The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-30
Second Letter in Answer to Request for More Specific
 Recommendations
WRONG ATTITUDE IS TAKEN BY LAWMAKERS
Consider Interests of Jitney Opera tors or Traction Corporations and Not Those of the Mass of
 the People


 Walker Percy yesterday gave out a well of the recess committee on finance and taxation in regard to the 1itney situation in this state.
 The letter was In answer to one of Senator Hartwell, wherein MT. Percy was requested to give more definitely his ideas expressed in a letter to Rep resentative J. B. Weakley a few weeks ago. The letter to MT. Weakley created wide interest and evidently struck Sena- tor Hartwell with considerable force. MT. Percy says, Let the iitney alone and adds; "I would say, in my opinion, that you will commit a serious blunder if you undertake to tax them at all.' Mir. Percy suggests that if permitted to go undisturbed by legislation the jitneys will solve their own troubles. His state ment is, if possible. more convincing and foreeful than the former letter to MT. weakley. and follows:
 Letter to Hartwell
 Birmingham. April 2s, 1915. Mo. Harry T. Hartwell. Joint Commit
 tee on Finance and Taxation, Mont gomery, Ala
 My Dear MT. Hartwell. Yours of the 27th just received. I note that you agree with many of my suggestions with re- gard to the regulation of the jitney, but that you want me to write you definite plan of regulation and taxation, one that would be fair to the corporations now paying street franchise privileges and one that would be fair to the jit- neys.
 q appreciate very much your com plmentary reference to my letter. and note that you think 1t is somewhat lack ing in practical suggestions and practi- cal information. I fully appreciate tho difficulty of that sort of constructive work required in the framing of legis- lation. Let me see if 1 can put in more practical shape for your use my ideas on this subject.
 You ask me for a definite plan of regulation. l would say. leave them | alone.
 You ask me for a definite plan of taxation. l would say that in my opin- ion you will commit serious blunder Ol Sou uuQtfldkt to LAX them at all "The true American system of legis- lation is first to pass a law on sub ject you don't know anything about and then study the operation of the law There are in the present legislature. there Were in the legislature of which 1 was a member, there will always be in every legislature. men who can draft a bill on any subject between breakfast and lunch; men who are perfectly ready | txrff r.t-
 they know about the ailment, the more confident they are as to the value of the remedy. If there is one thing that has been plain in the past few years 1t has been that we have had too much governmental regulation of business What the business of this country needs is chance to work out it's own desti- nies. In my previous letter to which l you refer. pointed out an instance of regulation cited with approval by the Wall Street Journal A Pacific coast city adopted an ordinance regulating the Jftneys, and the next week the number of jitneys fell from 800 to 50 In todays Age-Herald, in a news item from Sheffield, I note that a jitney bus service between Sheffield and TSs- l cumbia, recently inaugurated, was short | lived. The news item says:
 Example in Sheffield The service was proving very pop ular. but at the request of the Shelf | field company. which operates a sys- | tenn of electric cars between the Tri- Cities of Sheffield. Tuscumbia and Florence, the city fathers passed an ordinance imposing license of $75 on Jitney cars and requiring the owner or 1 operator of each car 10 execute an in- l demnity bond in the sum of $5000 col lectable in the event of accident or injury to passengers. The pressure was 1 too strong and the jitney owner re- | tired from business.
 T don't know whether the law makers of Sheffield were satisfied with the results of their labors. but have good mental photograph of the | cheerful and smiling countenance of | warm friend of mine who directs the 1 operations of the Tri-Cities electric railway. Who is clamoring for tie regulation of the jitneys? Who Is sug- 1 gesting their taxation? Not the people who ride in the jitneys. Was any rev cnue raised by the Sheffield ordinance referred to? Will any revenue be raised 1 by the state law seeking to tax jitneys: The jitneys are giving the people of the American cities the greatest local
 transportation service the world has ever known. The popularity of the jit- neys and the patronage they are re- ceiving is the most convincing testi-
 monial to their usefulness If you will leave them alone until they have | found themselves I venture the predic- tion that in the course of the next 1 few years we will have a motor bus service which will equal in regularity | and greatly exceed in efficiency our present very excellent trolley car serv- l ice.
 l You have a lot of problems on hand where your duty IS plain. The jitney problem is one as to which experienec (
 i'll be useful and which might well
 be left to municipal action in the To- calities affected
 From Wrong Angle
 "I think the confusion in the mfnds | of many thoughtful men with refer l ence to the jitneys results largely from the fact that they consider the inter
 ests of the street railroad and the in-
 terests of the operators of jitneys i'm ctead of the interests of the great body of the people who use the jitneys ana
 use the streets. Under our constitu. tion when street railroad company l that franchise cannot be exclusive and
 1t takes 1t subject to any competition which may develop. I am not antagon. istic to the street railroad interests am not antagonistic to the interests | of the Alabama Power company. On thu contrary. I believe it Is to the interes l of the community that all Legitimate encouragement should be given to ev.
 tCentiaued sn Pase Ni.ss