The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-10-21
SHALL WE PAY FAT PRICE
OR BUY D. U.R. AS JUNK?

Opponents of the street railway purchase plan declare
that one principal being against it is that
the price is not yet announced Whether these Op
ponents would be for it if price included in the plan
any old pce-is seriously questioned by the proponents
of the plan
However that may be- the absence of a definite price
the main hook which most of the arguments against
the plan hung, and at the time of the chief
advanced for the purchase plan by its fathers and
uncles and other guardians
Members of the street railway commission not slow
in saying that the proposal to have the circuit Judges sit
ting in chancery fix the price is the great guarantee
that the price will be that will insure fair deal for both
the city and the street railway company They that
the question of what the property of the d. L. r. is worth
has been subject for verbal warfare and legal turmoil
long enough that what they want is to the people
declare favor of the purchase of the lines at fair price
and their conduct by the city after they purchased eav
ing the circuit judges say what the price shall be.
The made to this runs all the way from the
iteration of "bank check and pig poke, to the
torca heights of the opposition speaker who declared the
other night that he against the plan because the circuit
Judges would be especial champions of the people
against the railway in the hearing but would fix the value
the evidence alone.
Very briefly it may be stated that the advisabity of
the present panhat of agreeing to buy at price still to
be fixed rests almost entirely upon point Whether
the voters want to buy the property of the d. u K
going to the uncertain tenure of life
cses and dependence city permission to
hammer beat the going prices down to the
junk values which would obtain the company ousted
from the streets as franchises expire.
On this point there is honest difference of opinion,
and question every for himself
Members of the administration claim that while the price
of the SYSTEM complete and going ready to
in all its details Immediately upon possession being
given must of necessity be much higher than the individual
prices of different parts of the system acquired when fran
= Hn
worth it.
Commissioner Couzens goes farther and maintains that
the railway system will be worth untold millions to
the city than valuation placed it, except
sbly, by of the companys officials and then only
when they talking for the newspapers because the
cys rights for mtess extensions and continuous opera
ton when combined with the companys property will make
a different proposition than the ID. u. r. any other pr
vate corporation has enjoyed.
The street car commissioners further incline to the
lief that the price important because their deal in
cudes the of the whole price by the assumption of
bonds most of which do due for long time and
they have all figured that the secretion of little bit
of small change is going to make fund that
will take of all the bonds assumed and
extensions and betterments beside The uncertainty this
proposition of lies in the with which figures
be ugged and the fact that there is often wide gap
tween promises however honestly made, and per-
formance.
On the other hand, policy of waiting by the city,
COupieu IeW years OF
paity would undoubtedly for Detroit the greater
portion of the lines of the street company at Junk
prices They would two at time, and the city
might perhaps, have have the moral to suffer
inconvenience while they coming but the price
would be very much lower with immeasuraby better pros
poets successful municipal operation advocates of this
plan argue.
So on this point ii is to the voter to whether he
wants the whole system purchased at at good round
price, whether he willing to stand and fight for the
L.
price.