Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1911-12-21
eLINGs TO THE DRINKING CUP.
To the Editor Of the Gloucester Co.
Democrat,

Sir: | learn from the Public Ledger
of Dec 8, that the Public Utilities
Commission has issued an edicts that
the railroads of New Jersey must fur
nish each passenger with an indiyid-
ual drinking cup at their expense.
They say to justify their action: the
railroads do not give the passengers
on their. roads ample and adequate
service if they do not give each pas
senger a free drinking cup. They do
not pretend that the law compels
every person to pay tribute to the pa
per cup and slot machine trust when
he goes away from home, when he
wants drink OF water. There is not
anything in the law that requires the
railroads to furnish passengers with
paper cups at their expense. They
might just as we'll say if the rail-
roads do not serve the passengers
with free lunch of boned turkey and
glass of mint julop or MAIDEN mozels
tears, they do not give them adequate
service.
This is a political scheme to shift
the burden of paying tribute to the
slot machine by the passengers on to
the railroads to soften complaints that
have been made to the Commission,
and their decree was prejudiced be-
fore argument, and the railroads
might just as well have been whistling
gigs to milestones as to argue their
case 1t is safe to say the railroads
sell one million tickets year. IF
the railroads are to be menaced with
this charge by the Utilities Commits
sion, to soften down protests from
the people against an unwise and un-s
just law, to bolster up political
party, it will cost them at least one
hundred thousand dollars year to
pay tribute to the paper cup slot ma
chine for the passengers. If the Util-
tiles Commission can lawfully impose
this burden on the railroads, under
the above pretext, what may they not
do and where is the limit to their
menace to the railroads and every
other great industry in the State
May they not decree that the railroads
shall carry the passengers on and
off the cars on two chips, blow their
noses, curl their hair, pull down their
vest, wipe off their chin, wash their
feet and cut their toenails, and fur
free lunch of boned turkey, and carry
them from Swedesboro to Philadel
.phia, forty miles, all for 73 cents, and
then say the railroads do not give
the passengers ample and adequate
service. There are some people III
this community and every other in
the State, who would give their heads
for foot ball to have railroad run
through their neighborhood, who now
complain and say the railroads should
upholster their cars with COLLINS
tapestry that costs dollar a square
inch, that none but great kings and
rich princes can afford to have. A
railroad ticket is a contract between
the railroad and the passenger When
a person purchases a ticket he ac-
cepts the contract, and is bound by
it on his part, and the railroad is
bound by it on its part. This agree
ment does not require the railroads
to furnish the passenger with ice
water and glass to drink it out OF,
it does not require the railroads to-
furnish the passenger with a toilet
room and smoke car, but the rail-
roads furnish them voluntarily, until
the Legislature of 1911 made it a
crime punishable with fine and ina
prisonment for the railroads to pro-
vide ice water for the passengers and
the means of getting it.. In concIl-
sion, / would like to ask you, Mr..
Gaunt, the Granger, and you, Mr.
Lafferty, the Democrat, would you
have voted for the abolition of the
public drinking cup if the paper cup
and the slot machine had not been
invented? Tx.