St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-31
CARRIERS ON BICYCLES.
Street Car Company Refuses to Pas
Them Under $1,000.

Street Car Company Refuses to Pass
Them Under $4,000.
The Twin City Rapid Transit company has,
II Is understood notified the local postofice
authorities that It cannot make any reduc-
ton in the aggregate amount charged for
transporting the letter carriers for the COM
ing year. The past year the company received
$S, soo and. Ii is understood, that 1t has re-
fused to do so for less than that amount for
the coming year. OF this amount, 81 500 has
been paid by the government. and the bal
anee made up by the local carriers, who arc
assessed SO much per month to make up the
diHerence. The government, however. Is OPP
posed to allowing the carriers to pay for their
car fare and In fact, 1t is against the rules
OF the department for them to do SO. This
year the government decided to allow a more
liberal appropriation for car fare for the car
riers in st. Paul. but even that is considera-
bly, less than the $500. which the street car
company insists on receiving. 1t was hoped
that the company would be willing to accept
few hundred dollars less than 1t did last
year, and 1t was for that reason that Post
master Castle and Superintendent Of Carriers
Hardacre visited the offices Of the company in
Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago to find out
II some satisfactory arrangement could not
be made. The outcome, however, according
to report, was not as they hoped for and
eyes in the line of the bicycle houses The
suggestion has been made, and probably will
be carried into effect. that 80 or 100 bicycles
can be rented from some firm who will keep
them In repair for, say S25 year. The idea
OF renting. instead of buying them outright
Is that the wheels will always be kept in
good condition without any additional cost.
whereas, II they were purchased outright 1t
would need a reserve fund to keep them in
repair.
Already In some cities in the East carriers
are allowed $50 year for the maintenance
OF bicycles purchased by themselves In the
case OF st. Paul, however, it seems to be the
intention, If possible to rent the machines
IL tnat can be done at a reasonable price, and
enough machines for everybody can be Sc
cured for the amount set apart for the St.
Paul department. AS stated In the lobe
some weeks ago, 1t is the conviction of the
local authorities that the present arrange
ment would be more satisfactory If the street
car company could be induced to accept
smaller aggregate sum for its services and
pass all the letter carriers free. The topog-
raphy OF the city, too, would make it incon-
yenient in some places for the carriers to get
to their routes as handiiy as they could on
the street cars. That, and the fact that GER
tain seasons Of the year bicycle riding in
St. Paul Is anything but a pleasure made
the authorities more anxious than they would
De IN some cities to do business with the
street car company. The fact that the st.
Paul authorities have failed to secure any
concessions from the company would seem to
indicate that the Minneapolis department
would not meet with any more success, and
Postmaster Holbrook may already be negoti-
ating with some of the Minneapolis bicycle
houses for 100 or more wheels.