The Washington times., 1911-09-25
UNITY WILL WIN THE TRANS
FER FIGHT.

That is, after all, the most a news
paper can do in such a contest. 1t car
vocalize, crystalline, and focus the SEN
timent of the community.
At the beginning of the gas fight
hundreds of sympathizers shook their
heads and protested that there WAS
NO EFFECTIVE PUBLIC SENTI-
NIENT IN WASHINGTON. They be-
lieved a fight for the public interest
could get nowhere because it would
command no backing.
The Times did not believe that. 1t
was convinced that Washington people
were as intelligent, open minded, wide
awake as any city in the world could
boast. 1t proposed to put that con-
viction to the touch and the test.
The gas fight is half won, and the
other half of the victory is assured.
When The Times took up the cudgels
in behalf of decent, human treatment
for the thirty-odd thousand people in
the civil service establishments in this
city, and the hundreds of thousands all
over the country, there were like
ominous misgivings. Nobody ever HAD
accomplished anything for the civil
service people; why should it now be
possible?
But The Times had come to know
its constituency. 1t believed in them
and it knew they believed in it. The
response, when that civil service fight
was opened, was instantaneous.
Today, that contest, too, is organ
lied, financed, commands the sympathy
of the whole country. 1t has enlisted
publicity through the newspapers and
periodicals. Congress is aroused to its
bigness and seriousness; and success is
surely at hand.
The contest to secure universal trans
fers is fast moving toward another
great accomplishment for the people of
Washington and for the newspaper
that has had faith in them. Today the
case of the Baltimore and Washington
Transit Company against the Capital
Traction Company goes to court. The
law has been found and elucidated, the
civic and commercial organizations of
the city are united in support of the
movement, and it is reported that the
street railway companies are weaken
ing in their opposition. They see that
only defeat can be their portion in the
end. The case against them is too
complete, too just, too strongly re-
enforced by presidents in the expert
ence of other cities and other traction
concerns.
Immediate results are not going to
be conclusive, unless the immediate re-
suit is complete victory for the people.
That is the only thing that can end
the fight.
Two alternatives confront the trac
ton masters of this town.
They may attempt to stand against
the people, and at length get a drub-
bling that will leave them discredited,
unpopular, and suspected.
Or, they may frankly yield to the
people, grant transfers without fight,
and win the good will of their patrons.
Which will it be? To fight means to
spend money and energy lobbying IN
hopeless cause in Congress. 1t means
to pay big fees to lawyers, to waste
money in litigation that ought to be
put into the property. 1t means
failure in any case.
The veriest tyro cannot be so blind
ed against the signs of the times as
not to realize that the present per-
sonnet, temper, and leadership of Con-
gress guarantee this.
THE OLD REGIME UNDER WHICH
ALL LEGISLATION AFFECTING OUR
PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS
WAS VISED AND EDITED BY THE
LAWYERS AND LOBBYISTS OF
THOSE CORPORATIONS HAS END
ED.
The people are going to win the
universal transfer fight, because at last
ALL THE PEOPLE are united and
realize their rights and their POWER.
That is all that Washington has ever
needed to secure justice from the in
terests that have so largely ruled it.
Let us 60 back to the history, for a
moment, of the long agitation in
Cleveland for Scent car fares. Tom
johnson led that warfare for years.
He gave his life, at last, to it; and
two months after his death the Scent
fare with universal transfers was es-
tablished.
The street railway companies pro-
tested at first that it would bankrupt
them. At last compromise was effect
ed. on the basis of a Scent fare and
l-cent charge for transfers.
The arrangement was that whenever
the earnings of the business shouk
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