The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-14
AT 1T AGAIN.

| AT 1T AGAIN.
The st. Paul City Railway company
is growing desperate, with the ap-
| preaching demise of the present council.
It has had one prime object in view in
all of its interminable negotiations:
and this is to secure the right to op-
crate an express service on Univer-
sfty avenue. The outburst of indigna-
ton with which this was at first re-
ceived and the determination Of our
people, too seldom expressed not to
permit further encroachments or sur
render Of rights, defeated the PROPOSE
ton. But it was not abandoned for
moment; and all the tiresOme business
of introducing and discussing ordi-
nances since then has been merely
cover for another attempt to confiscate
| University avenue for rapid transit
purposes.
This attempt is now being made The
! G b e publishes this morning a copy
Of an ordinance that has been circu-
lated quietly for some time past
| effort has been to commit each man in
tlividually, to make such slight changes
as he should insist upon to please his
| constituency, and thus to secure enough
votes when the time came OPPORTUNITY
| to railroad the measure through. It's
| contents justify thoroughly this mode
of procedure; for it's terms will not
bear the light Of day without evoking
| the old protest.
The ordinance provides for the
change of the Selby avenue cable into
an electric line, with the familiar con-
ditions. 1t authorizes the company to
run through iherurban cars over the
present line, without stopping between
| the corner of Wabasha and University
avenue and the city limits. The COM
! pany is to be allowed to put in four
side tracks," each not to exceed five
hundred feet in length, west of Dale
street. Thus two thousand feet of the
| way would be double-tracked. The
company is also authorized to charge
ten cents fare and is not to be required
thrown in is the operation of the slow
! interurban cars around the Broadway
| loop and the removal of the tracks on
Lexington avenue, together with the
running of a few cars over a so-called
depot loop running on Third street, be-
tween Broadway and Wacouta. There
| Is also permission for new interur-
ban line by way Of Como park, and for
a change in the present Harline ser
vice.
We need not discuss these minor
matters here, or the inordinate length
| of the franchise, or the impudent post
! ponement of paving, or the score of
other little details which are all ar
ranged for the supreme benefit and ex-
| elusive dominion of the st. Paul City
Railway company. 1t is enough to
point to the provision for turning Uni
versity avenue into a railroad thor
oughfare so dangerous to street travel
that it would have to be abandoned,
the confiscation Of property along the
way and the forcing of interurban
without transfers. This is enough to
damn it irreparably If the street rail-
way company wants to run a fast rail-
way line, let it acquire right of way
and build it as the other railroad COM
panies do. What it asks now is the
same indefensible and impossible con-
cession that it demanded originally.
Yet we warn the people of ST. Paul to
be on their guard. This campaign is
being conducted with great skill and
with a determination to win. Let pub
lie opinion speak and let the courts be
called in, if necessary, to protect the
rights of the public. We give to the
people the information upon which
they must act. 1t is theirs to see to it
that this outrage be not perpetrated.