The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-06-26
Destiny of the Itney

Il nearly every CITY o. Importance III ii OHlleu OldtcS
he jitney bus has lately become a factor of greater or less
Importance, in street traffic and passenger transportation
IS well as the object of bitter attack by the street railroads
and of enthusiastic support by a part of the committing
Opinions as to the desirability of permitting an
service of this character are at wide variance
according, quite naturally, as the pockets of those possess
ng such opinions are affected. The viewpoint expressed
n the following, from the United States Investor, is not
unbiased, since it comes from a source identi
led with the interests of big business
Will the jitney continue to grow more and more
popular until, because of its competition, it relegates
the street railway to the obsolete past, with the cable
car and the horse car, or will the jitney, after meeting
one obstacle after another, now unforeseen, succumb
to the inevitable and take its true position in the eco
nOnic life of the country, whatever that may be?
This is a burning question with street railway
homogeneous today and with owners of street railway
securities. While guesses have been made as to what
will happen, no one can, with certainty, say what the
future position of the jitney is to be. Perhaps in time
the street railway companies themselves will be operat-
ing automobiles, subject to regulations which are in
evltable, and which the independent owner will find
it impossible to live under. That the jitney problem
as related to street railway companies will solve
itself goes without saying, and that the present craze
will subside is also just as certain. In the opinion of
the best Judges, the jitney, as operated at present, can
not possibly survive. Even the sales manager of an
automobile manufacturing concern stated this belief
in answer to a letter on the subject.
Popular fancy naturally is very enthusiastic over
the Jltney. 1t is a weapon which, at present anyway,
can be used effectively against that old arch enemy,
the street railway. The growth of the jitney has been
SO sensationaly rapid that it is becoming a ready sub
ject for writers of the popular magazines. For in
stance, in one of the popular magazines a prolific writ
er, who hitherto has been considered a baseball expert
and has been in the habit of writing about the game
and its players from a statistical point of view, has an
article of some length on the jitney,d discussing it in a
manner which would lead one to believe that the lit
ney is an %unalloyed blessing. Such articles as this are
not written with the idea of what is best, but with the
idea of catching the popular fancy. Naturally, though
the holder of street railway securities, on reading
such, feels considerable concern.
1t is interesting to read, for instance, that New
Orleans reports 100 passenger cars, operating at a
profit of S. per day per car; Kansas City now has 200
cars licensed, claiming to carry $4,000 passengers a
day. Spokane has 90 busses running; Portland has
a 100000 jitney corporation, and Milwaukee has in
stalled big cars running on a ten-minute schedule
over a three mile line, and that the latest reports in
dictate that there are between 5000 and 5000 licensed
jitneys operating.