New-York tribune., 1910-06-19
Car Horse a Curio
New Yorkers Study Relics
banished Elsewhere in State.

Oat bags Instead, of power plants, straw
ana stoves foc radiators and oil lamps in
place, OF electric lights still suffice to opef-
ate miles of the streetcar lines of this
metropolis, according to an investigation
OF OLD and new methods that has just been
| completed by the Street Railway Associa-
ton of the State of New York at its head
quarters here While the children of al
most every. town in the state have never
seen the crazy cars that horses once
dragged over few miles of toy track
these records show that they are now
crawling over the surface of the same ISL
and that boasts a SIS, ,ooo0o subway Twen-
ty years ago a few hundred teams OF
horses were moving every streetcar pas
senger In the Empire State, where fully
quarter Of a million horsepower is to-day
reported to be constantly. generated for this
purpose in scores of modern electric sta
tions.
On short stretches of track that could
be laid for $1,000 mile, cars costing
little over S,Oo0 were formerly hauled by
horses. bought for few hundred dollars
and kept going all day simply by a dozen
quarts Of oats, it appears from the examina-
ton Of the relics OF old-fashioned traction
In this town To-day it is calculated that
over four thousand miles OF trolley track,
that costs anywhere from $4,000 to S125000
q mile to build, is being traversed through
out the state by twelve thousand motor
streetcars, for which prices ranging from
5000 to $4,000. must be paid. From the
great power houses that have succeeded
the horses barns everywhere, except here,
g. constant extra flow of current is recorded
as being ground out in winter and after
dark to feed clusters of electric lights and
heaters, which have replaced the smoky
lamps and stoves that used to struggle to
make the anuQuated horse cars habitahie.
Since the passing of the horse as trac-
ton power a steady increase in the cost
OF living has been recorded in the history
of the street railways Of this state Men
who handle high speed electric cars receive
to-day 81 per cent more in wages than the
men who drove the old car teams, it is
estimated. Within the last ten years fuel
has gone up SS per cent. rails 47 per cent
and timber for ties 75 per cent, according to
a recent bulletin from the Census Bureau.
which also shows that in the same period
the passengers who pay a nickel have in
creased only So per cent. while those who
get a free transfer have multiplied 81 per
per cent Only the carfare nickel has re-
mained stationary in all the recent rush OF
every other price to higher planes, the
street railway men of the state point out.
Our business began like that Of an apple
stand keeper Yho has only to run around
the corner TO serve his customers" said an
officer OF the State Street Railway Asso-
citation to-day. IF the apple man has to
build q big store, with a plate glass front,
and his patrons demand delivery in auto
mobiles to where they have moved, miles
away, he will find it hard work to keep
on selling apples at the same price While
our passengers can buy with their carfare
nickels much more of a ride than they
could ten years ago, we are finding that We
can't buy much more than half as much
IN necessary supplies with the same
nickels."