The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-25

the Montgomery Suburban Street Rail way were not purchased by the Mont
 gomery Traction Company, nor ever
 the stockholders of the Montgomer,
 Traction Company. but they were pur
 chased and the capital stock now he
 longs to parties In Philadelphia witi
 whom the stockholders of the Mont.
 somery Traction Company, are inter
 ested in business matters in other cities
 and the purcnase was made with the
 end in view of consolidating tho -.iree
 companies into one corporation and op-
 erating all of the lines as one complete
 system and under one management. Ii
 the consolidation takes place, the man.
 agement of the consolidated company
 will be under MT. Apperson and the
 present officers and employees of the
 Traction Company. and we have every
 reason to expect that the same liberal,
 progressive policy will be pursued that
 has characterized the management of
 the Montgomery Traction Company
 since 1t was taken out of the hands of
 a rec liver and put in the hands of the
 presa owners on the 18th day of March.
 1905. Before the Montgomery Street
 Railway was bought on the 18th day
 or December. last. they were told by me
 as well as by every one with whom
 they talked in the city of Montgomery.
 that everybody in the city of Montgom-
 cry realized the great advantage d con
 solidation of the street railways into
 one system would be to the public, and
 the purchase was made under the im-
 pression and belief that there would
 not only be no objection to the con-
 meeting of the lines, but that every
 citizen of Montgomery would be glad
 to have them do so.
 At a meeting of the City Council on
 the 12th of December. when the pur-
 chase of the Street Railway was about
 to be closed up, MT. Appersou. for him
 self and associates, addressed to the City, Council communication request ing the permission of the City Council to put in certain curves. switches and the like to enable. in the event of con- solidation. the lines to be operated as one system. and an ordinance was in- troduced by the terms of which the City Council of Montgomery was to grant such permission. This ordinance was referred to the joint committee of Franchises and Privileges and Streets and this joint committee had the same under consideration for several weeks. and at meeting of the City Council, last Monday night reported a substi- tute for the original ordinance, by the terms of which permission is granted to connect the lines. but to the section granting this permission In the ordi- nance reported as a substitute by the joint committee, there are number of sections. imposing conditions, some of which the Street Railway can afford to accept but some of which they cannot concede. At the first meeting of the Committee, the. Committee informed me that they were willing to report in favor of allowing the connections to be made, but wanted to know if my people would not be willing to enter into some by which the tracks on Mobile street and South Perry street, should be removed from those streets. I immediately took up the matter with MT. Apperson and his associates with the end in view of get ting them to agree to do so. By fully informing them of the whole history of the Mobile and South Perry street tracks. and by impressing upon them that to remove these tracks would be appreciated by a very large number of our citizens who have always ob- jected to having line on these streets. they desiring to start off in perfect harmony and accord. not only with the city authorities, but with all the people of Montgomery, authorized me to in- form the Committee that they would the track from Mobile and Perry to other streets. After this mat ter was settled the matters of agree ing in the ordinance to never charge more than a five cents fare, the giving of transfers over all the lines. and the sale of school tickets to pupils of the public schools at rate of three and one-eighth cents were proposed by tho Committee as further conditions to the ordinance We replied to this that we were perfectly willing to agree to those and we had fully expected Co do these things anyway, and had so announced. Later on, it was proposed in the Committee, and in fact an ordi- nance or resolution of some kind was by Alderman Tyson, that the Street Railway should pay money into the City Treasury and also agree that hereafter they would pay to the city annually some part of their gross re- ceipts.
 The last clause in Section of the ordinance reported by the joint com mittee as a substitute. while probably not intended to be so, Is very far-reaeh- Ing. Under the original franchises of all of the street railways. and all .he ordinances as they now exist. and In fact under. Section S5 of the Charter of the city. street railways are required. whenever any street is paved or other wise improved, to pave or otherwise
 Improve that part of said street occu- pied by them between and under their tracks and for two feet on each slde thereof, at their own cost Under the ast clause in Section 8, If the street were to accept the same. they would probably be required to pave the l whole of the street at their expense f the City Council should see fit to pass m ordinance requiring them to do so.
 To these things the owners of the | Street Railway will not agree, and havc instructed me to inform the city yau- l horities that If Sections and 10 and | he last clause of Section 8 of the ordi- | 'ance reported by the committee as a | are insisted upon, they will 'e compelled to respectfully withdraw heir application for permission to con | lect the lines.
 Before final action is taken on the natter at the meeting tonight. ! re- pectfully ask of you to consider well Ii he proposition before voting thereon II that the permission to mako he connections of the lines is worth to the street railways, the roposition immediately presents itself IS to whether the city does not get value aceived for such permission by got ng a greatly improved street car sys- m. by the great improvement in the t' )ndition of Mobile street and South erry street and by obtaining for the tizens of Montgomery transfers to Il parts of the city over all lines and 'ducing the fares of the pupils of the iblic schools They say that this is , much IS they can give for these nall privileges, and if the city de- - |