The San Francisco call., 1905-02-27

tenn to the attention of the Board OF super
visors and the people and we are ready to 90
ahead with the work when we nnd that the
people want the overhead electric road
None of the officials of the railroad
will admit that the underground ser
vices in Eastern cities has proved as
successful as the trolley, but they can
not cite any particular authority to
show that they are not The company
still further argues:
First-The city is hilly the sewers are in an
abomfnable state. and the franchise of the
Sutter-street system has less than twenty-hye
tional objection to reconstruction OF the Suffer-
street road and its branches an underground
CONDUIT line that It would be deprived PRIV OF con.
of the advantages of electricity over the cable
would be sacrificed. 1t appears that the to-
Biography Of San Francisco is such that during
storms large volumes of water are drained
into the low places and that the nat lying
sewers are unable to dispose of 1t. At the
same time water flows from the adjoining hills
into the cable SLOT and frequently. in addition
to the natural drainage the back water from
sewers overffows into the conduit The inn
portance of this statement lies in the fact that
electric conduit under water In wet place.
Second--Regardless Of the perfect condition
Of the railway itself. travel would depend
during wet weather upon the condition of the
sewers. and If they were imperfect or made,
quate traffic would have be suspended until
the conduit had been drained and the contact
bars had dried This suspension of travel
would come just a. the time when the public
most needed transportation facilities. 1t would
be narrowing and the dolenoes of the people
of San Francisco would go up to heaven. Under
such conditions it is easy to understand that
the United Railroads would be culpable In
installing undsrg round electric system on
Sutter street and its connections The com
and the overhead trolley. 1t will be one or the
other public sentiment and the Board OF
Supervisors shall decide. There Is no alter
Francisco. and especially patrons of the
Sutter- street lines, require TO put into their
heads and keep there.
EASILY ANSWERED.
The experts that have been consulted
BY members of the Sutter Street I'm
provement Club answer the first con-
tention by calling attention to the fact
that the underground systems of the
Eastern cities are never put out of
commission by snow and ice. If the
mere presence of water in the conduit
would ground" the feed wire then why
DO not the Eastern roads ground dur
ing the melting of the snow when the
volume of water that gets into the
conduit in level cities like Washington
and Chicago must be much greater
than it would be on rainy day in hilly
San Francisco? If the conduits are
properly constructed the feed wire will
not rest on the bottom of the concrete
as the United Railroads. engineers seem
to assume it will. They must figure on
The second statement merely pictures
the narrowing conditions that will con-
front Sutter street travellers if they
fail to obey the harvester of the nickels.
Professor Franz Eberling, who sew
eral years ago visited this country from
Germany to make reports on American
street railroad systems, said in his re-
port that the underground electric
system has been tried and seems to
l,s,x l,iex
few minor obstacles to it's success re-
main to be obliterated." Since this
statement by the professor the OBJ
stacles referred to have undoubtedly
been removed, as there has been con-
siderable progress in the improvement
of the Washington and Chicago conduit
electric roads.
Printed petitions addressed to the
United Railroads and artfully worded
to convey the idea that the signers
desire an overhead trolley system to re-
place the present cable road, have been
circulated for several weeks along both
sides of Sutter street
A man bearing several petitions with
blank spaces for signatures appeared
a few days ago at the rooms of the
Holluschickie Club at 952 SHtter street
The petition reads as follows:
To the United Railroads of San Francisco
Gentlemen: 1t being represented to the under
signed that your company proposes to recon
struct its Sutter-street system and continue 1t
as a cable road. now. therefore. we. the under
signed. hereby declare preference for an
overhead electric trolley line in place of cable
and respectfully petition that said line be so
reconstructed
AS will be seen the paragraph was
so carefully worded that casual read
ing would not show the discrimination
between overhead and underground
construction. At a glance the paper
purports to be petition to the United
Railroads to consider the installation
of an electric road in preference to
renovation of the cable line This
would give the road an opportunity
to switch to the overhead line. pro-
ducing a request signed by citizens on
Sutter street, many of whom might not
be aware of what they were signing.
SIGNERS DECEIVED.
One Of the members Of the Hollus-
chickie Club is Pierce C. Moore, for
merly secretary and still member of
the Sutter-street Improvement Club.
He was upstairs in the club at the time
the petitioner called. On coming down.
stairs he was told of "a petition" and
upon the assurance that his signature
was needed signed 1t hurriedly. Several
other members did the same, and it
was not until the bearer of the petition
had departed that they discovered from
duplicate how they had been misled.
Moore, with other members of the
Club, repudiates his signature.
Three different petitioners appeared
at intervals OF a few days to Frank P.