New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-24
DEMAND NEW R. 7. BOARD
APPEAL TO AMEND ACT.
Drazon to Shat Ont Ill but Traffic
Monopoly, Dir. Warner Says.


people than ever Tweed and the Doodle alder
men were. declared Alfred ]. Boulton. the Pop
ulist candidate for Governor. The commission
was shortsighted in not providing plans to care
for the development of the city by municipal
authority. instead of committing the transit
facilities TO private monopoly, said Calvin Tom
kins, president of the Municipal Art Society.
The Rapid Transit act. In providing for COM
mission not elective, was an INSULT to a demo-
cratic form of government, John Dewitt Warner
held. 1t was fatally weak almost criminally
culpable. in its provisions which handed over TO
a monopoly of transit interests. the MetropoI-
itan Street Railway the marlborough company
and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit COmpany-or,
to give this union another name. the Standard
Oil combination-by which this city is practi-
cally controlled" the privileges Of subway extern
sion, Mr. Warner declared.
The subway sign question was brought up
early In the speaking. and almost everybody
paid his respects to the commission for think
ing of allowing the signs. and the marlborough
company for wanting them.
1T is to be regretted that the city authorities
were caught mapping last night, when the signs
went UP on the broken walls of the stations"
said Mr. Tomkins. 1.-The police should have
protected the city property from the vandals.
THE Rapid Transit Commission. when their
attention was called originally to the DETACHMENT
of the walls, acted promptly and ordered the
work stopped. In defiance of their authority
and in contempt of their Office and a conse-
quenCe of laxity on the part of the police, at
least on two nights has the outrage been
peated. No question of right involved in
this hasty and secret action. for if these men
have rights they have fifty or seventy-f1ve
years in which to enjoy them, and few days
or weeks delay till the rights OF all parties
liza tah f,a5
would have resulted in hardship to no one.
AN issue seems imminent now between the
Rapid Transit Commission and the railroad
company, and it is probable that the legal test
which should have preceded will now follow
The people of the city are under obligations to
their Controller, Mr.. Grout, for the persstency
with which. step by step he has led the Rapid
Transit Commission to their present position.
This position, we confident, is only held
temporarily and will be ultimately abandoned
for that of insistence on free subway streets.
with privileges to no one"
The city built the subway and turned it over
to the operating company a gift free from
taxes for fifty years. Mr.. Boulton said with
provision that the fare should never be less than
five cents. He compared this with the terms on
which the Broadway company got its lease from
the doodle board, and shouted
Why. If this contract is a sample of the con-
tracts we're to expect from the Rapid Transit
Commission, the people must wake TO the IDEA
that it's a greater menace 10 the city than
Tweed and the Doodle aldermen. The concern
which controls the subway is going TO control
the surface lines and the elevated. Are we to
furnish public money for a complete monopoly
of all transit facilities?"
It was time for the city to care for its valuable
transportation facilities, Mr.. Tomkins declared,
before all were laid out by private enterprise for
private gain. After all the trunk lines OF COM
munication were pre-empted by private con-
Germs the cfty's opportunity would be gone, but
now, when the great subway potentialities had
been hardly touched, the city had the trans
portation concerns absolutely at its mercy, be-
cause of the competition from an indefinite num-
Der OF lines which might be built by municipal
enterprise unless the private lines were made to
serve municipal purposes.
The Rapid Transit Commission just was
submerged under the idea that any advance
must be in accordance with the plans and ideals
of the men who now control the transit rail-
ways. All future subways should be built for
short term leases, and should be independent of
the present lines Good service could be got
from existing concerns by keeping whip hand
over them, he believed. Elevated roads should
be restricted.
John De Witt Warner made imprisoned
appeal for an immediate revision of the Rapid
Transit act in which graft "bIacknaiT' and
monopoly" were frequent terms. A year ago.
said he, the commission had it's powers in
creased but at its own request had these powers
so limited that it couldn't cut itself loose from
the Belmont syndicate.
TT can't serve the city" he said. but it may
serve the franchise corporations You must have
the act amended to leave 1T free TO serve the
people,
Three particular amendments were imperative.
Because the commission had told the public it
wouldn't do it, there should be an amendment
compelling it, in planning for new roads. TO
specify that they be capable OF independent op-
Grafton. The commission was unwilling to have
anything 10 do with plan which suggested sub
ways not TO be operated by the Belmont syndi-
cate. The tendency OF the present act to
force the hundreds of miles of subways to come
to depend the present monopOIy There
should be competition in serving the people in
stead or monopoly in debating what the people
should do"
The contracts for operation and construction
shouid De made separate. Why shouldn't the
SUBWAY be built with the greatest possible COM
petltlon' leaving the city free TO obtain an op-
Grating concern at competitive bidding?
'Ihe present act fOrbids the commission TO
let the contract TO man who won't run the
road for the full term" said Mr. Warner
There are only three sets of interests in this
town who can operate any subway. and they're
all united into one aggregation. The reason
that act was drawn was to shut out all interests
other than the marlborough. the METROPOLITAN
street Railway Company and the Brooklyn
Rapid Transit Company; or, to give this aGgre-
CATION another name. the Standard oil combina-
ton, by which this city is practically con
trolled
There should be a short term lease not ex-
exceeding twenty-five years. if the East Side
were To get the First-ave. subway which IL de-
manded, the only East Side subway which could
dement, the East Side. A Lexington-ave. line
operated by the Belmont crowd would he IttIa