Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1912-04-26
The Railroad Again.


derson down to decent and orderly dis
cussion of issues.
shall not waste space by replying in
kind, as it is the rate law, and not some
one personality, which is up for discussion
A rate law which permitted an increase
OF $S.36 year in Communication rates for
each commuter needed no one to "foment'
dlscontent 1t struck the people like a
thunderbolt. All they wanted to know who
was responsible for it. Very tardily and
after much wandering he owns up to that
responsibility. That is all that they or
care about him in connection with the
matter. placed the responsibility where
it belonged in the first instance, and there
by became guilty, in his eyes. of "foment-
ing discomfort" with the law. All of his
other criticisms of and reflections upon me
are just as worthy of respect as this one.
There is one statement in Mr. Hender-
sons last communication which deserves
consideration. He says:
81 do not think the difference in rates
should be so great as railroad companies,
for reasons of their own, have been dis
posed to make it. as one part of the public
is as much entitled to reasonable rates as
another, and it is not fair to carry one
passenger at cost and charge another dou-
BILE profit"
This sounds very fair on its face and
would tend to mislead one who has not
given the question consideration.
Railroad companies are not in business
for their health and the public is vitality
interested in having them built and prop
erly maintained. The rates for the casual
traveller have to be regulated by law in
order that grasping corporations do not
make them excessive. The right to do this
comes from the fact that these corporations
are creatures of the law, and quasi-public
by nature. The casual traveller, one who
makes trip now and then, does little to
develop suburban railroad property. Neither
his place of residence nor the frequency of
the travel of himself or family depend
greatly upon the question of rates. To such
patrons, railroads everywhere, are permit
ted to charge the maximum rates. To
change this would mean that the trans
portation problems of the universe which
have been worked out and settled must be
reopened.
Railroads have found it to their ultimate
advantage to voluntarily make lower rates
for certain service. The Communication rate
is one of these, and is given to anyone who
travels or pays for travel over the whole
or a stated portion of road every day for
a month or three months. Anyone has
the privilege, who brings himself within
the classification, so that it is no matter of
favor to anybody that the lower rate is
given.
Such tickets benefit the road:
% By supplying a steady income, with
practically the same equipment, from a
class of people who could not otherwise
afford to live in the country and do bust
ness in the city.
(2) The commuters take their families
with them into the country or suburban
towns. and these in turn become casual
travellers, thus adding largely to the reve-
nues of a road. The benefits to railroads
from this policy have been as carefully
considered and determined as any other
transportation problem, with the result that
suburban electric roads, the country over,
calculate that every new home built along
one of these lines makes an average in
crease in the revenue of the road of from
fifty to sixty dollars a year for all time to
come, and that every new house will cause
others to be built. The general travelling
public is not injured by this policy because
it gets the rate fixed as reasonable, for the
service rendered, by the laws or orders of
commissions, after taking into considera-
ton the experience of the various railroads,
the country over.
If maximum cash rate is too high, that
is good ground for proceedings to make
it lower. If railroad for the develop
ment of its own territory gives what seems,
to the casual observer to be a very low
| communication rate, that course should not
| be objected to by the occasional traveller,
who is given as low q rate as the road is
supposed to be able to afford anyone, but
for the very increase in business due to
the development incident to the mainte-
nance of the Communication rate.
All residents of this county do receive
direct benefit from the Communication rates.
The building of new homes and the increase
in the taxable basis and local business
help the whole county. This development
furnishes new sources of revenue for county
expenses, to build and repair roads and
the additional money thus expended affects
the trade in every section of the county.
But Mr.. Henderson suggests that, in his
superior judgment, the communication rate is
fixed too low by the new law. and that this
is done at the expense of other people,
That may be his judgment. What he has to
base 1t upon does not appear but what we
all know is that the communication rate fixed
by the new law is exactly the same that
the railroad company voluntarily made it
years ago, when it deliberately fixed it at
a rate which it thought best calculated to
develop the country through which the line
runs We all further know that while a
single trip from Rockville to Washington,
rs miles, over the B. & o. is 81 cents that
the same road sells a quarterly communal
ton ticket at about cents a trip. or only
about half cent trip more than the new
law requires for the 10 l-2 miles on the
electric road Railroads having voluntarily
established Communication rates, these in
turn are a proper subject of regulation.
Certainly that rate cannot be regarded as
unreasonably low which a railroad has
voluntarily given for many years over its
longest fare zone.
will attend to the Chevy Chase matter.
if the occasion arises. 1t is sufficient to
say. now, that Mr.. Henderson, information
in regard to it appears to be about as ac-
curate as his other statements, or he would
not have attempted to bring that matter
into this discussion.