New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-07-21
A BUSY COMMISSION.
Cranks Full of Suggestions for Pub-
lie Service improvements.

time Of the day varied assortment of citizens
bursting with suggestions and advice.
Those offices are the mecca for hundreds who
cherish a grievance against a rapid transit COM
pany or gas or electric company They are also
the hunting ground of freak inventors. with
models in all stages Of completion. They are
not, in most Instances, content with showing
their treasures to some minor official, but insist
on seeing one of the commissioners. In fact, one
inventor was much disgruntled because the COM
missioner did not suspend an executive session
to see one Of his marvellous Inventions They
are all marvellous. OF course.
Then there is a subdivision of the inventor
nuisance that comes to the commission without
any models. but with half-formed ideas of revo-
lutiOnary inventions. and in a vague way goes
over his notions with any one who will listen to
them and winds up by asking for funds to carry
out the grand idea
Another class of visitor is the office seeker
He has been locking to the offices of the COM
mission steadily under the impression that he
can get job right off the reel without exami-
nation or any civil service test These are more
easily disposed Of and when they find that they
have to be appointed in a regular way and when
the work that Will be expected Of them is ex-
planned they generally willing enough 10
hurry away.
Each day the commission as a whole and the
commissioners receive IN the mall
hundreds of complaints, some of them so evi-
IDENTIFY preposterous that no business man would
think Of wasting his time in replying. Never
theiess, the complainants always receive courte-
Gus replies from the commission. telling them
that their communications have been duly re
| ceived and filed and will have attention in due
time"
No commission in this or any other state has
probably in 50 short time been told by so
many people exactly how it should conduct its
| own business Every day the commissioners are
told exactly the right way to solve the Brooklyn
Bridge crush. the Eleventh avenue puzzle the
Fourth avenue situation--in brief every transit
problem that they viii be called on TO consider.
one transit crank" in a letter Of less than
five hundred words, told the chairman Of tho
commission just how he could fix il so that there
would never be more people wanting to get on
car than there were seats IN the car.
The bridge crush committee, besides getting
mauled, jostled. bruised and bufTeted hither and
thither when they visited the Manhattan ter
minal of the Brooklyn Bridge. has received
| reams and reams Of advice. The only way TO
settle the bridge crush and not have any" wrote
earnest Brooklynite. rs TO tear down the old
Brooklyn Bridge and run instead a ferry. Have
big three decker ferryboats and three-stOry ter
miQal structures at each terminal Have the
structures built that each floor Of each story
VIII be on the same level with each deck OF the
ferryboats Then there IS no crush. There will
be room for every one, and It won't be slower.
either. than the present p. r T. bridge trains
Another long suffering Brooltlynite suggested
| the following solution: The easy way TO do
away with that fierce mob at the bridge is to
build n second floor under the present floor Of
the bridge which the cars now I am
not engineer, but I think this could be doGs
practically and without much expense. wouIa
suggest that you have your Mr.. Rice. who.
derstand, knows little about engineering, ar
range for the few changes that Will have TO be
made In the bridge TO accommodate the second
floor.
"Of course. with this second floor you could
tell the B. r. T. TO double the number Of
cars. and that would just double the carrying
capacity which should be enough TO do away
with the worst OF the crush There would have
To be some slight changes In the terminals 70
accommodate these extra trains. but they will
| not be Important ones, and Mr.. Rice ought TO be
able 10 make them himself with a little help"
The commission has not been acting fast
enough for some Of The Bronx residents as the
have you not built third track the Second
and Third avenue linesH You have been in Of
flee three weeks. and this matter has not only
not been completed but, sorry To have to
say it Of you. you don't seem to have even
started it, Unless you get busy in hurry and
get that third track built 1 will vote against
you in the next election. l am paying my
hard earned money to pay your salary, which
you don't earn. DO something and do it fast
get out"
letter which charges him with being secret
spy Of the gas company because he has not
ordered cheaper gas and him that there
is day of judgment" coming. when he will
get his deserts from the Lord of Hosts"
These are samples Of one kind of letters that
are received by the long suffering commission
ers on the other hand, each commissioner
daily receives in his mail dozens Of letters from
al classes of people wishing him godspeed in
his work. Some of them. though illiterate, show
so evidently that they come straight from the
heart that the reader cannot find it In him to
sI.lile but. the contrary clenches his fists and
swears that he will be true to his duty-true to
the trust Governor Hughes has given To him.
worthy Of the confidence the Governor has placed
in him. and do his work honestly. faithfully and
for the best interests of the greatest number.
The ordinary person have only slight
i6ea of the enormous amount of work facing
the new Public Service Commissioners for this
district. The mere, ordinary routine work that
each man has to do is enough for a hard bust
ness day But the routine work is merely
fraction of the whole. The commissioners are
strikers. From early in the morning until
late at night they struggle over the problems
that face them and strive 10 give the relief
that the people expect At the pace that they
have been going. it is freely predicted before
long some of them viii be ut subjects for
sanatorium OF course, when the work of or
CaniZaton is perfected and the force of en-
ployes is engaged and working smoothly much
of the routine will be done away with and the
commissioners will find more time TO study
transit situations and conditions At present il
is undeniable that they are overworl1ed and that
some of them showing it.
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