The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-12
SEEKING THE AUTHOR
The Letter About Tenders
Being Considered by Man
ager E. P. Vining.
DOUBTS THE SIGNATURES TO IT
The New Guard Completed and to
Be Submitted to the Super
visorS at Once.

Manager E. P. Vining of the streetcar
combine wants to know who is responsible
for letter about electrician tenders which
he received Thursday 1t bore the names
of ]. Cumming Smith, D. Hanson Irwin,
w. |. Kipp Jr. and John NJ. Reynolds, and
scored both him and the company vigor-
ously. The entire letter, including all the
signatures, is in one handwriting. Mr.
Vining, therefore, feels sure that the sig
natures of the ministers appended to 1T
were not authorized.
81 don't see how any of them could have
signed that letter." he said. "The views
expressed are entirely at variance with the
statements made by the gentlemen when
they talked with me. There are also
number of things in the letter which the
signers must have known were erroneous.
"For this reason l think they could not
have understood the true nature OF the
communication to which they attached
their signatures. | have therefore written
each of these gentlemen in regard to the
matter. AS soon as | learn who IS re-
sponsible for the sentiments expressed IN
that letter | am going to answer 1T and
will then show how unjust 1t is.
Mr.. Vining would not say what his an
swer would embody. The entire subject,
he said had been gone over with the com
mitJee of ministers when they visited the
carhouse. They had said there was much
they had not understood, both about the
law and the facts, and had expressed great
satisfaction at being put Alright. Yet, he
says, they complained OF these very things
in their letter.
''There is another peculiar thing about
that letter." said Mr.. Vining II read
about it in the paper in the morning. 1t
was not until clock that afternoon that
the letter reached my office, though this
seems rather odd, since the letter is ad-
dressed to me personally.
LAS for the tenders, we are doing all we
can. We are rather handicapped by the
shortness of the time allowed us by the
Supervisors for experimenting We would
like to have been able to have studied
the fender we had decided upon more
closely. AS it is, it combines the best ideas
of the heads of the different departments
and will be great improvement on the
old one.
During the past month we have had
surfeit of tenders thrust upon us. Over
100 different ideas were presented. Some
were rat traps, some were horse rakes,
some were Iawn-mowers and some were
street-sweeping machines. None, how
ever, were what our practical experience
had taught us was necessary"
The new fender varies from the old in
that it is flexible and lies closer to the track.
The conditions in San Francisco were so
peculiar, Mr. Vining said, that he had not
been able to take advantage of the tenders
used in other big cities In Boston, for in
stance, the tenders were nearly one and
half feet above the ground. Here they had
to be one and half inches.
This, he explained, was possible, al
though they could not be run any closer.
The bobbinG on the springs on rocking ON
the uneven roadbed would make the fen
der scrape on the ground as it was. Small
rollers fastened to the front made it posi-
BILE to have the tenders that close to the
ground. AS it was they would also be five
inches off at times.
"The new fender will be submitted to
the Supervisors as soon as possible" Mr..
Vining said in conclusion. "If they ap-
prove it we will at once get to work pre-
pairing them. We have no time to spare,
either. The tenders have to be on by June
L. There are over 100 elecuric-cars in use
now. As they do not turn round, but run
either way, this will necessitate tenders
for every car-one to each end-and it is
going to take some time and labor to pre-
pare 200 odd tenders"