New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-06-11
nIrRCROMUED CUPS.

The mlShap 10 II car on one Of III" trolley
road, in Hrooklyn last sunday has had the Of
feet Of directing public attention in a forc!Dle
vav to thc extreme ovcrcrowdlng thnt b.. per
ultfcd on Tie surface lines running 10 ~" sea-
side. resorts The reduction ~ the fare 10
Coucy Island 10 : cents has caused great In
crease I'm th. amount of travel even thu, early
I'm the season and the companies have not been
nhlc 10 supply enough cars to meet the demand.
That they have done the best they could In this
matter is 10 be taken for granted until the con-
irary has been shown but the fact Il that they
hive failed dcplorably Whether law TO pre-
vent the carrying OF more than certain num-
her of passengers on car can hc enforced Ia
doubtful IL Tie case OK steamboats, there IS
such n law. and though az times d'srcgard"d. IT
r. possible to enforce it with considerable strict
ness
The case Of the trolley cars Is different. Even
when the men In charge have strict orders 70
take only n certain number aboard. people Will
insist on climbing on whenever The car slows
NJ nj street crossing or hnls before crossing
the tracks of another line \ conductor AZ one
end and motorman nj the other are. Of course.
powcrlcss 10 prevent this. and 1t is out OF the
question for II body OF police TO accompany
/
number Of passengers are carried. Al the same
time IL IS evident that much OF the damage done
when the runaway car got beyond control was
due 10 the fact that more than twice as many
passengers were on II as could be carried with
comfort. If only sixty hnd been aboard they
would all probably have kept their places and
no one would have been hurt. The runaway f.
believed to have been occasloned by some mis-
l 1l.It troll 90 ha
wire and left the car helpless. Al the time this
WAS done the conductor was far from the rear
platform. doing his best to collect fares from
as many as possible of the numerous passcn-
gers That one man should undertake 10 get
nlckols from nearly 40 persons and slmultanc-
ously give signals for stopping and starting the
| ear and also manipulate the trolley -rope-this
| Is preposterOus thing on It's face.
Before the responsibility Of the company for
this mishap il settled, It will be we'll to CON
slider whether It was not In duty bound to keep
a man on the rear platform all the time with
out charging him with the responsibility for
collecting single fare 1t is plain, indeed. that
| on every crowded ear the services Of AT least
three men are demanded. Certainly II there
had been n third man at the rear Of the car
that ran wild the miscellaneous boys would have
had no opportuhlt! 10 play trlcks, II the trolley
had got misplaced he could easily have rightcd
| II. and In m emergency like the one that oc-
| Cured he would have been on hand to apply
the brake at the rear end and stop the car in
| its fight. More than year ago 1t was pro-
posed in the interest Of public safety that dur
ing the rush hours OF the day n man should be
kept stationed on the rear platform Of every car.
With the prevailing tendency In favor of longer
cars which mean more passengers and more
fares TO be taken, II Is impossible for the CON
ductor to act as collector and look after start
Ing and stopping The occurrence In Brooklyn
shows more clearly than ever that the services
of an additional man are required