The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-05
STREET CAR SERVICE SHOWS ]! QTY'S REMARKABLE PROGRESS

IT nad more people than any Otnef City I of the South. 10 illustrate, suppose an of Montgonery. That acre of ground would show more people than an acre
 mapped out in any other city of the South. a
 Naturally where Q city is so con- gested and so densely populated there is less necessity of people riding than | if 1t was a city of magnificent dis tances, The people live so close to each other near the center of the town that they can walk the intervening dis tances. So. in congested city there Is less street car travel than there would be in normal city."
 .'Of course such a condition could not long continue In Montgomery. Su- burbs would have to grow up. And In the four years I have been in Mont gomery the growth Of the suburbs have been wonderful. have seen nothing like it. And these suburbs growing so rapidly. developed as rap idly the business of the street car com panies. As Montgomery broadened and grew out the street car business wid- aned and grew.
 Growth of Business. "But 1t should not be forgotten, said Mir. Ragland that the street car compapies did as much for the suburbs as the suburbs did for the street car lcompauies. Property In the suburbs has increased as rapidly as the street ear sarvice of the city has incneased in value and effectiveness. I do not exaggerate when I say that suburban property in Montgomery has increased as much as 250 per cent. in the past four years. Real estate men have told
 me that and such has been the result of my personal observation. This is true of such property as that at Glow erdale. at Capitol Heights and at
 Highland Park. To be convinced of
 this Is only to compare the prices at
 which such property could be bought four years ago and the prices asked for this property now. And as I said be- fore the street car companies of Mont gomery had an important part in the establishing of this development and in encouraging this growth"
 When street cars or talked of it should be pointed out that Montgomery was the first city in the United States to use electricity as motive power
 for street cars. So much has been said and written on this subject that only a brief reference to 1t Is neces- sary here but it should at least be re- membered that so far as electricity Is concerned, Montgomery was in ad- vance of all other cities of the world in putting 1t to a practical street car | use. 1HG llTSI SiCNbIlb WGtO tNA in Montgomery in 1886, beginning
 early in the spring of that year. When President and Mrs. Cleveland visited Montgomery they saw here the first electric cars they had ever seen, After electric cars had been operated | for some time on the Highland Park and the Cloverdale lines the private
 power plant owned by the company burned and the old time mule power was substituted until some years later. | Richmond has challenged Montgomery f for the honor of having the first elee- ! tric cars. but a thorough -enttlation of l the question has established the fact | beyond question that Montgomery had | the first electric cars, although they | were later suspended by the burning 1 of the power plant, while Richmond en- | joys the distinction of having the elec- l trio car line which is the oldest in the world and of having established a | system shortly after Montgomery did which has been continuously maintain ed.
 The Pioneers.
 In tho financing and building of this
 early electric system in Montgomery
 Messrs. Will and E. B. Joseph, were the l principal and the prime movers. J. | A Gaboury. a skilled engineer attend | ed to the technical work of establish | ing the lines. Mir. Gaboury Is now liv- ing at Jacksonville. Ala.
 The main history of the street car service, the record of its marvellous development really begun with 1902. At
 that time the Montgomery Traction Company was building its lines which
 were not ready then to be put in oper- ation. In February Richard Tillis. q man of remarkable business ability and | talents who had anassed a fortune ID
 southeast Alabama. bought from Cap | tain J. W. Dimmick the property of the Montgomery Street Company. For this l property MT. Tillis paid about ,s260.ooe and assumed a bonded indebtedness of | $Sn0,000. At that time the company | had a mileage of about sixteen miles. Both the tracks and the cars were of an | inferior sort. The service was declared ! by both the press and the people of
 Montgomery to be nothing short Of l execrabIe. The cars were cheap aud
 ramshackle affairs. or as was justly l said above, 'The worst car in Mont- | gomery now Is better than the best | car in Montgomery then" MT. Tillis ! made great and far reaching improve | ments in the service, greater improve | ments than for which he was given
 credit. In the first place. he bought | new outfit of cars and in the second
 place he rebuilt practically all of the
 sixteen miles of trackage. Moreover
 he increased the trackage from sixteen | miles to twenty-six and one half miles
 Sale to New Company.
 And only a few weeks ago he sold ] the entire system to his rival, the Montgomery Traction Company which 1 sale was probably the largest single l transaction that ever took place in | Montgomery. Mir. Tillis received more than a million dollars for his property. | Just exactly what he received has not
 been made public
 But before MT. Tillis bought.
 and before the improving of | the Montgomery Street Railway | system was beginning the Mont
 begun it's work. To give credit
 where credit is due, the i'm 1 provement of the street car service ! of Montgomery begun with the coming | of W. H. Ragland. He came here with l the Traction Company and superin-
 tended the construction of the Pickett | Springs line. the first line built by the | Traction Company. That line from top | to bottom was made as fine and as sub | stantial as any street car line in the country. This Pickett Springs line proved to be characteristic of the l Montgomery Traction Company. What | ever 1t did. whatever it bought in | to give had to be of the best--and such | has been its continued policy.
 l The era of the improvement in the | street car service was also an era of | park building. First Pickett Springs | Park was built. It represents first and last an investment or $2a,oOo. Then the franchise of the Southern l I,eaeue was secured and Athletic Park l was butlt, as grounds on which the | I,eaRue game should be played. Flee | tric Park was planned and built on a
 magnificent sca' by the Montgomery II s