Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-30


hoax. The loan bill must specify the new
lines absolutely It will be defeated
Y11HE time has como for citizens Of Phlade,-
- pha to understand few things. They have
been UP against bunco games before and on
more than one occasion they have seen their
valuable franchises handed over to private
persons The city is suffering yet from the
unparalleled rapacity of franchse-grabbers
and the criminal negligence of public repre-
Sentatives who failed in other days to protect
their constituents and openly or secretly de-
,frauded the community.
The so-called Twining substitute transit
plan is on its face deliberate effort to defeat
the desires OF the public and offer Just
good" hastily conceived, mischievous and in
adequate system, system likely to be out Of
sdate before we'll finished. a system in the for
mutation Of which vision is lacking, and the
whole purpose of which is to defeat instead of
to procure real rapid transit.
no We charge that the sudden effort to make
II appear that subway under City Hall is q
dangerous and unfeasble undertaking is a
conspiracy pure and simple. We charge that
the Director of City Transit does not now be-
fieve and never has believed that the under
taking is dangerous and opposed to sound en-
gineering. We protest that there is no body
of reputable engineers in the United States
who would stultify their professional reputa-
tions by giving any such verdict.
What mockery the work of the commission
has been These men consider for few days
plans which 1t had taken months to formulate.
Although the Public Service Commission had
passed on the plan and approved 1t, although
the best engineering skill in the country and
Mr.. Twining himself had approved it. this
packed commission of the Mayors did not
summon before 1t single advocate of the
Taylor plan. did not even ask the former Di-
rector to explain why he had planned as he
did plan. did not do anything. in fact. but an
nounce decision practically prepared in ad-
vance
The reason Is this: The so-called Twining
plan is not the Twining plan at all. The pur-
pose not to have the station under City Hall
was not Mr.. Twinings purpose at all.
The Mayor of Philadelphia, at the very time
when he was declaring that he did not know
enough about the transit plans to discuss them
inteligently virtually ordered his Director
OF City Transit to move the station from under
City Hail. and the so-called Twining plan IS
nothing more or less than a substitute evolved
as result OF those orders, being an effort 10
meet an impossible situation by throwing
little sand in the eyes OF the public.
Let the people of Philadelphia understand
this; The Mayor. who knows no more about
engineering than jack rabbit. has stepped, in
and tried to slash TO pieces and discredit the
work OF experts, whose opinion was correct in
the first place and is correct now. They rip
the heart out Of rapid transit when they pre-
vent the possibility of four-track subway
along Broad street. and they know there can
be no four-track subway unless it does go
under City Hall
We charge that the so-ealled Twining plan
e devised purposely to make transfers difficult
al important points and that a main design
ef the plan is TO MI the surface cars along
Arch street and elsewhere for the greater
proht of the P. r. T. and the Inconvenience
OF patrons.
We do not know what motives. if any ex-
eept public service. inspire the Mayor but we
ae charge that he. layman, inexpert in tran
=, matters and by his own confession lament
ahly ignorant concerning the splendid Taylor
plans has, through the power Of his office,
eoeFeed the Department OF City Transit ana
+. forced upon it substitute plan. which puts
.ths city at the mercy Of the P. R. T. ana
Ie.aaad eneetually shaekie the community for
- r eentury 70 come II not forever
'seaFe charge that the Director Of City Tran
1n Ras been stripped Of the power exercised
predecessor. and that politicians. instead
asif experts. are directing transit nego-
- ~. snd We DEFY denial, that
heiplsss IS babs 10 transit