The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-05


4etion in last twenty-four hours, trace
Note-Barometer corrected for temperature
ond elevation. p F. Lyons, Observer.
THE COUNCILS LATEST sURREN-
DER.
AS everybody knows, the city councll
busies itself chiefly in these days IN
devising ways and means Of offering
aid and comfort to the street railway
company. It's latest effort in that line,
and it's latest bequest to the company,
is summed I'D in an ordinance that
passed the assembly on THURSDAY
evening. This ordinance pretends to
consult the public in that it aims to
secure a better service on the Selby
Park. It needs but the slightest anal
ysis to show that it is, in fact, COM
plete surrender of the peoples rights
and a proffer to the street railway
company, under the most favorable
terms, of the privilege for which 1T
has been making all its grand-stand
plays.
Let us get this thing straight at the
outset. The change of the Selby ave-
nue. line from a cable to an electric is
not a concession to the public, but a
concession to the company 1t has been
anxious to make that change for sew
eraI years past. Therefore, it's maneu-
Verings with the council have been for
the purpose of securing permission to
make it. 1t has allowed the service on
the cable line to deteriorate, and has
deliberately made it as bad as possible
in order ato compel the people to con-
sent to such change. In effect, the con-
cession to the company of the privilege
to substitute electric for cable power
on that line is the key to the whole sit
uation. Undoubtedly, the company
would like to run it's trains on Uni
versity avenue and do an express bust
ness, and half a dozen other things
which it does not expect to get. The
only thing that 1t does expect and is
determined to get, and which the as
sembly has agreed to give it, is the
privilege of doing away with the ex-
pense of operating a cable and putting
electric cars on the st. Anthony hill
line, without those safeguards that any
decent consideration of the public well
fare demands.
Bearing in mind, then, the start
ing point, that this change is in the
interest of the company and by its re-
quest, and not for the sake of the peo-
pie, what conditions ought the repre-
sentatives of the people to make? Two,
at least, are perfectly clear and these
should not be waived in any event. The
first is, that the company should cut
down or tunnel the Selby avenue hill,
so as make grade at once suitable
and safe for the operation Of electric
cars This condition should be abso-
lutte. There is no safety to the public
in the operation of this line by electric
power without it. The company itself
vice which would be effective. If it
wishes, for the sake Of it's own finan-
ces, to make this substitution it
should pay the bill for the changes in
volved. The right to run electric cars
over the hill line ought never to be
granted until a grade proper for them
is furnished at the company's expense.
The man who votes for such an ordi-
MI hot olo
peoples interests.
Another change that should be re-
quired, and that was pointed out and
insisted upon in the assembly by men
and not the wishes of the company, is
the placing of this line under Ordi-
nance No. 1927, thus making the fran
chise terminable instead of perpetual.
What earthly apology can there be for
picking out this line in the city and
giving the right of occupancy to it
for an electric street railway forever
when the right already granted to OPP
crate on all the other streets limits the
existence of franchise to fifty years?
Remember that we are not asking
something of the city railway company
but proposing to grant it favor fo1
which it has been struggling for years
We throw in along with that valuable
privilege a perpetual franchise, which
is something that no other council
since the electric car came into vogue
has dared to do. These two outright
gifts to the street railway company, to-
gether with permission to put in and
operate on the Selby avenue hill a safe
ty device, unknown and undescribed
which may, as far as any one can tell
inflict serious injury upon property
in the vicinity and subject the city to
damage suits, represent the bonus
which the council proposes to offer to
the street railway company for doing
something that it wants to do, that il
finds it necessary to do and that ii