc base his ideas-the situation has
this appearance: the Commissioners or
dered all companies operating mechanical
ly-moyed cars to equip every car with
wheel-guards and pickup tenders by April
1; nearly thirty days have passed away
since the law became effective, yet with
one trifling exception the law Is being COM
pletely ignored both by the companies who
should be controlled by it and by the Com
missioners whose duty 1t Is to enforce it.
There is no middle ground. Either there Is
a law or there Is not. If there Is, why are
the Commissioners so extraordinarily mac
tive? If there is not, why do not the Com
missioners say so. explaining their reasons,
which may be good, for temporarily
pending the law? Is interest in this i'm
portant matter of fender equipment con-
fined entirely to the Commissioners and the
corporations? Have not the people whose
lives are endangered by the absence of
tenders some rights to protection, to con-
s.deration, and to information In the mat
ter, which even a District Commissioner is
bound to respect?