The evening world., 1912-03-23
WHY WAKE US UP?

- AN this be true? Are we to have forced upon US a new
tangled street cara street car the designers Of which admit
they have failed in . hundred ways to make inconvenient
md uncomfortablcp Strong, manly ~strapholdcrs are said to have
broken down and wept when they saw the new model. Women in
teAt hobbies we're specifies and aghast ~ they skipped with .
dhds skip from the ground into the side doom Of the now con-
hivanesi
Are platforms, then, 10 be taken from us? Shall we never
slin find ourselves cinging to the lower step of : moving car behind
sven women and q boy each trying to find a nickel. while the con-
du4or joyously invites Us 10 Ego up forward"r Shall we never
again solve the problem whether to get out by the front or rear door3
We cannot believe that an old friend like the New York Street
railways Company, alias the Metropolitan, is really going TO change
IL nsture with it, name, and systematically interfere with the dis
comfort Of hs patrons; that day by day these old cars are TO be torn
from NJ ~ruthessy and foreveri
What il the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company should hear Of
usf Could THEY so forget all their traditions as to lend them
selves to such doingsa Why need they ever knowi
II these new street carr really come We Small have to be on
or guard lest wone things follow. Some city commission might
take Il into Id head to travel abroad and look out Of the window.
Ne might hear presently that just because London, Paris and Berlin
have chosen to take pains with themselves, We must give up the pic
tarsqus holes in our pavements and the odfsshioned waves and
msass in our asphalt. We might be told that being 40 rich doesn't
give NJ the right to be the worst dressed city in the world.
We must set . limit. We will not be pushed ahead so! Never
en- WE be induced to put up with Thousands Of silent running, cheap
taxioabs stealing about our streets daring US to get in and ride a
couple Of miles for the ridiculous sum Of twenty-five centsl What
do We care that every big city in Europe has them? Haven't we got
a subway? And haven't we enough to do talking about new ona?
No other cities have mbways. II they do We don't know it-or
want 10.
We have just heard that another shopping commission has found
out that fifty cents Of the dollar We lay out for what We eat in
New York goes 10 various people who hsud food about among them
selves after it gts into the city; that cold storage speculator get
twenty-five cents . pound on butter and thirty cents q dozen on eggs.
Some buybody says that food distributing methods in New York
City "re chaotic and extremely wasteful" compared with the moro
highly developed plans in Berlin, Vienna and Paris md in some
American cities.
Fortunately, whist these commissions And out and fuss about
rarely comes to anything. We're not worrying much about THAT.
We understand some cities have = prejudice in favor Of clear,
pare water. We're broad minded. We understand this. We should
rather like it ourselves. But we pay people 10 tell us from day
to day thst we're GOING to have it pretty soon, and we are sure
somebody promised M . fine altering plant some day. 80 what
does il matter how blsck tho wster ia
What these people who find fault can't seem to understand
b that riding in old cars, falling into holes in the street, being
smashed up in expensive taxioabs, paying top-notch carriage fares
and drinking dirty water all save money and put It into somebody's
pocket. Isn't our aim to provide everybody with . comfortable
livngP Aren't We doing nf Think Of the solid fortunes, the marble
palaces, the Injuries Of fife and travel we may have conferred with
~ Afty-fve cents on the egg and butteri
Let m alone. II can't be time to wake upi