The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-12
KNELL OF THE CABBY
TAxAMETER DEVICES ARE GREAT
 MONEY SAVERS.
uatroduefion ef Cabs Which Register the Fare Automatically fs Putt tins Pirates Out of Bus
 tnenn In New York.

New York, Jan 11.--Cabs which reg tster the fare automatically are to be operated in every large city In the Uni ted States before the end of the year. men who are fighting cab extortion meet with the success preliminary investigation promises.
 The plan of these men is not to op-l crate rival cab companies in other cit- les. but to make 1t possible for every cab man in the United States to equip his rig with taxameter device.
 The question of the popularity of the taxameter, or, as some call them. leash register" cabs in America, has. the cab experts believe. been settled by their success in New York from the start. Although they have been in operation only few months in this couiftry. the taxameters have already put the night hawk and pirate cabmen on the run, and there Is now on foot in the cab- mons association a movement looking to the general adoption of the auto matte fare register on all public vehi- clea
 The cabrnen are already finding that the taxameter system which guaran- charged, has led to steady business at legal rates. which is far more lucrative than occasional excessive fares from those who can be mulcted.
 Already in this city, where last month over s0,0eo people rode in taxa meter vehicles 1t is estimated that from s5.000 to sS.0e0 per day. or more than $1.000,000 per year in over charges have been saved to the public. The metered cabs alone have not saved that muchs but their absolute rate for dis- tance has forced many of the non tax ameter drivers to be far more conserv- ative in their demands, as the general public is being educated rapidly as to the exact charges for trips about town
 New York's conservatism In trans- portation matter generally is proba bly responsible for the fact that the taxa meter cab. which has been running in the larger European cities for many years, has only recently been adopted in New York. The New York Trans portation Company, which introduced the taxameter into the city ,axperi- mented with several dozen different kinds of taxameter devices, in use in various continental cities, before deeid- ing on the type best suited to Father Knickerbocker's needs, and then pro- ceeded, with considerable trepidation, to equip 250 cabs with this device. If New York decided that 1t didn't want any new fangled cab fare device, the company would have spent many thousand dollars for nothing. But, somewhat to the astonishment of some of the eompany's oficers. the taxa meter became the rage, and already 4e0 out of the 2,500 licensed cabs in New York County register the fare au- tomatieally. It is estimated that since it was introduced 1t has created 40.- coo new cab users. This army of new cab users is made up largely of peo- pie who probably never used cab heretofore. except at funerals or we'd dings. They have now gotten the cah habit and are using the metered ve- hicles for short distances. for which the fare Is from 90 to 50 cents. the rate for a mile ride.
 At q recent meeting of the horse cabmen, several speakers were very positive that the overcharges by pirate hackmen had resulted in a generally diminished cab business for all driv- CTS, and counseiled their fellow cab- bies to adopt some fare computing de-