Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-05-08
TIL, EE CENT ia les.
SEVERAL LARGE CITIES ARE cLAMoR-
y. ING FOR THEM.

SEVERAL LARGE CITIES ARE cLAMoR-
81 ING e. OR THEM. ss.s5
Ne cor r'nsree Of Detroit Started tho Wave
Of y.iscontent--T Low Price works
wei In ahat city The Probabls OF.
come. ,3ssa
Especial Correspondence.I
DETROIT, March II. Nothing ever nd
yertisGsl Detroit I'd thoroughly as tho 8
.vut fore war which Mayor Pingrcc hns
been waging successfully on the street
railroads. Tie agitation OF the cheap fare
1l,ts;a ii here has aroused interest al over
the Uiit.d States, and tho owners Of tho
now rcs.d and the city officials have boon
In receipt Of hundreds Of letters from cities
east md west asking news about the OK
periira 4. Word comes that tho Three
Cent l}a,e association Of Chicago, which
had L.tume mOribuDd after ten years Of
n,n:a 3 I less active existence, Ind been re-
xivod Tor the purpose Of agitating the
question OF cheaper fares In that city.
Pittshurg has tho fever and Is making
eycr,,,us to the Detroit people to build q
railway there. Philadelphia Is up H In
a.ns against the abolition OF transfers
and l. discussing municipal ownership Of
railroads. The 3 cent pebble OF Detroit
has started an ever widening series OF rings
vile !, i,rcnten to touch every large city
IL The United States. Meantime the De
troit Railway company goes merrily on
selling eight tickets for quarter and
handling most of the business which used
to be carried by the other line.
Tho Detroit Citizens railway IL the
cor reting company. 1t had for years q
Virtual monopoly Of the street railroad
BUSINESS of Detroit. Year before last a
QUE siion about the term Of Its franchise
y as raised, and Mayor Pingree began ne
go,ia,ions with the owners for q reduction
In fare to be made in exchange for legisla-
ticn confirming the franchise. The COM
pany declined the mayors proposition, pre-
ferring to take the franchise question to
the courts for decision. 1t got a verdict
under which it will continue to operate
Mt cent fare, If 1t chooses, for 10 years
more.
Baked in his effort to persuade the old
company to reduce fares, Mayor Pingree
turned bis attention to a proposition for
the construction of new road. Some cap
titalists saw possibility Of profit In road
which, being constructed at far less cost
than the old one, would not have such
heavy fixed charges to pay. The mEnioi-
pal assembly took the matter up, and q
franchise was granted for what is known
all over the United States today as De-
troit's cent road. It Is undoubtedly one
of the fairost street railway franchises ever
granted, and it's terms protect the interests
Of both the capitalists and the city. n;
The date Of the ordinance is Dec. 4,
1894. 1t granted the Detroit Railway
company the right to build, maintain and
operate an overhead trolley railway on GER
tain streets, the rates Of fare to be: Cash,
s cents; tickets good from 8 p. IN. to $40
d. IN, six for IS cents; tickets good from
5:45 a. m. to p. m, eight for 25 cents;
special tickets to members of the police
and fire departments, 100 for so cents; no
free transportation except to employees OF
the company; transfers FREQ between all
branches Of the company d lines
All this sounds very nice and Is very
nice for the people OF Detroit, but there Is
another side to the picture. Most of the
street railway companies In big cities are
compelled to do great deal OF paving.
In some cases only the pavement between
the tracks must be maintained; In Others
the companies must maintain also the
paving ON each side Of the tracks for q
foot, or perhaps two feet. In Philadelphia
the companies which obtained the privi-
lege Of changing to the electric system
bound themselves to pave the streets from
curb to curb (at an expense Of $50, 900
mile, they claimed) and to maintain that
paving. .
In Detroit, on the other hand, the new
railway company has no concern about the
paving, except to replace what 1t disturbs
In laying its tracks, and on unpaved streets
where its tracks were laid the city supplied
q concrete foundation. The Detroit COM
pany, therefore, can afford to charge
lower rate Of fare, for Its original expense
in construction was lighter and its obliga-
tions to the city arc not so heavy as those
Of other companies. OF course the streets
must be kept In repair by the city, and the
cost Of this work, which In Philadelphia is
borne by the railway companies, in De-
troit falls on the taxpayers. So all the
taxpayers who ride In the cars pay indi-
rectly something In addition to the 81
cents which the company charges. This
is the reply made by the old company to
the showing made by the new company.
3 It has been proved pretty conclusively
that the old Detroit company cannot make
money carrying passengers at cents. Il
might have made little at that rate II it
had kept monopoly Of the business. But
now that It must divide ita business with
q new company II cannot prosper. It
must earn much more proportionally than
the new company, because its road was
constructed and its plant put In when
electric traction was comparatively new
and costly. {,
The editor Of The Street Railway Jour
nal recently sent 9 representative here to
study the situation, and he came to the
conclusion that only two conditions would
make cent fares possible the Cheap con-
struction Of new lines In rapidly growing
communities or the granting Of monop-
oily to some one street railway company.
The Toronto roads are quoted as an exam
pie by the advocates Of cheap fares, but in
Toronto there Ii q monopoly. The city
took possession OF the railways In 1890,
l,aid for them at an appraised value and
leased them to syndicate Of United States
and Canadian capitalists. Having mo-
nopoly, this syndicate could restrict the
construction Of lines to profitable streets
and make the people on other streets walk
some distance to get q car. II all street
railroads were constructed on this eco
v,n,,,sc nr3ncinla car riding could be Chean.