The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-19
COMPARATIVE INCoNyENIENCEs.

dweller in the city, wherever that city | may be. to think that his particular rapid transit accommodations are the | worst that mortal man is called upon to endure and that there never were such eXasperating inconvenience as those he particularly undergoes From time to time the residents of New Ha- ven write to the newspapers to com plain of dirty windows, or poor ven- tilation in the trolley cars. or even to take up the humanitarian stand point where one motorman in all the city Is found who does not have a vestibule to stand in to protect him from the winters cold. But such troubles as these fade into insignifi- canoe with the recital of but one days difficulties in New York, and so much so that we are half apt to suspect that there is some atom of truth in the very modest assertion that Super intendent Judge has been known to make, namely that New Haven has one of the best, if not the best. sys- tenn of rapid transit facilities in the country.
 Tuesday New York experienced two serious tie-ups. The one involved the four elevated railroads of the city be- cause of the short-clrcuting of high potential feed cable. which brought over 100 trains to standstill. and the other was under the dark and deep waters of the East river in the tunnel to Brooklyn. Traffic was only suspended little over twenty minutes in the first instance, but New Workers have never been willing to wait that long without its being irk- some The result of 1t was that ev- erybody, women and all, crawled out of the cars and along the elevated tracks. where they were in immedi- ate danger of being electrocuted. should the power be turned on again in the third rails. to the nearest sta- ton.
 There were those who said they 
 were never to be induced to ride In the New York subway. when it was first finished, no matter how much they were attracted. Few of them have stood by their colors, for all ride to-day. When the great tunnel to Brooklyn from Bowling Green was opened not so many weeks ago the same hue and cry were repeated. If the subway was deemed dangerous, then the river tunnel was many times more so. To get to Brooklyn resolv- ed itself into choice of two evils either to run the risk of the big 1 Brooklyn bridge precipitating one in- to the waters of the river from above, when the proverhial bridge crush be- came greater than granite and steel could endure, or from below, when the new submarine structure gave way its tube-llke walls and the bodies fioated to tho top.
 The cause of the tie-up In the tun- nel Tuesday was a trivial one, but the experience could not have been other than very -wracking to those who went through 1t. For over an hour the electric current had to be turned off and for all that time the passengers in the trains that hap pened to be caught under the river had to remain in utter darkness, not knowing what the cause was or al what moment something dire might come upon them. To add to their dis comfort the guards insisted upon locking them in the cars. This was to prevent any possibility of an at tempt to get out and make their way afoot back to the daylight with the third rail offering possible death al every step should the current be turn ed on again. In the new McAdoo tun- mel to Hoboken each car has an elec- tric battery that keeps the lights go- ing just to guard against any such sit. nation as the one mentioned when the suspension of the current in the third rail would leave all in dark. ness and terror. Perhaps the need
 of it will be seen in the older tun. nel, too.
 Yes. New Haveners have their rap. i'd transit troubles. but what are the,
 in comparison? At least it may b,
 said with feeling of veracity tha
 there is not a division of the Connec
 ticut company that gets better servic,
 than the local one and certain it i
 that the local employees will compar,
 favorably with any. certainly witl
 those in New York. for obliging acts