The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-16
Increase tns~ 1879 Inches
SUNDAY, AUGUST 1e, 1903.
A CROSS TOWN CAR LINE.

There is nothing that st. Paul
needs more today than a cross town
car line. 1t has needed one for many
years. but such convenience has now
become Indispensable. 1t is necessary
for the public comfort. Viewed intel
ligently, it is also needed by the street
railway company for the transaction
of its business economically. If the
company cannot be made to see that,
as it has proved deaf to all appeals in
the past, then our citizens should
bring public opinion to bear in an eff
fective way.
An exhaustive article in our local
columns presents the facts Of the stu
alton so clearly that everyone can I'M
derstand them. The need of this line
does not require any proof. 1t is felt
sharply. by a very large portion Of our
people. Hundreds of thousands of
trips are made every year which put
the passenger to the greatest incon-
venience, costing him time and money
and comfort, and covering miles of SUI
perf1uous transportation, that would
resolve themselves into a few minutes
travel if the cross town line were in OPP
Grafton.
We need it, first, for purposes Of Or
binary communication. We doubt If
there is another city in the country of
the size of st. Paul which does not
possess this convenience. Our street
railway lines spread like the radii of
a circle from the business center. At
the extremity of these lines lie the
wish to travel only between home and
business are accommodated. But the
vast bulk of travel that now exists be-
tween neighborhood and neighborhood
is compelled to ride down town on one
line and back on another. or to take
to the sidewalks.
We need it, again, for the service of
the immense volume of traffic to and
from Como park. Thousands upon
thousands of people seek that resort
every day during our long outing pc
Rod. The time that should be given
to rest and recreation is consumed in
stead in two long trips on different
lines. with transfer between. 1t is
hardly an eXaggeration to say that
double the number of people would
visit this beautiful spot if they could
RI With
We need it, most of all. for the daily
service of the districts lying along
West Seventh street and the districts
served by the two interurban lines.
Men who find employment in one and
can find cheap and comfortable homes
in another are placed at as great a
disadvantage as if they lived in Min
neapolis and worked in st. Paul. The
want Of cross town line is standing
injury to the workingman: and it is
one Of the strongest influences at work
today to retard the growth and limit
the prosperity of the city.
1t does not seem to us that the ques-
ton of the proper route to be select
ed ought to cause any division of opin-
ion at this time; in fact there ought
not to be any such question. When we
get to the point of a second GROSS town
line, then the best street for 1t may be
debatable. But for the immediate
present. for the line that ought to be
built at once, Dale street is obviously
the desirable and necessary route This
is true because Dale street runs
throughout through a thickly settled
district where patronage would be
large; because it crosses every line of
railway now operating of consequence
save one; because it taps or touches all
the principal portions of the city lying
west of Wabasha; because, Dale street
being unpaved. it would involve no ex-
ira expense and would not interfere