New-York tribune., 1908-08-17
PETTY PILFERING.

Men who in their relations with their fellow
men wouldn't think of taking a dishonest penny,
and women whose lives are models OF uprlgEt-
ness are often unable to resist the temptation
TO conceal about their persons dutlebie articles,
making false statements to the customs oftclals
if necessary, and when safely home even BOAST
of their shrewdness in escaping the vigilance
of the governments representatives. The same
idea exists in regard to payment for streetcar
rides. and persons of the most exemplary habits,
so generous that they invariably hand the
waiter a quarter after dinner at the restaurant,
will gaze fixedly out of car windows for blocks
in the hope of avoiding the necessity OF yielding
Up that scent piece.
In the discussion of the transfer question in
New York one of the important points made by
the streetcar companies is that the illegal CIV
ing away and selling Of transfers has no little
hearing on the condition of the balance sheet at
the end of the year. If every passenger were
honest enough to live up to the implied contract
that the transfer issued by the conductor must
be used by the person receiving it from him
or else not used at all thousands of extra fare:
would find their way into the treasury of the
company and in that event the company would
be lust SO much better able to deal generously
with its patrons. It is no uncommon thing to
find regular business being made, mostly by
small boys, of the illegal sale of transfers, and
this is especially noticeable at Third avenue
and 149th street. where the. traveller is I'M
portuned for his transfer as he comes down N
order that it may be offered at the entrance to
the subway across the street Every transfer
disposed of in this manner OF course means
lust so much loss to the company.
Pay-as-you-enter cars we're put on in the be-
lief that they might facilitate the collection or
fares and thereby eliminate one great source or
leakage and that under this arrangement it
would be easier to keep a check on the con-
ductor and prevent the diversion of sundry coins
from the companys tills. Complaint is made
in Newark. however, where these cars have re-
Gently been installed, that the public is in
hearty sympathy with the conductors in their
efforts to beat the company, and even openly
connive with them. An officer of the Public
Service CORPORATION is said to have made the
statement that some of the conductors on the
new cars manage to pocket three or four dollars
a day and that the companys aggregate loss IS
half a million dollars year. He further de
clares that the public helps the conductor to
steal that the passenger, man or woman. knows
that the conductor steals helps him TO pocket
the fare, and thus participates in the crime
These new pay-as-y -you-enter cars have opened
"our ewes to the fact that the public delights in
seeing a fare go into the pocket of the CON
'ductor rather than into the tils of the cor
"poration"
The charge is not greatly exaggerated as
to be unimportant. and the abuse is not confined
to Newark or to New York, but is just as com
mon in all cities where there are crowded cars
In most cases of such petty thievery it is con
sidered only smartness. perhaps. by the passen-
gers concerned in it, and when they wink at
the failure of Hhe conductor to ring up the fare
lust handed to him they do not appreciate that
they are aiding and abetting q crime differ
ing only in magnitude from that of breaking
into the vaults of a bank and taking away the
gold and greenbaczs. The instinct is more
thoughtless than criminal. but the effect on the
profits of the company is the same whatever
name may be applied TO the system by which
it is defrauded. Streetcar companies have
good many sins of their to answer for but
this does not justify crooked methods on the
part of the people. and he present time would
be an excellent one for an ethical awakening
to their responsibility in the premises