The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-06
THE CITY COUNCILS DUTY.

1He dttcutiOu UT tne Oity SouhCh 10 again directed to the disregard the Montgomery Street Railway displays for the rights of the public.
 The Glorious Fourth" made an im- mense extra business for the Street Railway. The idle people, seeking
 pleasure. flocked to Highland Park and Cloverdale. One would think that the Street Railway would prepare for such emergencies. which occur very fre- quently in this city. But the results on Thursday showed that the lines
 were utterly inadequate in the supply of rolling stock to accommodate the crowds.
 At Cloverdale there was some kind of a barbecue and celebration by negroes
 The result was that all the afternoon the Cloverdale cars were loaded to the
 guards with a large part of the negro population, who for the day waived their boycott against the railway. It was almost an impossibility for white people to get seats on the cars. or to stand anywhere with comfort. We saw white ladies standing on corners. who
 were passed by because they were not
 willing to try to cram into the cars already damned with negroes. The same situation existed during a large part of the early night, when the me- groes were returning to the city. Not an extra car was provided on this line under such extraordinary circum- stances. ye
 The same state of affairs existed on the Highland Park line. Hundreds of white people jammed the cars all the afternoon. going to the park. At night this returning mass of people was put to all sorts of trouble getting passage back to the city. Many had to walk. to send for hacks or to wait until a late and inconvenient hour. The ser vice was utterly inadequate.
 Again. the majority of the cars are light, ramshackling and extremely noisy. They are constantly in half re- pair. The result is that people who live on the streets where the lines run are subjected to interminable annoyance by the racket of the passing cars-fit ma terial in some cases for the scrap pile.
 Now the question Is. how long is the Montgomery Council going to permit the Street Railway thus to impose on the people? The Company is certainly under legal necessity to give the pub lie something reasonable and adequate in the way of rolling stock. There is no equity. common-sense or reason in the Company's being permitted to hold valuable franchises to leading streets, if it is not able or willing to afford the travelling public proper facilities to ride on those streets. There must be some legal remedy for this extraordi- nary condition of things.
 More cars and decent cars should be the demand of the City Council. It is to be hoped that the peoples represen- tatives will at once take this matter in hand. employ the ablest legal talent to be had. and go to the bottom of the peoples power to remedy this situa- tion. The street cars are a disgrace to the city. They are inadequate in num- Der and quality. If there were more of them. there would not be any necessity for running them SD fast down the grades or over hills and running hour ly risk of taking human life. If they were of better quality and were kept in decent repair, they would not break on rainy days and rack the nerves of people at all times.
 More cars and better cars!