The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1915-03-27

the same problem. The jitney bus has
already appeared in San Antonio, Fort
Worth and Houston, Texas; Oklahoma
City; Ogden, Utah; st. Louis, Kansas
City, Springfield and Lexington, Mo-;
Omaha, New Orleans, Memphis, Des
Molnes, Atlanta and Detroit. Plans
are under way, and perhaps by the
time this. appears in print automobile
owners will be doing jitney business
in Denver, Lincoln, Cincinnati, Toledo,
Baltimore, Washington and Philadel-
phia~ The agitation for five cent bus
lines in New York and Boston is per-
.haps an Eastern manifestation of the
resire for cheap transportation out
side Of the street cars.
Kansas City, according to the daily
stories in The Star, has taken the jit-
ney to its bosom with enthusiasm.
Within a week after Mr.. w. Fl. Mil
Ter started the first jitney and Mrs.
c. M. Gibson the second, Kansas City
had 80 cars, but in two weeks $50.
Jitney bus drivers say they earn! about
50 day. In Kansas City all sorts Of
cars are in. use, from f1ve-passenger
Fords to made-over trucks and regu-
lar automobile bussea There is a.
central downtown station, with sever
al branches. The cars leave when FILL
ed and 90 on regular routes, as an
nounced by the starters" Extra traf-
fic policemen are needed to handle the
crowds. Mr.. Miller has stopped rum
ming car and is busy with the adj
ministration of the jitney service. Mr..
E. K. Carnes, his traffic manager, says
in a Kansas City Star interview that
~
operation and a system of routes and
schedules. LET the public once be
assured that it can 90 to any place on
q. route and find a. jitney there on
schedule and the jitneys never will
suffer for patronage" And he adds
that "the fine thing about this kind of
transportation is that it is impossible
to tie up the whole system. For one
dreds of others go their way just the
same''
Secret of Success.
The great aid to jitney success,
writes a Kansas citizen to the Star,
lis the public attitude of
street car corporations" But he pre-
diets that in year from now every
passenger who elects to use a Kansas
City street car will have a seat. And
similar benefits to the travelling pub
lie from the new competition are pre-
dicted by the st. Louis Post Dispatch,
New Orleans States, Oklahoma City
Daily Oklahoman, st. Joseph News
Press and Oakland Enquirer.
On the other hand, the Tacoma
Daily News hears that experienced
automobile men do not believe the
jitney can be made to pay and think
that it's entry into the transportation
field is merely a hard-times develop
ment," and that it is something of an
experimental venture which may van
ish with the present depression" In
the east the Washington Times takes
the same idea as starting point, but
goes on to say: j:
"The length Of time the service has
been in operation in some of these
western cities indicates that it has
It is a curious experiment that will be
watched with interest. In this form
it may not carry threat to the street
railway, but in familiarizing the pub
lie with the possibilities Of cheap SER
vice it forecasts the time, and a rapid
ly-approaohing time, when all cities
will be forced to consider the admis-
sion of auto bus lines"
Yet The Times concludes that latter
all, the street car running on a fixed
tram-road is likely to be the chief
means Of internal city transit for an
other generation"