The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-04-30


! must be believed that they made q fair
and business-like bargain. And II
they did no city government can
demand more Of the trolley company.
granting, as it must be granted, that the
latter has lived up 10 the terms OF
agreement, without offering something
in return fer tho investment Of new
capital or the sacrifice of profits not
contemplated In the original transac-
ton.
IL seems to us this ought to be per-
fectly plain. Neither the municipal nor
the trolley corporation have any senti-
ment, the one toward the other. Ordi-
nary business rules that must prevail
between two parties to a contract must
maintain between such corporations.
Neither party to the franchise transac-
ton went into ii blindly. The transac-
tion was a smatter Of long
conference and compromise. And we
have yet to learn of the first bit of evil
dence that either the city or the corpo-
ration was defrauded by the bargain.
The trolley company has got the protec-
ton which alone made its big invest
ment possible. And the public is getting
rather more service and has had the ad-
vantage of rather more liberality of ex-
penditure than the trolley men need
have given and still have lived up strict
ly to their contract.
AS it happens, just at this time,
another matter has come up that has
complicated and stimulated the contro-
versy about the trolley contract in the
minds of persons who don't think
before they speak. We refer to the So
called 'strike legislation now in the
Assembly by which severe penalties are
imposed for interfering with cars or
| crippling telephone, electric light, and
| telegraph wires. We have already ex-
| pressed our conviction that this is good
and proper legislation. 1t permits, in
the discretion of the court, penalties for
crimes against the public peace that
ought to be a real, not a nominal, protec-
ton. The small boy. who. in a spirit of
malicious mischief, SHES a stone through
a car window will suffer the penalty
for his act much as he always has, nc
more and no less. But the leaders of a
mob who smash n car to pieces, who
shoot or club half to death the motor.
man and conductor, who tear down
wires and who bring the community to
a state of riot, may be dealt with, as
everybody will admit, they deserve to
be. IL strikes us that after the recorded
experiences In other cities with this
kind of business that no man with COM
mon sense q do anything bat support
this sort of legislation.
AS a matter of fact, however, con-
trary to an opinion that seems to pre-
vail among some Of our fellow
citizens who don't stop to think, this
legislation is not asked for in behalf of
the Union Railroad Company, nor by
them. We refer to this simply because
thoughtless opposition to the legislation
is made to be even more thoughtless OPP
position to the trolley company. The
legislation is asked for in behalf OF the
trolley, the telephone, the telegraph and
| private service of the kind everywhere,
and more than all OF them in be-
half OF the public interests,
and of the city's pocketbook. The
semi-public institutions named do not
ask for it. The city of Providen ce asks
for it. The interests of the s~emi-public
corporations referred to are quite sub
sidiary to the interests Of the corpora
ton of the city OF Providence. The
semi-public corporations could get along
very comfortably without such legisla-
ton, but the city of Providence is likely
to need the protection that such legisla-
ton affords, as other municipalities have
needed il sorely. A situation such as this
legislation provides for would mean
small loss and small Inconvenience
to the semi-public corporations COM
pared to the loss to the city Of Provi-
dence and the inconvenience to our citi-
zens. At all events, should the city fail
to protect the property referred to from
mob violence, the city, and not the other
corporations injured, would eventually
have to pay the bill. That is why the
city wants to protect these cars and
wires that it shall not have any damages
to pay such as Westchester County has
had to pay for protecting the lives and
property of citizens in Brooklyn.
We don't care to exhaust this subject,
but simply to offer a little food for re-
Fiction. Evidently, reflection is sadly
needed in some quarters in this town
just now. There is evidence enough OF
an amazing lack Of it. We don't want
to fool ourselves that those men alone
among us are broad minded and public
spirited who car ny around sledge ham,