The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-04
WANT INDEPENDENT LINES.
MR. ID. b. TESTERS OBJECTION TO
MIR. PARSONS PROPOSITION.

Why 1t Would Not BE satisfactory to
lis Company to Make Connections
with the Parsons Lines-0utside
Lines Not Profitable without In
side Connections; "a Power House
to Operate a short Line Would BE
Too Great an Expense, and BESIDES
Mr.. Parsons Policy Towards Conn
peting Lines Has Been the Reverse
of Favorable.
The Vernon Shell Road Company does
not lcok with favor upon the proposition
of the Savannah, Thunderbolt and Isle of
Hope Railway to furnish it with ccnnec-
tions for its proposed line to White Bluff,
which offer was mentioned by President
Parsons of the latter company in his let
ter to Council, in which he also announces
the readiness of his company to replace
its tracks on Montgomery and Price
streets in preference to having those
streets bestowed upon rival lines.
President d. B. Lester OF the Shell
Road Company, was seen yesterday and
asked about this proposition Mr.. Lester
said that he had received such a PROPOSE
ton from Capt. J. H. Johnston, of the
City and Suburban Railway, and that his
reasons for not regarding this proposition
with favor were of the strongest charae-
ter
II received the letter referred to by Mr..
Parsons from Capt. Johnston" said Mr..
Lester, 'in which he states his willing
ness to permit the line from White Bluff
to make connections with the City and
Suburban tracks and to make use of the
latters line to Tenth and Whitaker
streets, a distance of about $50 yards.
am frank TO say that we do not believe
the proposition worth considering. When
veral of us went before the State Rail
road Commi sion last year to force the
| City and Suburban Railway to give us
half way decent service to Montgomery
we were met with this argument, that the
outside Ines of the company were not
paying prop r,y and that for this reason
| they could moi afford to give us better
accommodations.
This being the case" said Mr. Lester
why should we build another one of
| these non-paying outside lines and con-
meet with the PRESENT company's lines
simply to furnish another feeder for them
at our expense. There is another thing
| TO be considered. To build a power house
simply to operate little road of 61s miles
| from Twelfth street to White Bluff would
| be an expensive piece of business, and if
| We are to be put to that expense it will
| be necessary for us to have inside lines
| for we know that we have no chance Of
making any reasonable arrangement with
| Mr.. Parsons for motive power"
'The third reason" said Mr.. Lester
land the most important of all is that it
has not been part of Mr.. Parsons ram
road po.!cy in Savannah, to assist any
other line. We have seen the sad expert
| ence of the West EndeLine, when $40, 900
of our home capital went to pieces because
unable to get power TO run its cars, and
was sold 10 Mr.. Parsons for $1,000. We
have had other sad experiences in the way
of our Belt Line, which went to pieces
| under Mr.. Parsons crushing influence,
| and the Savannah Electric Railway which
| had similar sad fate, to say nothing of
| The Savannah and Thunderbolt line, whose
rails are now rusting in idleness. This
simply means that if we are to have a
line at. all, we must have connections of
our own, and anyone who has any knowl-
edge of the street railway situation in Sa-
vannah knows this to be the case"
THE case is simply this" said Mr. Les
| ter. 1--WE feel that we ought to have an
inside connection, that the people of Sa-
| vannah feel that we should have it, and
we believe that Council will give it to
US"
AS to the protest from property
owners against the use of certain of the
streets asked for for street railway pur-
poses, MIR. Lester said that it is unneces-
sary to say anything further on this sub
ject than that larger number of property
owners on these same streets had signed
petitions in favor of the company, than
these who had petitioned against it, and
| among these he included the property
owners on Bull street.