The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-01-06
ERIE ELEVATION.
An Official of the Road Says
the Company is Ready to
Put Up Its Tracks
HAS PLENTY OF MONEY
Il However Insists That the Work
Must BE Done Under a Com
mission of the Court.
NOW HAS PLENTY OF MONEY

The citizens of that section of the city
which lies north of the Erie Railroad
who have labored SO long and faithfully
sparing neither their time or their mon
ey to secure the elevation of the Er.e's
tracks, it seems are about to reap the
fruits of their labors. The one great
obstacle which has so long stood in the
way of that Improvement and lone more
tina anything else to defeat it at Tren-
ton, the opposition of the railroad com
pany, has at last been removed.
A prominent official of the road said
the other day the company was now
willing to have the tracks elevated. It
recognized as much as anyone the ne
cessity of abolishing the dangerous
grade crossings in this city. The Off
Gals of the road recognized the fact
that the Erie was the only road rum
ming through the city where the tracks
crossed busy th~oroughfares at grade,
and have long desired to get rid OF the
continual menac to the lives and pros
perty of the citizens and the treasury
of the company. The only reason of
their opposition to the scheme of ele-
Walton. ne said, was the roads finan-
cial embarrassment. 1t was the truth
and no prevarication for a purpose
when their agents declared again n
again at Trenton that the company
could not afford to put up the tracks;
that it had not the money. to pay for
the work, and the financial condition
of the road was such that they would
not have been warranted in issuing
bonds for the money.
But now all that has changed. The
new management which has taken
charge of the road under the recent
scheme of reorganization has plenty of
money behind it fer the betterment of
the road. and few things could better
it more than the elevation of the COM
pany's tracks through Jersey City. AL
though the new management was will
ing TO do this. it proposed to have some-
thing and a very big something. too, to
b Sc d o1e ana Any wh bil Tx Ike st tsose Of sh Iasf
winter, for instance, would be fought
~ the representatives of the company
as vigorously as ever and no doubt as
successfully. AS there were two or
three distinct bills On this subject last
winter, the Erie official particularized,
ure which practically gave the munich
pal Government ,controHsof the work.
The company. he said, did not propose
magnitude, involving the expenditure
of such a large sum of money, by any
municipal board of Jersey City, and he
missioner OF Jersey City which was de-
cidedly unfit for publication. In order
TO pass. he said, the bill must either
give. the company entire control of the
work, a contingent he, of course, did
nor dream of, or must provide for an
impartial commission to be appointed
by the Hudson Circuit Judge. Persons
ally he would favor the latter scheme.
When asked what had become of all
the engineering difficulties which the
agents of. the at Trenton
always declared made the work as I'M
possible as the financial condition of the
road. the official looked upon me as
though I had mortally offended him.
but vouclSafed not a word.
1t would do the citizens who want the
tracks elevated no harm to bear in
mind hat eternal vigilance is the price
Of elevation as well as liberty, and keep
their eye on this matter. There is moth
ing more tickle than the average ra I
road man, and when the time comes the
and conclude. that they are still too poor
to put up their tracks in Jersey City,
or else that the engineering d~iff1calties
continue to be fnsurmouryake.
OF course If the company has oojec-
tons to the Improvement it is hard to
see why any legislation is needed on
the subject at all. Representatives of
the ompan and the city can get to-
getner ard draw up an agreement which
Will answer the purpose as well as a
Dill with any amount of w~hereases and
BE it enacteds. The P~enn5ysvania pro-
ceeded in that way when it put the
tracks on stills, and the work was done
to everybody's satisfaction.