The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-01
BELMONT AND RYAN.
How the IntcrboroIgh Became Bur
 dcncd by the Metropolitan.

The subway justified all anticipa-
 tions. It was pushed to completion
 without graft or scandals of any kind,
 It was a credit to Belmont, to McDon-
 aid, and to the city of New York. A
 few months before it was formally
 opened, Belmonts lnterborough com
 pany leased the whole system of ele-
 ,ated roads, and by greatly improving
 the service, secured another title to public gratitude. This transaction prov
 cd SC profitable that the lnterborough company, whose main property was the
 subway, began paying dividends be-
 fore the subway was opened. It's
 stock sold for more than $200 q share,
 and, soon after the underground road
 began to operate, paid nine per cent.
 dividends Everybody perceived that
 Belmont had the finest and the clean
 est street railway proposition in the country, and probably in the world. No
 one saw this more clearly than Thom-
 as F. Ryan, who now determined to lay hands upon the lnterborough com- pany. His Metropolitan was losing S3,
 GOO, 900 year; Belmonts subway was earning a surplus of $4,0G0,000; what
 was more simple and desirable than to
 take Belmonts surplus to make good
 his own deficiency? Naturally, Wall
 street was amazed when Ryan's scheme first became publicly known This seemed too audacious even for | him. Belmont. when first approached on the subject of merging the Inter borough and the Metropolitan compa-
 nies, rejected the idea with hcrror. He
 knew its history and its condition, and
 had no ambition to attach to his own vital transit system that body of 1 death. Ryan's genius shows to eXcep- | tional advantage in the methods which | he now adopted ir bringing his adver- | sary to terms. He showed himself an expert in the art of using public opin- l ion for his private purposes, and in converting the several agencies of gov ernment into instruments for the ac- complishment of his personal ends. " Everywhere in New York city cer- i tain so-called civic associations" were formed overnight. These organiz- ations apparently had one unanimous object in view; they all demanded that no future subway contracts should be awarded that did not provide for free 1 interchange of passengers to the sur
 face lines In other words, they de-
 handed that the contracts should be
 awarded to Ryan and not to Belmont. Until recently it has been supposed 1 that these associations arose spontan-
 eously. and that their leaders were ac-
 tuated solely by an unselfish regard ! for the public interest. MT. Quigg has i recently confessed that he inspired the
 organizations himself; that Metropoli-
 tan money paid all the expenses, that
 the leaders were in the pay of the 1 Metropolitan company, and that the speakers at their meetings had Metro
 politan checks in their pockets. Al
 about the same time, some mysteri-
 ous agency started on its way mon
 ster citizens petition to the rapid
 transit commission, begging it to
 award no subway contracts that did not provide for transfers to the sur
 face lines. Mir. Quigg now acknowl-
 edges that he was the power behind
 this manifestation of public opinion Everybody signed; even the schoo
 children rushed to put themselves up
 on the Metropolitan side. Mir Quigf paid his carvassers five cents for every name secured; in this way he collected 1000, 0OO signatures. had the docu-
 ment tastefully bound in % volumes
 and rendered a bill to the Metropoli