Evening star., 1916-08-13
STRIFE WITH TROLLEY LINE.
Passengers Travelling on Old Do
minion Resent Increase of Fare.

To the Editor Of The Star:
Perhaps not all the publicity which
the incident deserves will be given by
the managers of the Washington and
Old Dominion railway to an occur
renee Saturday morning on one of its
cars which ran between Great Falls
and the Washington terminal. For
some time there has been an antag
onism between the management of
this railway and the people who use
1t regularly. On several occasions
there has been an increase in the rate
of transportation, and the latest in
crease appears to have led the patrons
of the road to a belated and justified
protest. Friday on one of the early
morning cars some of the passengers
refused to pay the fare from Cherry
dale to Washington without receiving
transfer. which they believed was
coming to them under an implied con-
tract with the transportation company.
The expectation was that those who
had refused to pay the fare would be
required to leave the conveyance. In
stead of this logical proceeding on the
part of the railway managers, the car
was deliberately sfdetracked and kept
there for an hour or more, containing
not only the passengers who had re-
fused to pay the fare, but those who
had paid and who had right to ex-
pect transportation to the city in the
car in which they had started.
The fact that the railway people re-
tain to themselves the right to change
the schedule at any time affords the
fiimsiest pretext TOR such an incom-
prehensible proceeding that in
which passengers who had paid for
transportation were forcibly detained
Saturday morning the same car bore
practically the same passengers. The
railway people evidently expected
n ha nd
evident they had prepared themselves
| In addition to the regular car crew of
| motorman and conductor there were
FIVE six extra railroad people in
| uniform who boarded the car at
various points, but mainly in the
| neighborhood of Cherrydale. In addi-
ton. there was a Virginia justice of
| the peace. and at one of the stations
was the sheriff.
The justice of the peace admitted
that he was on the car at the instance
of the railroad company; that he was
there to preserve law and order; that,
incidentally, 'ft was nobody's business
why he was travelling; that II there
was a repetition of the previous DAYS
occurrence he was there to see that
the car went to its destination; that
All of which attitude and expression
overlooked the fact that the previous
days sidetracking of a car of passen-
gers who had paid their fare was a
violence on the part OF the railroad
company which would seem to call for
| something on the part of the officers
of justice and the means of protecting
an innocent public.
There really was no need to have
strong-arm squad on board the car
neither was ii necessary to invoke the
services of justice of the peace. still
| less of the sheriff. in order to operate
| cars according to schedule which
| is never very religiously observed.
| The whole proceeding ought to he
known fairly and temperately, as
have set II forth here. in order that
railway company that is responsible
| for resorting to such devices under
\ the circumstances prevailing on this
| particular line may be justly adver-
tised ]. Z. JENKS