The San Francisco call., 1906-12-30
BOLD DUPL|CITY Of
UNITED RAILROADS
Continued from Page 21, CoIumn1


satisfaction of the adjusters that there
had been even one cent of damage.
With a total damage to the ma
chinery of less than 9 per cent, ac-
cording to its own sworn statement,
the company protested to the public
and testified before the arbitration
board that the repair Of the cable
lines was impossible in any reasona-
BILE length OF time
While il may be admitted that the
condition of the track on Valencia
street would have required a longer
time to repair, it is now evident that
the company could have operated the
Market. Castro and Haight streets
lines within sixty days at the outside.
It further appears from the sworn
proof Of loss that the damage to the
Hayes and McAllister power houses
was insignificant, and that the cable
lines on those streets could have been
placed in operation within few days.
Engineer Mengel of the McAllister
poWer-house is quoted as saying that
the cable cars on that line could have
been running IN three weeks after the
earthquake, and the only damage to
the Hayes-street plant was a gov
ernor, which was knocked off one of
the engines. which had not been in
use for some time, as the cable there
was being driven by electric motor,
which was not dana ged-
That the Mason and Sutter streets
power-houses were badly wrecked no
one has disputed, but that they could
have been restored in the same length
of time which the engineer of the
California-street Company found
necessary for the repair of that plant
is obvious.
testimony is the disclosure of the fact
that the United Railroads could have
had 900 cars in operation months ago
and given the public an adequate ser
vice If IT had not been necessary to
conceal the fact that the cable lines
were not seriously damaged.
BUT FEW CARS LOST
Out Of a total of s1,S40,o0o in cars,
the proof of loss shows that but $74,770
of rolling stock was destroyed by the
fire. In comparison with this, the Cali
fornla street company lost nearly every
car and its poWer-house was as badly
wrecked as any OF the United Rail
roads, and yet it has resumed its SER
vice in a manner that compares favor
ably with anything that 1.-THE larger cor
poration has accomplished with it's
trolley franchise
When the counsel for the carmen
showed that even If the company bad
insisted on operating nothing but troll
L
of secondhand cars offered for sale in
the railway journals Immediately after
the fire, and proved this by the intro
ducton of the said journals, the Of
ficials of the United Railroads testified
TO the arbitrators that 1T could get no
motors to equip these cars even If they
had been purchased. Against this the
company's own proof of loss shows that
Ii saved from the fire 120 motors, val
ued at $4,000
To make ii doubly certain that it
would have been impossible to equip
any new rolling stock Master Mechanic
F. A Bodler testified to the arbitration
board that 100000 worth of repair
parts had been destroyed in the Valen-
cia street power-house, with the excep-
tion of a few odd pieces which he had
succeeded in saving. Again the deadly
parallel With the sworn proof of loss
shows the character of evidence the
United Railroads is furnishing In the
proof of loss ii appears that all the re-
pair parts in all the power-houses
amounted to less than one-fourth of
the amount Bodler testified had been
destroyed, or, to be exact S95.467 g.
and out of these SALT had been saved.
When the company was called upon
TO furnish the report of it's own en-
gineers on the condition of the cable
power plants after the fire ii tried to
conceal these startling facts by refus-
ing to furnish the reports, giving as an
excuse that they were in the possession
of some engineer in New York and be-
yond their reach
With the trolley franchise, which was
10 have given the quick resumption of
service, there are now in operation 400
cars. If the franchise had not been
granted over 500 cars would have been
running months ago, and the distress
ing congestion and overcrowding would
never have occurred. These are the
facts as shown in the companys own
sworn evidence