The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-15
TRANSFERS ON CAR LINES.
A Fight which Is Interesting snvan-
nah Companies.

nun 1otnUahehs
Gov. Pingree Of Michigan has some very
decided ideas on the subject of municipal
control of street railways. The Atlanta
Journal is waging a fight on the Atlanta
Consolidated Street Railway Company In
the effort to make that company give
transfers over the different lines of its sys-
TEN. which the company now refuses TO do.
Among others Gov. Pingree. who made
national reputation while mayor of De-
troit. was telegraphed for his views on the
subject. His reply is interesting 20 pa
irons of street railways and investors in
the companies in Savannah as we'll as in
Atlanta. He speaks as follows:
Detroit, Mich, March 49, 1Sg7.-My expert
ence with street railway companies would
require a folio volume. Distance cuts no
figure on a line of street or even steam
railways Transfers, like low fares, mean
more money for any company. Decidedly
yes, the transfers invariably increase and
never diminish revenue. No matter what
the combined length of any street railway
may be the average journey is always
short.
If your street railways were free, people
could not be riding all the time, as they
have TO work or attend to business for a
living. That is the secret of short jour
neys on railroads. Street and steam street
railways do not pay a cent for grade and
drainage and that work costs a city, at
the very lowest, ten thousand dollars
mile
The effect of three-cent fares in Detroit
Is. that while general business is languish-
ing, the street railways are making big
money Everybody pays in advance to a
street railway. 1t never has to lose on
collections as other business people do
L el,{t, 10 Oh, 10 Il lg
great business 1t is as good and as never
failing as government bonds. The street
railways of the United States make a mil
lionaire every six months by exploiting
watered stock and bonds.
Almost every large city in the north is
following the example of Detroit They
are going further in Boston than anywhere
else. In that city they are lighting for
city ownership of street railways, and
every city in the United States is being
pushed to the system of municipal owner
ship on account of the astonishing hog
gishness of street railway companies, who
bride common councils on account of the
big money In stocks and bonds.
The right to establish the maximum
rates of fare on both street and steam rail-
roads has been tested and established by
the courts of Michigan
A low rate of fare for the full length
of any line is the best for the business
of the company. and the best for the citi-
Zens of Atlanta. II you give them a high
rate of fare, they will sell watered stocks
and bonds, and most of the money they
collect on fare will go out of town and
out of the circulation of your city and
your business TO pay interest in some
other place. If you give them a chance
to sell bonds and stocks on high fares
your city will suffer the effects of gam
bling speculation. If the companies are
operating an honest business in your city
they viii be satisfied with reasonable re-
turns
II the people of Atlanta will get any
company into court to find the exact cost
of the investment, the cost of operation
and the cost of maintenance, they will
find that. as a business, Scent fares are
not only very reasonable, but very lib
eral. Get at the cost of your roads IN
this way or by building a street car
line yourselves, and you will be rs
tonished at the amount of money you
have been cheated out of. Fares should
properly be based on cost, but you will
find that street railway promoters are shy
of the truth when they talk of costs. You
must get at 1t yourselves, and 1t will pay
your people IL IL costs a million dollars.
Never give up the fight until your city at
the least calculation owns all the street
car tracks. H. S. Pingree.
Savannah's street railways have not
made any milionaires lately, so far as 1t
is known. Still. If there had been no
panic and they had not fought each other
down TO 1-cent fares. they might have
done so.
The City and Suburban railway gives
transfers at all points of junction of the
different lines of its system, President
Johnston informed a Morning News re-
porter yesterday II does not exchange
transfers with the Savannah, Thunderbolt
and Isle of Hope railroad, although oper-
ated under the same management, the
claim being made that 1t is a separate
company, with one exception. Parties
having Thunderbot tickets are transfer
red from the Broughton street line to
either the Whitaker or Abercorn street
lines. There was some complaint against
the Electric railway, now the Savannah
Traction Company, before the Scent fares
went into effect, because that company
declined to give transfers from its Price
street belt to the big belt, or the Barnard
street line, but since the 3-cent fares have
gone into effect the complaints have
ceased.