Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-03-29
THE VERMONT PHOENIX.

500 per mile.
D. Gardner, Mass, has a population of
1000 to 10000, divided into several lively
manufacturing villages that are connected
by short circuit line three and one-half
miles long. Cost, S1S,50O per mile.
And this ends the list Now, how do
they compare, or, rather, fail to compare
with Brattleboro? This village has pop
ulation of about 5000 (perhaps 200 or 800
more) and the outlying district tributary to
1t by means of the proposed trolley road
(Western avenue and West Brattleboro)
has between 500 and 600 inhabitants, ali
told; while in every one of the towns
cited above the outlying tributary popula-
ton is from five to fourteen times greater.
In four of these places the trolley is new
and success is not yet assured in any of
them, while one only Northampton has
paid dividends.
Please note, also, the reported cost of
these roads per mile as shown in the Fl
nancial Chronicle. The reported success
of these roads comes mainly from profess
sional boomers, so please wait patiently a
year or two, until rose-colored predictions
have been Illuminated by hard facts, and
then call for the balance sheet. 1t will be
likely to bring rainbow-chasing cranks
uoWn 10 sofia eafJn again.
If facts about experiences of some of the
older trolley schemes that have got down
to rock-bottom are wanted, write out to
Rome, n. Y, a town with widely-spread
out population of $1,000 or more, where,
it is reported, the whole trolley plant can
be bought for what it is worth to pull up
and remove elsewhere-say 10 or 20 cents
on the dollar; or to North Adams with TO-
0OO paOnla and A1ame with OOO0 Tho
road out of North Adams has been COM
pletely blockaded by ice and snow for three
or four weeks on stretch, and the high
way in which it runs rendered practically
impossible for teams by failure of the troll
ley company to remove these distractions
from it. Fare II cents. Cost, $4,000
per mile.
In the city of Washington, D. c., two
years ago, the city government peremptorily
ordered every trolley pole and wire within
the city limits to be taken down, so dan
gerous and every way Objectionable were
they deemed, and this has since been done.
At one time they infested the whole city.
The Financial Chronicle of New York,
journal of highest authority in business
matters, recently published a supplement
of nearly 100 pages, devoted exclusively to
street railways all over the country. OF
these, counting only 1.-THE roads that have
been in operation long enough to show earn
ings (from one to five years., 2Sj are dis
tinctively trolley roads, and of this num-
Der only A are dividend paying, while PAL
pay no dividends at all. These reports
cover all trolley roads in the large cities
and towns throughout the country, where
they might be expected to pay if anywhere,
and in no instance is such road reported
to be paying dividends where the outside
population to support it is not several
times greater than in Brattleboro. Quite
large number of the roads are in the
hands of receivers, and where dividends
have been paid, almost uniformly the first
dividend has been the largest, with gen
eral falling off year by year, as the uneX-
pectedly large and constantly increasing
burdens of operating, repairs, wear and
! tear, accidents, etc., have been encounter
ed. The Chronicle publishes statements
from old managers that they have been
compelled to make radical revisions of all
early estimates of the cost of operating
and maintaining the roads, and to make
very largely increased allowances therefor.
1t is now proved that the cost of operating
and maintaining a trolley road considera-
bly, exceeds the cost of operation by horse
power.
These paragraphs from the New York
Daily Press of March 8 seem to have a
suggestive bearing on the trolley question
| "ALL CAUSED BY THE DEADLY TRoLLEY.-New-
| ark \. j., March damage suits for over SiO)
| 900 against the Consolidated Traction company OF
| Newark and Jersey City are booked for trial in
the April term of the Essex county courts
1T is now suggested by the Brooklyn trolley
people that children be kept off the streets on
| which the cars are run. In order to secure abso
Lutte safety it may be necessary to amend this
| prop 1siton as TO include grown-up people as
| WE'LL
The Brooklyn, n. Y, trolley road, ur tC
date, has slaughtered outright lob persons
many of them children on the way to anC
from school, and has badly manned ant
mangled between 400 and 500 more, mos
of them for life.
LEVI X. FULLER.
Brattleboro, March, 26, 1895.