The Washington times., 1911-06-20
HERDIC- COMPANY HOLDING
.. OUT FOR SALE.

along Pennsylvania avenue in front OF
the White House, or strolling up the
beautiful avenue of the Presidents" /"
and one of our numbering old herdics
comes along, stop and take good,
long look at it. Study its battered
sides, long strangers to the paint
brush; listen to the rattle of its delapi-
dated machinery; note the chug of its
badly tired wheels as they revolve
hesitatingly and jolt its windows loose.
Observe carefully every detail of this
vehicle, which looks like one of Peter
Cooper's mistakes, and then remember
that you are in the city of Washing
ton, District of Columbia, the beau
tiful Capital of America, the "modep
municipality.
If nothing could be said against the
herdics but that they are a blot on
the landscape, that would be sufficient
reason to abolish them or to compel
the company that owns them to
operate vehicles which would not be
offensive to the eye. But that is the
least of the herdics' faults. The chief
grievance against them is their hit or
miss schedule. They are not only un-
comfortable, a menace to the health
and safety of their passengers and an
eyesore to all who have to gaze upon
them, but they are run with such in
frequency that they are a source of
endless irritation to would-be patrons
instead of an agency for furnishing
reliable public service.
Why does the Metropolitan Coach
Company persistently refrain from run
ming decent looking cars-even from
painting its old cars? Why does it
ignore the public demand for the main
tenance of regular schedule? Only
one conclusion seems reasonable: That
the company is holding out for a sale
to somebody who will take hold of the
line and make it a real transportation
company.
The Coach Company claims to have
a franchise, granted by indirection in
the act providing for the construction
of street railway tracks to the Union
Station. In that act appears this
section:
Tbot ayiStinp tropsfar orroppapoants
between the Washington Railway and
Electric Company and the Metropolitan
Coach Company, corporation Of the
District Of Columbia, shall not be
gress; and unless said Metropolitan
Coach Company shall, within one year
after the passage of this act, substitute
motor vehicles to be approved by the
Commissioners of the District of CO.
lumbia, for the herdics (horse drawn)
line shall cease and determine.
Prior to the passage of the foregoing
the herdic company had no right" to
operate, so far as any Congressional
action was concerned, but it complied
with the above conditions, and now
maintains it has franchise, because its
right" to operate has been recognized
by Congress.
But the herdie company is making
only a perfunctory effort to exercise
that franchise. 1t is not trying to get
business and make profits. 1t is merely
doing enough to hold its so-called
rights" This is what leads to the con-
clusion that it cares nothing for the
convenience of the public, but is merely
hanging on until it can induce some
person or corporation to buy, at a
good price, franchise for which it paid
nothing.
If this is not the real reason for the
attitude of the Metropolitan Coach
Company toward the public, it can
easily be disproved. All the company
has to do to show that this isn't true
is to furnish real transportation
service.