The evening world., 1914-02-20
-WHtTRIDCE ADMITS
COMPANY CAUSED
JAM ON BROADWAY
Says lneiliciency of Third Ave-
nue'S Car Line Officers Is
Responsible for Tie-Up.
HE HITS BACK AT CITY.
Says Street Cleaning Depart
ment Has Shown Stupidity
in Parts of Its Work.
HE HITS BACK AT CITY.

Third Avenue Railroad Company to-
day made public q letter he had
written to body OF patrons who
complained of the suspension Of SCR
vice on upper Broadway since the
breaking of saturdays storm. Mr..
Whitridge puts the blame on the
ofiicials OF his own stan and acknowl-
edges that tho Third Avenue Com
pany failed worse than anybody
else" lie added some sharp susses-
lions To tho street Cleaning Depart
ment, which he said had not dis
tinsuishcd itself much better than
tho Third avenue system.
The letter was IN answer to one
from John Knox McAfee or the Up
per Manhattan Property Owners As
ISOLATION OF No. 42l9 broadway. MIR.
whitridgc said:
II have your letter OF the 18th inst,
received this morning. In respect to
the trolley service In upper Broad
way. ! am extremely sorry that 40
seriously inconvenicnccd,
SAYS FAULT LIES WITH Ms
OWN OFFICIALS.
II am ashamed to ray that I believe
the fact to be that on saturday and
| Sunday u was thr"Wylsthe scifiyhnoss
or lack OF efficiency OF some Of my
stan that the slot which carries the
power rail was allowed to become
flied with fine SNOW. which frOxe into
a solid mass. think that could have
been prevented and l am doing my
best Ia ascertain whether II could
have been prevented and IL 10 who 10
responsible for not preventing II.
After this thing had happened II
In not u fact that the company has
been innattentive or indifferent On
the contrary we have worked very
hard and. ! hope and believe. intel
liEently."
LOTS or STUPIDITY IN SNOW
REMOVAL, hG SAYS.
Mr.. whitridgc. after handing this
letter to an Evening World reporter,
pointed tn piles OF snow In the
streets.
ut may not como with good grace
for me to criticise tho city" he said.
but the Third avenue railroad ~ not
the only organization open to criti-
cism. There In much stupidity or
worse about this snow removal. Why
should the city clean the central
STREETS first and haul snow over un-
cleaned streets to the rivers. Why
not clean few cross highways from
the rivers inward tn afford free chan
nels FOR the outgoing carts. Look
down there and YOU can see lot OF
stalled snow carts blocking trafYic In
streets that have not yet been cleared.
THE city ought to have more carts,
You can see groups OF twenty men
Idle for the lack Of carts. The men
can vote and the carts cannot.
II could clean Third avenue In a
night. IL the city would buy q lot of
low box cars we could throw tho snow
into them and carry II up TO the Har.
lem River here Mt cost and get rid Of
II In no time"
SLOW SNOW WORK CAUSES A
NEAR.Ri0T.
A sharp drop In the temperature
froze the snow. partly melted by yes
terday's rain, into solid masses to-
day and greatly hampered the con-
tractors and city laborers who arc
trying to clear the streets. The work.
ers, hundreds Of whom refused to 60
on their Jobs yesterday because Of
tho rain. rebelled to-day at the siren
uous labor OF chipping at the rock
like formation which they were set to
attack.
Slow work from this cause started
one riot with AN aftermath OF bloody
heads and black eyes. Thomas Creevey
a retired policeman Of gigantic frame,
foreman OF "A shovellers' gang on Lex
ington avenue, between Seventy eighth