The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-13
AFTER THE GAR COMPANY
CITIZENS INSIST ON BETTER SERV-
ICE ON GRAND
AVENUE
CONDITIONS ARE UNBEATABLE
A Strong Committee Is Appointed to
Wait on Company and Insist
on Many Needed Inn
proVements.

Ice supplied by the street railway on the
Grand avenue line eliminated yesterday
afternoon in a meeting held in the Com
Eercial club rooms, at which over 100 in
terested citizens were present.
Expressions of opinion were outspoken
and uncompromising, and in the end
strong committee was appointed to lay
before the company the imperative needs
and demands of the long-sHffering citi-
zens directly interested
Aid. Schiffmann called the gathering to
order, and outlined the many grievances
under which those living on the Grand
avenue line have been laboring, both be-
fore and after the recent change in the
route. He characterized the situation as
unbearable, and stated that the company
had utterly ignored the recent request Of
the city council, demanding a fiVe-min-
ute service three times a day, a seven
minute service during other day hours,
and a ten-minute service after 10 o'clock.
He was willing to stand by the expression
of opinion of the meeting with regard
to any action that should be taken, and,
as alderman, would do everything in his
power to help remedy the present utterly
unsatisfactory and inadequate service on
the lines.
Upon motion, w G. Strickland was ap-
pointed chairman. and he called for ex-
pressions of opinion as to ways and
means to De ADOPTED.
Fred G. Ingersoll referred to the mis-
erably inadequate service. He thought
that if the company put on the promised
larger cars it would inevitably result in
a slower service; past experience had
demonstrated this. What was really
needed was the putting on of new. small
cars and a greatly improved service.
The cars now in use were filthy, and,
apparently were not cleaned from one
nc 70 10 @Io
poorest cars on the system were on this
line, and devoutly hoped the. company
had no worse. Another Objectionable fea-
ture was the recent Joining of the Grand
avenue and Lafayette lines, which in
volved exasperating delays. The propo-
sition to put up heavy feed wire
through Grotto street. from University
avenue to Seventh street, was most OBJ
jectionable to the citizens of the Sew
enth ward, who were unanimous in think
ing that this and all similar wires should
| be placed under ground
Mr. Ingersoll offered a resolution OPP
posing the stringing Of overhead street
railway wires. and, after some discus
sion, it was the sense of the meeting
that the Seventh ward should be free
from overhead wires Of any description.
The chairman then told of a conversa-
ton he had held with Dow Smith, super
intendent of the railway company. He
had been absent from the city for few
days, and on his return he discovered
| that the situation on Grand avenue was
so serious that negotiations for the sale
of house and lot owned by him on
| Grand avenue had almost fallen through
on account of the miserable car service.
| He saw Mr.. Smith about 1t, and the lat
| ter said the suggested improvements
would cost $4,000, which the company
was not prepared to eXpend, as the line
| was not "a paying one.
Aid. Hunt said he had no confidence
| whatever in any promises made by the
railway company. 1t had been string
| ing the people in his district for a num-
| Der of years and he thought 1T was now
| trying to string" the residents of the
Seventh ward. 1t was now using the
! overhead feed wire matter as a club to
| eXtort certain concessions.
Aid. Schifmann suggested that the
| meeting should strongly favor a move
| ment to compel the company to restore
| the Grand avenue service to what it had
| been before the recent change. He would
! help such a movement to the best of his
ability.
ION motion 1t was decided to appoint q
| committee of nine to consider the whole
matter, wait or the street railway COM
| pany and report back to a general meet
| ing to be held some day next week The
following gentlemen were appointed:
| Messrs. Durment, Osceofa avenue:
Briggs, Paramount avenue; Burrows
| Grand avenue; Holman, Summit avenue:
| White, Goodrich avenue; Rhodes, Lin
| coin avenue; Beck, Portland avenue: In
gersoll, Grand avenue, and Butler, West
| end.
The committee was instructed to pre-
sent five specific complaints to the rail-
| road company, as follows:
| F4rst-The relaying of the tracks on
| Ramsey street
Second-Relaying of the tracks west of
| Oakland avenue Va
Third-The granting of fve-minute
service morning. noon and night, seven
minute service during the balance of the
day. and ten minute service from to 10
p. m.
Fourth-The restora ton of the Grand
avenue cars to the original route
F1fth-New and modern cars
Chairman Durment, of the committee
announced a meeting would be held in
| his office in the New York Life blildine
| at o'clock on Monday