New-York tribune., 1911-03-12
for Our Railroads

, wise steamship lines come into play. They,
| too have a claim on the immigrant frafnc'
| and they get their share, whether or no.
/ Il is a delightful sail from New York To
Newport News. and thousands OF people
are glad TO take it. even though 1t takes
thirty-sx hours of time and furnishes
roundab bout way 10 Washington.
But an immigrant who has been boxed
up for a week m one OF the stoutest ships
that sail the seas and who is bound for
Cleveland is not likely 10 relish thirty
six-hour sail around Cape Charles, espe-
cially since at the end of the voyage he fnds
himself still twenty-siX hours from CleVe-
land. with the best prospects in the world
OF missing two or three connections. From
New York he could have reached Cleveland
in fifteen TO twenty hours by the most mod
crate trains. His ticket would have cost
him about 50 more had he gone directly
and not ridden second class and he
would have been in Cleveland Just two days
earlier. with the cost of two days food
still in his pocket
1t was such complaints as these. poured
in necessarily from angry immigrants.
which at last led the steamship lines 10
protest. Steamship men have said that
practically all immigrants are carried hY
roundabout routes. In every case. the
immigrants ticket IS very little cheaper
than the first class fare for his Journey
and the accommodations that are provided
in the way OF cars and waiting rooms are
incomparably worse.
For instance the first class fare 70 Phila.
delphia is 81 25 81 for the round trip. 4
! party ticket for a group OF ten or moro
can be purchased at 81 So FOR each passen-
ger. The time 10 Philadelphia, as any one
knows. is two hours. An immigrant pays
s. 35 or the full first class fare; is shipped
in a special immigrant train. which takes
from four TO six hours, and is LETT At
station in West Philadelphia, two miles
from the heart OF the city. where the regu-
lar stations are placed. His train is usual
ly sent out at night, so that he arrives be-
tween > and o'clock in the morning.
No one who is IN the secret Will say 20.
but it is not denied that there was strenu-
Gus protest from the steamship men 10 tho
Trunk Line Association before the Lacka-
wanna threw down the gauntlet What
that break meant was shown within three
DAYS. Tho night after the Lackawanna
opened its ticket office on Ellis Island the
new Cunarder Franconia came IN. with
crowded steerage ~ usual. the Ellis ISL
and authorities We're through with the inn
migrants by 4 O'Clock. About two hundred
of them took passage for Chicago over the
/ Lackawanna.
/ They went in the regular barges 10 the
Iackawanna station in Hoboken. and AZ
! i:59 their special train pulled out At $50
} the next evening they were discharged az
! Chicago-twenty-seyen hours. allowing FOR
the change in time. Before. few lmml-
/ grants had beer carried 10 Chicago IN less
! than thirty-eisht or forty hours. and none
/ by the regular routes in less than thirty.
+ Next day another special train left with
/ passengers from the President Grant, at
/ S.3,, and stil third departed at 6'@a The
last was twenty-nine hours on the road;
the former twenty-seVen. The second tram
carried party for - Louis which
Z changed "a Bunalo-and reached the MIS-
souri, city I'm thirty hours. Instead Of the
customary forty-seven.
Those three trains carried more immi-
grants than the whole LacAawanna system
had handled during the month before.
What will Dee the outcome no one can say.
Tho Iackawanna has declared war on the
whole Trunk Line Association, and has
struck at the very source OF supplies IN
breaking the immigrant pool. The lmml-
grant traffic is worth lighting for. but the
weak roads which have been enjoying u
heretofore are not tho ones that are likely
20 win it by competition. II seems almost
certain that readjustmenr il at hand 10y
which the more direct roads may give the
immigrant ghe oencnt o. their straight
tracks and ef,icicnr service.
Il am sure" said former Congressman
William :, Bennet, who was chairman o.
the recent Congressional Committee on I'm.
migration that the government VIII never
permit the old conditions OF irresponsible
competition 10 prevail.