The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-08-13

In the fourth column will be found the
longest rides which can be taken for a
hye-eent fare on the different city Sys-
TENS by a passenger desiring to get from
sible route On several of these systems
the transfers are so arranged that a pas
senger can ride indefinitely, If he SO de-
Sires, but the longest legitimate rides, SO
The figures in column five VIII, we inn
agine, strike cur foreign friends with
amusement, as showing how wonderfully
cheap is municipal transportation in Amer
lea. A penny Ctwo cents) for the first
mile, and a fa1f-penny per mile thereaf-
ter is the usual English charge for horse
car transportation on the generally short
routes of their principal cities. Here in
our larger cities a passenger may ride at
penny per mile or less, and
ride at much greater speed and in COM
paratiye luxury and ease. 1t is not too
much to say that American street rail-
ways afford the cheapest transportation
in the world-and yet it is sought in some
cities TO bring down rates even lower.
We have recently commented at some
length upon the tremendous advantages
which have accrued to the American pub
lie from the policy of liberal street rail-
way franchises which has usually been
adopted by our municipalities, in COM
parison with the restrictive policy COM
NOR abroad. and nothing further need be
said upon this point here, except that re-
reversal of this American policy would
De IN INe HiSlSSl utSWct QflWJSe, duur It's
effects would never be tolerated by the
American public. Foreign cities are beau
tiffl and most attractive as places of re-
sidence and enjoyment for the rich, but
the living conditions for the p~oor-alas,
the poor must live as they may.
The longest ride possible in our cities
of $4,000 Inhabitants and above varies
from about eight miles in the smaller cit
les to from twelve to eighteen miles in
the larger. this variation being, of course,
due to local conditions: In all but a few
cases these longest rides can be had at
a single fve-cent fare, there being but
three or four cities in which double fares
or special, higher rate transfer checks
are issued; in fact, We have been much
surprised to see how universal is now the
custom CT issuing free transfers to ala
parts of a company's system. Only nine
cities out of ~thirty-eight from whom We
have heard refuse this, and in several of
such refusal. For example. q passenger
can ride in any part of st. Paul or in
any part of Minneapolis for a 1ve-cent
fare. The same company, however, con-
trolls a line from st. Pau to Minneapolis,
and for a ten-cent fare will carry a pas
senger from any point in st. Paul to
any point in Minneapolis, so that he may
ride for t~wenty-four miles for ten cents.
railroad running between st. Paul and
Minneapolis carried passengers between
its own stations In the cities for thirty
cents each way, and ran trains not often
err than once in thirty minutes, instead
| Of Il c in seven mintpfes, as by the cleo
trio lines at present.
In Philadelphia the consolidation of
three great systems has made 1t fexceed-
fngly difficult to arrange transfers prop
| erly without a strong probability of their
abuse, and while free transfers are given
| upon many lines, an eight-cent fare is
charged ON some Of the longest routes
! from ffteen to eighteen miles. In Boston
| the conditions are somewhat the same,
| the West End Company having a num-
\ Der Of long lines extending far into tht
| suburbs, but ever there reductions arr
| constantly being made in the direction
| Of a general fiye-cent basis.
Altogether 1t does not seem just or rea-
SCRABBLE to demand concessions from thu
| street railway companies In most Of oul
| cities. The public Is being served by them
as no other public IN the world As served
and Is getting more for Its money thar
until. khe advent of electricity. Enormous