The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-04-20
STREET RAILROADS
TWO SIDES or 4 FIERY IMPORTANT
 MUNICIPAL QUESTION.

Relations to the Public What the Pnh-
 lie Wants, What the Employees Want,
 What the City Wants and What stocl-
 holders want to be Considered.
 Following are extracts from an ad-
 dress before the Political Economy club,
 University of Chicago, by II. H. Wind
 sor, editor of the Street Railway Review.
 Instead of being the extremely simple
 problem the riding public supposes, a
 street railway and it's operation is dit-
 ficult one and complex, and, moreover, presents radically different aspect as
 viewed from the several standpoints.
 While capable of still further division,
 we may classify under four general
 heads the cardinal points of the mana
 gers compass these are; What the
 public wants; what the employees want;
 what the city wants, and what stock
 holders want. Each of these four have
 claims and to harmonlZe these natural ly somewhat conflicting interests is the
 chief end of the operating man; and
 may assure you, those who have never stood under the equatorial heat and in
 tensity of service have any conception
 of the undertaking Schools have vaca-
 tions, banks close Sundays and holidays, there are times when the office cat sits
 enthroned alone in it's glory in the daily newspaper office; but there is never
 day in the year, or an hour in any day
 or night when the heart-beats of street
 railway operation entirely cease. On a
 city system cars are always running
 somewhere
 l The riding public everywhere has for
 years looked upon street railway opera | ton as a decidedly easy matter, and one
 which almost any person could assume on moments notice, and conduct with
 numerous improvements. The running of the same cars over the same tracks day after day certainly does appear not only easy, but even a monotonous un-
 dertaklng; and it is this familiarity growing out of the visible portion of the service, and an entire ignorance of the
 intricacies absolutely necessary to sys- tematic method. which mislead people in a judgment which is not meant to be unfair.
 | As a matter of fact, there is nothing in the rest of the world in the line of city | transportation which can be compared with the street railway systems of the United States All they have on the continent has been either made here or copied from this country, and we lead the world in street railways to an ex- tent even greater than in our steam railroads.
 This misconcepton on the part of the |
 member that the public bases it's opin- ions on what is published in the daily papers, and that in the inevitable haste necessary to daily journalism there is no time to corroborate either facts or fig ures.
 The fact that it occupies public streets with tracks, and operates it's cars along these streets, is taken to be confisca- tion of rights private and public; still, every owner of a vehicle, from ped dler's cart to the foui-in-hand, uses these same streets for private conven- fence or gain, giving in return practical ly nothing for the privilege. And yet the street car is the peoples conveyance -the poor mans carriage, without which he would walk to his work or re- main at home, when otherwise he may with his family reach the parks and oth- CT breathing places One of its cars &C., commodating thirty to fifty riders, oc- cupies no more room on the street than the carriage of the well-to-do. It does not effect any year whatever of the pavement, as does the horse-drawn ve- hicle, and it, moreover. is required, in many cities, to lay and keep in repair frn .i tp inh of no mo on the streets occupied by it's tracks, The streets are dedicated to public trav- el, yet no other method of conveyance begins to approach to fraction of the carrying accommodation rendered by the street car service. On certain streets, moreover omnbuses and car | cites perform service as common car riers, furnishing accommodations so in- | ferior in point of time and comfort as not to be in comparison; and yet who | thinks to critlcisa these in their appoint ments, or to limit what possibilities they l do possess with restrictions such as are l constantly thrown upon railway? The | explanation appears to be in the fact | that none of these companies are large | enough to attract attention, and 1t is | not expected of them to furnish accom- | modations at unreasonable hours, nor | during any hour of the day when such | operation is attended with a loss. There | are very few of what are known as the | night cars. running from to a. m. in | any city, that have ever paid expenses. 1 The undesirable nature of the work | forces the company to pay full days | wage for the four hours labor, and yet | no one denies the necessity for the ser vice, and I concede it is proper that | every company should maintain as good | a night service as conditions will per init; but they receive no credit for the same, nor does any one ever seem to | think but what it is highly profitable.
 Another distinction is in the price charged for service at unreasonable hours. Tn the early hours of the morn ing cabs and carriages are allowed a greater rate of compensation than dur ing business hours, and the public takes no exception to the rule. and looks upon the extra charge as fair and just, The street car fare however, must be no more, although the service is furnished at more than double the cost of day ser vice.
 Now let us look al this from another side Have you ever considered the re- turn to the city and state in increased revenue from taxation growing cut of