The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-18
srRrEr CAR MANNERs.

The question of .street-ear accommoda- tions and street-car manners Is asitat- ing the good people of Cincinnati just at this writing. One citizen declares that he has decided to be as mean as he can when he is on the cars. As long as we are to be treated like hogs I'm going to be one" he says. and adds that there is no honor in being gentleman on the street-cars under the existing conditions" And The Cincinnati Post thus puts in a word:
 But the public knows that cattle get better treatment than they. The scenes at any of the downtown corners from to : D. m are diseraceful. Men and wo- men struggle, fight, pull, haul. and when every move means stepping on some body's feet, when there are two men on the bumpers. four clinging to the steps. and the register on a boys size car shows from % to 80 fares, then 1t is away to the ing the passengers into heap and mak- ing life miserable
 All this nproar is because there are not enough cars provided to accommodate all who want to ride. The car men say that almost everybody wants to ride be- tween i've and seven o'clock, and it is impossible to provide enough .csrs for them. But. asks The Post, "what are street-cars for if not to carry the public comfortably at such times as the public desires to travei?''
 There's what might be called leading question; also. a conundrum. In all cities where there are street-cars there and extraordinary demand on them. There are great conventions and other gatherings, where the crowds are ab- normally large, and which only rarely occur. In such cases it may, and often does. happen that well-equipped street. car service VIII be temporarily unable to comply with the demands on it. In such cases the management ought not to be blamed, because 1t cannot afford to keep at all dimes such an outfit as would be required to handle an extraordinary crowd.
 But in the Cincinnati case 1t seems that this plea Is not good. There is constant and daily demand for moro cars, and The Post asserts that there is no excuse for "a condition that has already de- stroyed comfort and is destroying man. ners.p And that brings us back to the subject of manners. The same paper from which we have quoted thinks a stranger would be shocked st the cold blooded manner in which men allow wo- men to ride standing" As in the case of the man alluded to at the beginning of this article, the men are coming to act like hogs because they are treated with such little consideration. In other words, if the men cannot get any accornmoda- ton they are under no obligation to show courtesy or deference to women.
 This is sort of excuse but not a de- fence. A man who remains seated in car while women are forced to stand lacks the finer instincts of a gentleman. He cannot absolve himself from the charge of discourtesy by claiming that proper consideration is not shown him. That is a charge against the management of the cars, but no defence for hoggishness. Better man should hang by his teeth to a strap than that he should keep his seat while woman stands. But the results in Cincinnati show how one wrong may lead to others. and the primary fault is evidently with the street railroad man. agement.