The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-12-28

\N/ $S3,OS3 mile or almost
three times the cost of a
steam railroad fully
equipped for business, it is not sur
prising that the Scranton Railway
company has paid but one dividend
since its incorporation. The wonder is
that it paid that one.
1t got it's franchises for nothing. It's
cars are inexpensive. Its trackage Is
only fair. It's power plants, good as
far as they go, are at times insult
ficient and frequently the speed of cars
has to he checked to enable the scanty
supply of propellng fluid to go around
Its payments in taxes to the city are
very modest in comparison With the
equivalents for franchise privileges
!, demanded in most cities. Where, then,
has the S6,i59,SS5 capitalization of this
company gone to and what does it
represent? There is only one answer
to this question. For the greater part
1t represents imitation. which the trav-
cling public is expected to convert
into negotiable value.
we are icSS tlSDOSSu tudtl are SOlile
20 blame the Traction company
or this state of things. a large part
Of the bunco work in councils which
is at the foundation of its imitation
had taken place before the present
management took hold. 1t found the
mischief done AMI had to adjust its
policy accordingly. The problem of
giving to the people "f Scranton and
its vicinity II satiSfa, .ory street car
service upon a capitalization limited
to actual cash cost of plant, fran
chiscs and equipment would be COM
paratlvely simple. MIR. SilIiman, we
dare say. would jump at the chance
to exchange for it the infinitely more
difficult problem with which he has
had to wrestle--namcly. the endeavor
to vitalize watercd stock while paying
prcposterous fixed charges and at the
same time preventing the equipment
from going To pieces fer lack of re-
pairs.
The present strike might have oc-
CURED had the company been honest
ly capitalized. But the chances are
;hat it would not, for then leadjust-
ment of hours of labor and rates OF
pay. although involving some increase
i'm the expense account, need not
have constituted Il serious difti-
Guilty. Nor could the strikers then
have counted upon the moral support
from public opinion which they now
command. Had our Traction service
been OF Il character in keeping with
our city's population and position and
had it's relations with the community
been smooth and satisfactory, the sud-
den construction OF that service by
height of the holiday season would
hardly have been viewed by the pub
lie with the absence of irritation now
noticeable. 1t Is because the COM
munity. rightly or wrongly, feels
under no sense of obligation
to the Traction company and
regards It as an alien aud oppressive
institution that it subordinates it's
own inconvenience to sympathy for
the strikers.
The laXity of legislation which per-
mits SUCH evident overcapitalization
to be fastened as a dead weight upon
a public utility has seldom been more
sharply defined than in this instance.
Here we have the convenience and ac-
ccmmodation Of 100000 people ham,
pered and abridged by q process of
tinanciering which differs from high
way robbery chiefly in having the au-
thorization of law. Some persons
blame the financiers. We blame the
people who permit it and submit to it.
They are reaping as they have sown.