The San Francisco call., 1898-07-29
THE MARkET-STREET MIDDLE.

I Francisco not only tloroughfare but a nuisance and problem Its condition as re- gards cleaning, paving, grading, street car regula- tions and sewerng has constituted the nuisance and the difficulty of devsing adequate remedy for the complex evils of the condition has formed the problem.
 As regards the nuisance there is but one opinion among the people, but with respect to the solution of the problem there are almost as many ideas there citizens The result of it all has been confusion popularly known as a muddle, and the condition of the street has gone from bad to until 1t now strikes every pubc-spirted citizen and every intel ligent visitor as disgrace to the municipality
 Under these circumstances 1t natural that general approval followed the action of the Board of Supervisors in starting movement which promises to settle some of the disputed and most important points in the problem of improvement. The Board has formally declared the Market Street Railway Company has power authority to maintain in any manner or for any purpose the respective tracks laid and operated by horse the Market street roadway, and by resolution it has dered the company to remove the tracks or be- fore August 6.
 The railway company has disputed the right of the Supervisors to have the horse tracks removed and has asserted for itself the right to maintain and operate them Thus clear and well defined issue of law is raised, and if both sides stand firm and the matter is promptly pushed forward in the courts, we may expect to have that much of the Market street niuddle cleared up in the near future. The issue being of law, 1t Is worth while for the people or the press to pronounce judgment upon to agitate 1t further than to insist that having been definitely raised, the question should be diligently prosecuted in the courts and finally adjudicated.
 If the courts should hold that as the law stands the city has no authority compel the railway company to he ueede of the thoroughfare it will then be in order to procure the enactment, ii possible of law that will bestow that power upon the municipality. No monopoly or corporation, however strong, be permitted to permanently block the way to the improvement of public highway in an American community, nor to shirk its proper share of the cost That much is be- yond dispute, and the the issue now raised with the Market Street Company can be brought to the test of existing law the better 1t will be for all concerned.
 Beyond this legal problem, which is entirely matter for the courts there is another phase of the improvement problenl-one which should be dis cussed thoroughly by all citizens That is the ques- ton of the form the proposed improvement to take and the manner in which 1t is to be carried out
 Market street cannot be permanently improved by any such method that which has been adopted in | the present work. The laying of bitumen pave ment provided for by the Board of Supervisors. will be merely piece of patchwork, and as soon as the genuine improvement of the street is undertaken 1t will have to be torn up. The lower part of the street will have to be raised up to the official grade before it can be permanently paved Excavations will have to be made for sewers and underground wires These things essential parts of the inn provement that must be eventually carried out and all pavements laid before the excavations are made will have to be torn up.
 1 vet at end of he rnudde The one source of qualification is that the subject has taken shape that promises good results The enterprise having been started should be kept moving until the courts have determined the law questions involved and competent experts have for mulated for fitting method of making the im- provements worthy of the horoughfare-commo- dious, economical and durable