The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-31

If the Pennsylvania Railroad COM
pany is planning to come into Scran-
ton it is carrying out it's plans with
a secrecy that defies detection. About
every other day for the past month
rumor has had 1t that this or that
circumstance had occurred to, give
practically positive corroboration TO
the story. Every time the circum-
stance was inquired into it proved to
be a fake or else was explained on
some other hypothesis than that the
Pennsylvania company was coming
into Scranton.
One rumor that refuses to down
is that the new rapid transit trolley
road between Scranton and Wilkes
Barre is nothing more or less than a
prospective branch of the Pennsyl-
vania that will permit 1t to come into
Scranton without sharing profits with
its present connecting roads.
Certain facts In connection with the
construction Of the new trolley road
tend to loan color to this story. In
the first place the construction Is such
as is hardly demanded, one would
casually say, by a road that was 70
accommodate trolley cars. The rails
are of 90-pound weight, the bed is to
be rock ballasted throughout; bridges
and culverts are to be of sufficient
strength to carry the heaviest traffic
that a steam road handles, the grade
nowhere on the line Is over three per
cent. and for practically the whole
distance the route is through pri-
vate right OF way, purchased at q
large expense. Besides all this, the
company is chartered primarily as a
steam road between here and Pitts
ton, and eventually proposes, so it is
understood, to extend its charter
| rights, as to steam as haulage power
| on the stretch between Pittston and
Wilkes-B
STORY WITHOUT FOUNDATION
But in the face of all this the loca'
| directors of the new rapid transit
trolley road declare that they do not
know the Pennsylvania Railroad COM
pany in any stage of the deal. Major
| T. F. Penman said:
The story Is without any founda'
tion in fact. If some circumstance.
do tend to give color TO the rumor
it is because people do not understand
|
road we propose to build. We pro
pose to carry passengers from Scran
ton to Wilkes-Barre in forty minutes
| and make the return trip in the sam'
time. We must do that to hope t.
successfully compete with the steam
roads, and to do that 1t is necessar!
that We have a road that Is first clas
in every feature. Our cars will b.
quite as large and ar heavy as tn
steam road coaches and We hope to b.
called upon to run them in trains
Why should we not have a road equal
ly as good, II not better, in quallt!
of construction than a steam road?
II do not deny, but I do not know
that II will not eventually be q steam
road, as the rumor has It. If th'
| Pennsylvania or any other company
or, in fact, any individual thinks i
needs the road worse than we do anC
has the proper financial foundation or
| which to base arguments, we will b'
not only willing, but anxious, to opct
negotiations. We are in this to maxi
money. II we can make more none!
by selling the road than operating !
ourselves we will sell. But I can say
positively that, so far as know, Meth
er the Pennsylvania or any other com
pany contemplates buying our road.
Ex-senator NJ. f. Mcdonald, whel
spoken to about the rumor. said
There's nothing to 1t. The only wa
the Pennsylvania railroad can figur
in the matter is through the possibili
ty that we will get share of it's pas
senger traffic. If the Pennsylvani;
wants to turn over it's Scranton pas
sengers to our rapid transit trolley lin
we WILL of course, gladly take care o
them"
HE WOULD KNOW.
Colonel C. C. Mates was asked par
ticularly as to the Pennsylvania com
pany having bought or secured op
tions on land in the vicinity of Plat
place. IF 1t has know nothing abou
it," he said "and l hardly think |
likely that there would be any rea
estate deals in that neighborhood tha
would escape my notice. We hay
been negotiating for little land Il
|