The sun., 1902-12-28

| the price Of one. And II grew and pros
rered and did more things every yeal
IL the way OF improving It's cars and
running them faster to encourage people
| TO ride.
II is still developing. but it is very big
now. Its capital has been expanded 70
very many millions and its stock Is very high
| priced indeed. because IL pays large divi-
| dends to it's stockholders and its prospects
| Of paying larger ones are even better.
], now operates t25 miles Of electric car
! lines in Manhattan and The Bronx-the
| territory which made up old New York
| city and there are only about 40 miles
| OF horse power lines left. Soon there won't
! he any. because the trust wants to abolish
| horse traction altogether and substitute
| it, new electric system on every track
| II owns.
IT, lines run up to Tarrytown and Ma
niaroneck in WestcheSter county, and cross
and re-cross below wherever people want
| to ride and folks are ~ used to riding in cars
even If they are only going n few blocks
that they are complaining that the lines
don't run half enough cars and are de.
run more. A Iillioa people day use the
cars.
Under the old system Of ten years ago
the different companies running cars in the
city maintained nearly fifteen thousand
horses. II still has about one third of that
number for the few horse car lines II has not
yet transformed. but with the invasion of
the Electric Trust whole corps Of stable
men, horsesnoers, and harness makers
found their occupations gone
But it was only a change of occupation,
for most Of them. For one man emI |, yed
rnder the old horse car system. tn, E.cctric
T.ust W hich has taken possession anu trans
formed il, employs three. The more car :
there are, the more passengers, II seems,
and the greater the army OF workers in
demand
The stablemen became car Gle aners and
tenders Many of them were graduated
out of that class and promoted to motormeD
and conductors. The harness makers took
up electricity and found employment in the
power houses and out on the platforms,
and the harness makers became car re-
pairers. coal men and oilers. The horse
shoerS became electrical machinists. there
was job for every one OF them and usually
IL has turned out better job than the one
he held before.
Under the old SYSTEM possibly 1000 men
were employed toy the companies. On the
Metropolitan Street Railway Company's
payroll there are now $4,000. and they are
of a very different class. Those who have
studied the question say that their con-
dition has improved from rs to 10 per cent.
The drivers and conductors Of the old
recommendation of some ward polite ian
and didn't hold them very long. The aver
age length Of service was about eight
months. Almost anybody could drive n
street car. so nobody worried about the
changes.
But the Eectrc Trust required men Of
a different oalibre. II req iires skill and
experience to take a trolley car up Broad
way in the rush hour and keep to the time
schedule. So the Octopus put candidates
fol. jobs through a physical examination
and required them TO produce evidence of
good character. Then it established a
system Of promotion and pay, according to
length Of service.
In two years the average tenure Of SER
vice rose from eight months to eighteen.
and the grade Of It's men rose corr, spond-
ingly. The old men had alternsted be-
tween. car driving, trench digging and
helping janitors. II was the class known
TO sociooRists as miscellaneous labor
The l9,OOJ men on the street cars under
the Electric Trust belong to a semi-pro-
fessional class of craftsmen. better physi-
cally than the old type. better mentally,
has been created out OF recruits drawn
from the same quarter
The last statist les of the United States
Census shows that every worker of full
age has an average of five other persons
fependent ON him, so these things the
affect from 80 OCO to 100 0c0 persons young
and old directly. The children can go TO
school longer. the women are better housed
and better dressed. and with the improve
ment in the condition OF the workers the
living Of all has improved
Besides his the trust m ade things differ
ent for everybody, whether riding on the
cars or not. When 1t abolished horses on
tlTee-fourth hs Of it's line il left the streets
so much cleaner and removed numberless
germs Of disease. 1t made car barns out
of its stables and 40 helped transform
sum areas into more health.ul and liveable
neighborhoods.
Leaving out the horses made more room
in the streets. Experts in statis stics have
calculated that the space occupied by 5000
teams Of horses with traces outstret ched
Is equal to SO per cent. Of the space occu-
pied bv the same number of cars, and an
equal p-oport ion Of pass gers have seats.
A man who took the trouble to look up
these things declared after he had done 80
that IL is shame hat this particular trust
has received 40 little attention. Its opera
tions have been SO extensive and their
effect has been so wide that New Workers.
ought to be told more about the things II
has done. II l, unmist akably an octopus
of the most tcntacular species and II has
grown up right here where everybody
can Gee II and realize what such monsters
ara nm IN