The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-04-19
GETTING CLOSE TO THE PEOPLE.

e-> NE ~ n 4 NaSA AE~s H
At the luncheon rendered yesterday to a dis
tinguished company of visiting officials of electric
railways. Mayor Richardson pointed out that
twenty.four years ago Richmond was the scene OF
the first real experiment in electric Transports
tion.
At that comparatively recent date. the cars
ran off the track every time they struck a curve.
But they ran. 1t was demonstrated that a new
era had dawned. Tho horsecar and the mule
car were doomed. Science had harnessed the
elements. The great principle OF rapid transit
found here its inauguration. What is done in
sands of street cars throughout the country had
Its genesis in the first cautious trial made here
in Richmond.
Since then electricity has jumped from a thing
to be speculated upon as to how far 1t was use
full, to something about which the speculation
now is to guess at where it's usefulness will stop.
In less than a generation all the old rules Of
transportation have been shattered by the utili.
zation of this elemental force. While we are
still in the dark as to what electricity Is, we are
every day learning more Of it and requiring more
from IT. In this short span OF time the world has
seen the telephone developed the multiple tele-
graph brought TO perfection; the photograph and
the dictagraph made the storehouses of musical
and oratorical history; the wireless set to max.
ing space inhabitable, a thousand and one sim
pier uses made of a force so remarkable, that not
Z few of the best minds in the world feel that
when its secret is solved, there will be solved
with it the secret of life itself.
But transportation, especially street car trans
portation, is the most intimate use which has
been made Of this great agency of civilization.
A tremendous business has grown in a few years
from nothing at all to a problem that even the
smallest communities must face and settle. The
public service corporation is everywhere a vital
matter. 1t affects the great city and the small
town equally. 1t is a daily condition that gives
rise to the gravest public problems. So vast has
the electric public service equation become that
the progress and the morals of a city can almost
be measured by the relation existing between
the city and those who serve it as carriers of
passengers.
The trip of the men representing the associa-
tion OF electric railways aud the no less import
ant association of manufacturers of electric
supplies means that there has been born a new
sElrit In the owners OF great corporations and the
controllers OF great natural monopoIies. They
nave commenced 10 go frankly to the public,
where once they went with more or less evasion
to the banks and bankers. They are talking
TO the man on the streets OF Our Town
where formerly they had nothing to say
except to the man on Wall Street. They
have at length realized to the full that the
best policy for any public service corporation IL
to explain to the public, and to trust the public.
The extensive journey which the gentlemen who
were here yesterday are taking is aimed at estab-
fishing good will. in the interest Of letting the
pubic know that their needs are appreciated and
their opinions respected. That such a venture
prohts the companies. also. is but an incident of
a new and encouraging point of view.