Evening star., 1915-02-14
SOUNDS WARNING
AS TO J|TNEY BUS
New York Coach Company
Head Sees Evil in Un-
restricted Service.
CHANCE OF DESTROYING
GOOD PUBLIC UTILITY
Declares Street Railway Companies
Can at Least Be Held
Accountable.

The jitney bus wave of popularity
| that is spreading across the continent
and the plans for establishing several
routes in Washington have prompted
a warning by R. w. Meade. president
of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company
of New York Company.
Speaking from more than thirty
years experience. Mr.. Meade says that
the municipal authorities should con-
slider carefully allowing unrestricted
competition of the jitney bus with es-
| tablished transportation facilities.
The occasion of Mr.. Meades remarks
| was the publication in the newspapers
of telegraphic dispatches to the effect
| that trolley line extensions in several
western cities had been stopped as the
direct result of jitney bus competition.
| Mr.. Meade, as executive head Of a motor
| bus company, had been asked whether
or not the jitney bus could ever prove
| successful.
Danger in Situation.
THE danger in the situation" said
Mr.. Meade, "is that the bus men, the
municipalities and all others are ap-
parently plunging ahead without CIV
ing much thought to consequences. The
| municipalities will sooner or. later
wake up to the fact that they have de-
stroyed a useful, dependable and re-
sponsible public utility and have in its
place nothing on which the city or
the public can rely.
IF transportation facilities in any
city are not sufficient or proper a sat
fsfactory remedy cannot be obtained
by putting irresponsible agencies in
q haf fnH
be said in criticism of the failure of
street railway systems in some of our
cities to provide adequate facilities for
the transportation of the public, they
at least can be held accountable, both
to the public and to the municipalities.
This cannot be said of the jitney bus
unless the Imprisonment of the owner
can be considered a satisfactory rem
nothing in the way of property except
their bus, and that frequently Is owned
subject to chattel mortgage. The
owner snaps his fingers at damage
suits, and being financially irrespon-
sible he cannot be brought to book.
Costs More to Operate.
But the great danger in the situa
ton lies deeper. Some one is going to
wake up, and that is the jitney bus
man, because of the fundamental fact.
which my own company has learned by
long and expensive experience. that the
motor bus costs more to operate in
America than the trolley car. There
isn't any doubt of this. The Fifth Ave-
nue. Coach Company is no infant as far
as passenger-carrying companies go.
AS far back nearly thirty years ago
1t was operating horse-drawn stages
on 5th avenue; later it tried out to
it's chagrin the storage-battery type of
bus. and about eight years ago it
adopted the gasoline-driven type of We
hicle. Now in this history of over a
quarter of century the company be-
fore it became self-supporting lost
something like a million dollars. but 1t
learned a great many actual frst-hand
facts about bus operation.
Charges 1o-Cent Fare.
THE Fifth Avenue Company is today
moderately successful, but it charges
a ten-cent fare, runs over a limited and
favorable stretch of territory, has
plant and equipment of such a char
acter that its operating costs are re-
duced to the minimum obtainable in
this country and in the present state
of the art, and is managed with scrupu-
lous care by an operating staff that has
been many years in development. In
spite of these advantages the company
spends cents out of each dime of its
service in providing for operating ex-
penses, maintenance and depreciation,
reserves for damage claims, taxes, per-
centage of gross earnings paid to the
city, interest on capital, etc.
Chance of Big Earnings.
"If the company were able to keep
back for it's own uses the sixty-odd
thousand dollars 1t pays each year to
city and state; If it were able to send
out its buses when the harvest is good
and take them in when "pickings" are
poor. and escape regulation by the
authorities and any responsibility for
damage claims; if 1t were able to for
get the morrow and cut down its re-
serves for maintenance, depreciation,
etc; in word. If it were able to oper-
ate anywhere and everywhere without
regard to schedule or other restrictions,
the company could no doubt make
highly favorable financial showing for
a few seasons. What might happen
after that is another matter.
The situation among the jitney bus
men is that they have all this to learn.
OF course. there will be a reckoning
some time in the future, but in the
meanwhile sad havoc is being played
in the traction situation in some local
tiles, the investments Of those who
have depended upon the good faith of
municipalities to protect them are be-
ing destroyed and the public Is going
to be the sufferers in the end"