The Washington herald., 1913-06-08
.TAXICAB USERS
TRIBUTEPAYERS
Every Time a Citizen Rides in
Cab Hotels Get Share
of the Fare.
STREETS NOT PUBLIC'S
Police Stand Guard that Revenues"
of Hotels Are Not Inter-
fered With.

Tribute to hotel, restaurant, wine room,
and saloon is paid every time a resident
Of the District makes use of a taxicab.
This tribute is 'as much as the traffic will
bear" The large hotels charge from
2 to Is per cent Of the fares of every
person carried from in front Of their
buildings The small hotels exact from
l6 to 10 per cent of the fares carried. The
small wine room and restaurant charge
10 per cent and under. The public streets
bring rich return to private enterprise
They are exclusively rented out, and their
rent goes to swell the prices which the
cab companies charge for their services
Property rights in the public streets
can be enforced. In the interests of their
guests convenience, the hotels are al
lowed the privilege of standing cabs in
the streets around them. In some cases
the parking OF cabs can be construed as
blocking traffic On the further plea of
protecting their guests, the hotels
grant a right 10 certain companies to use
their private" stands. The police do not
allow cabs belonging to any other com
panies or individuals to block traffic"
The property rights Of the hotels to the
public streets are capable of strict en-
forcement. and they are enforced by the
police, who stand guard that the hotel
judgements shall not be deprived OF
Rent Not Called Rent.
There is an exact system in manag.
ing the rentals OF public thoroughfares
Rent is not called rent. In fact. the
hotels claim TO be the parties who are
paying the rent. and so they are-they
pay by word of mouth or promise &c
allow only the cabs of a certain com.
pany to stand before their doors They
ali
and to deduct a bonus OF real money
from these collections for themselves.
This is a simple proposition. The hotel:
are able to protect their guests and
rent an exclusive cab company's service,
and for these advantages they also are
able to collect real money. This part
of the hotel business is so good in Wash
ington that the receipts from the hiring
out OF the streets is estimated to be
between $4,000 and $4,000.
There is a regulation governing the op-
Grafton of taxicabs which requires that
they must have license numbers on
their side-lights in order TO do a gen.
eral hacking business. There is another
regulation which requires that these
numbers be removed from cabs on pri-
vate stands. Hotel stands are evidently
private stands; for they bring a rent to
their owners. the hotel men. Neverthe-
less. cabs of such company or individ-
uals privileged 10 stand before a large
hotel display the licenses which allow
them TO do a general hacking business
and the policemen on guard seldom are
able to see these numbers Such gen.
eral hacking business as is done before
the hotels goes 10 swell the hotels in
come from the street-renting side OF
their business.
The Washington patron pays for the
maintenance of the system He pays
10 cents for the first mile and 20
cents for each succeeding mile. Ac-
cording to men who have long been
in the taxicab business, proper expenses
for the operation and maintenance of
taXicabs should not he over 20 cents
a mile. An individual cab driver
stated last night that he could make
money on fat charge OF 30 cents a mile
a mile.