The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-24

prises in promising cities of the West and South. With astonishing rapidity, the slow moving "hayburners' as the mule cars were called in southern places, were retired in favor of modern electric conveyances. Such cities as Savannah, Columbus Dallas Houston, Tampa, Birmingham, Knoxville, Jacksonville. Key West RI Paso and many more were giv- operation of local and eastern capital The New Englander is tradtionally close student of the growth of the coun- try; wherever 1t has seemed to him that an important city is in process of upbutl- ding there he has invested his savings Investors in other sections have ire quently got the benefit of his shrewd guesses.
 This movement, still going on. has be- come tremendous considering that it is only twenty years from the very begin ing of the trolley system and hardly fif- teen years since the principles of scien- tlfic equipment of electric systems in growing cities were developed. Hund- reds of millions of the savings of thrifty eastern people have been expended on transportation systems of the United States, Canada and the island depend- onces. The glaciers of Mount Rainier have been harnessed, the resources of the nations white coal' brought into usefulness. It was not long since that an official trained in the Boston Elevated Railway company was called to Manila to install a thoroughly modern street car system in the Philippine capital. AL trough the electric car service is only twenty years old, American enterprise has had 1t running for about third of that time in Americanized Porto Rico. The business depression of the past few months has In some respects stimulated further trolley building particularly in communities which have not already been provided with the facilities.
 The vehicles themselves on which ev- eryday Americans this spring and sum- mer travel to their Dreamland or Won derland or whatever the local pleasure park Is illustrate the quickness with which modern inventions are improved. For the first electric lines in Richmond and Boston horse cars were slightly re- modelled. These were lctically the It. tie abbreviated boxes with shabby uphol- sterings that jogged through the streets of all American cities. For summer use the managers of the new electric lines took the ordinary open cars, invented in Boston, the cradle seat being device of J. E. Rugg, now an official of the Bos- ton Elevated company. Many of the improvements on elevated railroad cars first adopted in Boston. such as the "easy access doors worked by power have been applied to the more expensive type of trolley cars. This means particularly the "semi-convertibles." This is the type of car that seems destined to be univer- sally used in the larger centers of popu- lation. As late as the St Louis Exposi- ton of 1904 the great commodious and comfortable "semi-convertlbles' which transported the crowds to and from the Fair were more or less of a novelty 10 the public, although street car manage ments had for years been advocating something of the kid as a means of avoiding investment in a double set of cars
 Just what the popular attitude would be toward them was unknown, but hun dreds of thousands of Americans who visited the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- ton liked the semi-convertibles. They have since then gained in popularity SO that the summer of 1908 finds them in use on many of best equipped trans portation lines in the country. Partic- ularly in such climate as that of New England where warmth and cold. sun shine and rain, succeed each other al- most without warning, such a corpora ton as the Boston Elevated company has found that they have solved many of the difficulties of operation. The various safety devices and conveniences with which they are provided, as com- pared with the crude vehicles that were being installed 30 years ago, demon strate how rapid progress has been
 In intensive railroading, with better cooperation of railroad and trolley sys- tems, is believed to lie the future of cleo trio transportation in the big centers of population. Experiments in the way of identification on the New Haven and ether railroad systems are in that di- rection. The next ten years of the trol- ley will probably also see a continuation of the present policy of financial leaders and engineering experts in developing the transportation facilities of smaller, but progressive communities.