The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-03-03

Toronto has three-cent tickets in rush hours, four-cent tickets good at any time and single cash fare of five cents. School children are carried for two and half cents between 3 a. III. and D. m,
 In Montreal one company sells eight tickets for twenty-five cents, good dur ing rush hours, four-cent tickets, good except on the night lines after mid- night. A new company sells ten rush hour tickets for twenty-five cents. Since the construction of new line in Wilmington, Del, both companies sell six tickets for twenty-five cents. in 1901 franchises for nearly all the streets then unoccupied were given, l without charge, to the street railway monopoly in Philadelphia, despite the offer of a responsible citizen to pay | S3, 900 ,000 in cash for these franchises and give three-cent fares from to s a. m. and to D. m. The fare re- mains at five cents.
 l Cleveland, O., during the past year
 granted a franchise embracing seventy
 miles of streets for twenty years on straight three-cent fare basis, with other important advantages to the city.
 This grant was held invalid by the courts on the ground that competing
 bidders who might have offered still better terms were not given a chance.
 When this defect was remedied, the corporations attacked the validity Of
 the city government, and in effect the decision of the supreme court was that
 all city governments in Ohio had been
 organized in violation of the constitu-
 tion and their acts were illegal. A spe-
 cial session of the legislature was called
 to pass valid general incorporation
 act for cities, and the franchise ques-
 tion will come up at the next local elec-
 tion.
 Columbus, O.. has the lowest rate of
 fare of any city in the United States
 seven tickets for twenty-five cents.
 Your committee obtained from Profes-
 sor E.. M. Bemis, recognized author ity, the story of the recent contest which forced this reduction. It shows also the methods adopted for conceal
 ing profits by means of stock watering , and will repay careful perusa(. > In view of the reduced fares ob tained in many other cities and tht - numerous offers made in various citie:
 of three-cent fares in return for new l franchise we believe that fare O
 five cents in New Haven is excessive ) Improvements in construction ant l motive power during the past tel 9 years have been so great and have per = mitted such economies in transporta
 ltion that a three-cent fare is as profita r ble to an urban railway as was five Q cent fare ten years ago. The publi S should receive the benefit of this say
 ling. If the street railway business Wer n open to competition the public woul t obtain service at reduced price, just a y in competitive business progress an t invention reduce the cost of goods. n Wherever it is impossible to reduc - the rate of fare we believe that tn
 franchise possessed by q public servic s corporation should be assessed, as no' h required by law. The franchise tax S es should be paid to the people of tn $ municipality who use the road, pay tn n excessive fare which makes franchis valuable, and in the last analysis pa It the tax.
 d We have not investigated in muc
 detail the taxes paid by street raj