The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-02-13
THE STREET RAZR0AD
FRANCHISE.

ERANCHISE.
The presence in the city the past
week of ]. B. Wharton of Amarillo
who represents one of the concerns
that is applying for a street railway
franchise in Brownsville has revived
the talk of that enterprise being start
ed soon. The fact, also, that the
committee of the city council has had
this matter under advisement for
nearly two months leads to the pre-
sumption that some definite action
viii soon be taken by the council, and
that the street railway question will
soon be settled in a way that will
give the city good street car service.
AS is perhaps well known, there are
three applications for street rail
way franchise now in the hands of
the city council Two of these are
from local people and the third is
from a company at Amarillo, Texas.
All three propositions look good on
their face and, so far as can be ascer-
tanned, there is little to choose be-
tween them.
The first proposition submitted to
the council was by w. H. Mason, Jr.,
L. II. Hallam and others. They asked
for a franchise for a belt line electric
road to run twenty years and agreed
to build two and a half miles of track
within a year from the granting of
the franchise. The applicants make
the usual guarantees as to main
tanning streets, etc. and pledge them
selves that after the net revenues of
the road have reached fifteen percent,
all surplus revenue over that amount
shall be divided equally between the
city and the company.
The day after the -Hallam
proposition was received, a second ap-
plication was filed by J. B. Scott, A.
c. Brokaw, J. G. Fernandez, and 9TH
ers, asking for fifty year franchise
to build a street railway line, the
cars to be propelled either by cleo
tricity or gasoline. The company
guarantees to have one and half
miles of road in operation within a
year and has deposited $1,000 to
make good their guarantee. A for
felt of $1,000, to be paid to the
city. in the event of the company's
failure to carry out its contract, was
placed in bank by this company as
guarantee of good faith.
The third proposition, which was
filed with the city council the fore
part of January, is by Sam D. Wharton
and his associates, of Amarillo, Texas.
This proposition differs little from the
last one above save in two points first,
that the company is pledged, when
ever any street on which it has tracks
is paved to pay for the paving of that
portion occupied by its tracks and,
second, to carry ali school children
TO and from school at one-half the
regular fare They also agree to
divide all net revenues in excess of
twelve per cent with the city.
There are several important points
in connection with the granting of a
street railway franchise that should
be carefully considered. The COM
nittee of the council that has the
matter under advisement acts wisely
in not hurrying its report. A hasty
action might leave some apparently
trivial but really important matter
unsettled, which would be a cause
of contention for years to come.
In the first place. Brownsville
wants electric cars Provision for
any other motive power should not
be considered. Other points that are
essential in granting a street car
franchise includes provisions to OBJ
iigate the company to pave between
the track and one foot on either side.
whenever the street is paved; the
tracks should be built level with the
street, and penalty imposed for fail
ure to do this-no franchise should
be granted without this provision;
the location of poles, height of wires
above the street and responsibility
FOR moving poles. when curb lines are
changed, should be provided for. as
this may save much trouble in future;
agreement by the company to main
tain the streets along the track in
good repair should be enforced under
penalty promises on the part of a
corporation.