The San Francisco call., 1896-01-21
The Merchants Associations Re-
quest Of General Manager
Vining.
CONVINCING ARGUMENTS MADE.
The Committee Received but Little
Satisfaction From the Railroad
Official.

Railway Company to be more liberal in the
issuing OF transfers on the principal street
car lines in the combine. 1t was particu-
larry desired that transfers be issued from
the Mission and Market street lines to the
Third and Kearny street electric lines, and
to accomplish this end a committee from
the Merchants Association was appointed
to confer with the railroad people.
conference upon the subject of street.
car transfers was held yesterday morning
at the Office of General Manager Vining.
The following were present as representa-
tives OF the Merchants Association and
the taxpayers of the City: A. s. Baldwin
of Baldwin q Hammond, C. S. Benedict OF
the Hastings Company, S. w. Dixon, w.
G. Doane of Doane 81 Henshelwood f. w.
Dohrmann of Nathan, Dohrmann & Co.,
f. F. Du Rose of the Pala ce baths, John
Farnham of the Crystal baths, III. D. Keil
of Goldberg, Bowen g. Lebenbaum, NJ. S.
Kohlberg of Kohlberg, Strauss & Froh-
mann. Frank A. Swain of Swain Bros,
H. III. Taylor, agent for the Mills building;
George D. Toy of Bovee, Toy & Co. and ].
Richard Freud of ]. Richard Freud & Co.
A. s. Haliidie, Frank Maskey and G. S.
Benedict, who are members of the COM
mittee, were unavoidably absent.
Mr.. Dohrmann presented the views and
wishes of the committee as representatives
of the citizens of this City. He was fol-
lowed by S. w. Dixon, who said thatit was
through the efforts of a number of mem
bers of the association that the company
was able to secure its franchise to operate
an electric trolley system on Kearny street.
M. S. Kohlberg added that when The
company made it's first efforts to secure
the privilege of erecting electric poles
KearnYstreet merchant placed an in juno
ton upon any such extension or enter
prise. Then it was that the streetcar
people requested the Kearny-street mer-
chants to remove the legal distractions,
Frank Maskey, Mr.. Dixon and others TO
take up the matter. They did so upon a
promise from the Market-street car people
that transfers would be issued on the
lines mentioned. The men worked hard
to secure the necessary signatures, and at
last were successful. The injunction was
raised and the cars set to running at once.
Now the citizens and particularly the
downtown merchants, desire the Market
street Railway Company to fulfill its
agreement and issue transfers as prom
ised.
Others of the committee followed and
spoke of the injury being done to the mer-
chants at the lower end of the town, as all
the travel is diverted to other directions,
and. added that property and rent from
Post street north have been greatly re-
duced since the old transfer system was
abolished.
Manager Vining listened to all that was
said, and said that he did not know who
made the promise to the merchants and
citizens to issue transfers in consideration
of the removal of all obstacles to the
Kearny street electric line. Mr.. Vining
raised grea. objection to issuing transfers
upon the ground that the privilege is sadly
abused by the passengers giving the trans
iers to boys to sell. He gave the COM
mittee to understand that the traffic in
transfers is enormous. In conclusion Mr..
Vining said that if the Merchants Asso-
citation would get the Supervisors to pass
an ordinance making such traffic illegal
the company would more favorably con-
slider the proposition. The inference was
that the railroad was unable to do any,
thing with the Supervisors.
Mr.. Vining in conclusion requested the
committee to submit its wishes and request
in writing and he would present it to his
superiors.
Later in the day the following communi-
cation was drafted by the association,
which will be signed and presented to-day
b. the committee to the company:
TO the Board Of Directors Of the Market-Street
| RGillUdg Company, CHy-GENTLEMEN: In the
interest OF the business community and the
| residents OF San Francisco in general, the Mer-
| chants Association has appointed committee
| to confer with you concerning certain improve
ments and extensions in the streetcar service
under your control This committee is not
| aware of the existence of any law governing
| the issuance of transfers, but understands that
| in principle your company is willing to extend
transfers from any one OF your lines to any
! other of your lines to the extent that one fare
will carry a passenger in continuous trip
from any part OF the City to any other part Of
the City.
| We also understand that the reasons why
this principle is not carried out on the Kearny-
street line is that this privilege is abused by
| traffic in transfers already existing, and an
! ticipated increased abuse, which, IN your
| opinion, would result from such extension
| We also understand that the transfer priyf-
| lege which existed on the Kearny-street line
! before it became an electric road was with
| drawn at the time the change was made for
the same reasons. This committee respectfully
represents that by reason of such discrimina-
| ton the property and trade on Kearny and
/ adjacent streets has been reduced in value and
extent, and earnestly requests that the follow
| ing transfer privileges be extended to the
| kearny-street line:
SFirst, from the Mission-street electric line
both ways via the Kearny-street electric line
! to North Beach, and vice-versa; second from
| the Kearny-street electric line both ways to
| Market-street cable lines, same as now on the
Powell-street line; third, from the Kearny-
mento-street cable lines, and yice-versa in all
directions, thereby giving to Kearny street
| substantially the same transfer privileges that
! are now extended to the Powell-s treet line
| We believe tnat the liberal application of the
principle for transferring mentioned above is
| vast benefit to the welfare and prosperity of
] this City, and that it should therefore be car
ried into effect as far possible. On the other
| hand, this committee fully realizes that the
! abuse of such transfer privileges, and particu-
larly the traffic in transfers, is not only detri-
mental to the financial interests of your COM
! pany but morally pernicious and generally OBJ
| jectionable, and should therefore be stopped
This committee in return for complying with
/ the suggestions made above, and believing
| that the best interests of the City are served
| thereby, will petition the Board of Supervisors
| to make such traffic illegal, and will gladly
/ assist in every other way for the purpose OF
| making the transfer system throughout the
| City as liberal to the travelling public and as
/ just to the railway company as possible.
This committee has been requested to repre-
sent to you that the present car service on
| Montgomery street is inadequate and unsatis-
| factory. We are also informed that the ma
| jority of property-holders and business houses
| on that street and vicinity favor change to an
| electric line, with liberal transfer privileges
| If your company will assure this committee
| that, should there be no legal obstacles IN
| making such change, you are willing to sub
stitute an electric line for the present one
without delay, this committee viii immedi-
ately canvass among the property-holders and
business houses to ascertain if we have been