Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-04
VICTORY FOR PEOPLE
SEEN BY FOUR PAPERS
IN ACTION ON TRANSIT
Twining's Admission of Mitten
Conference Shows Purpose
of Taylor Plan Foes, Says
Public Ledger
PUBLIC OPINION STRONG

Three Philadelphia morning papers and
one afternoon paper discuss the transit
victory in edtoriols today. BY three the
result of the meeting yesterday Is hailed
as an overwhelming victory for the tax
payers of the city, and by the fourth the
Mayor is scored for his nsistence upon
changes in the plans under city Hall
Neither the Press nor the North Ameri-
can made any editorial mention of the
transit question
The PUBLIC LEDGER has this to say edi.
torially under the heading, The Transit
Conspiracy Laid Bare:
'If there remains in the mind Of a single
disinterested taxpayer or voter I'm Phila.
delpha doubt as to the sinister purposes
behind the attempt to destroy the Taylor
rapid transit plans. that doubt must have
been removed by the revelations at yes-
terdays meeting Of the Finance Commit.
tee of Councils. II was there shown, by
the admissions of Director Twining, that
the changes i'm the rapid transit plans
embodied in the so.called Twining report
were made after secret conferences with
the president of the Philadelphia Rapid
Transit Company.
Under normal conditions there would
be nothing significant about a conference
between municipal officials and the Off
GERS of the Rapid Transit Company, but
as those conferences Immediately pre-
ceded the promulgation of an amazingly
revolutionary report, recommending radi-
cal alterations in the City's program for
rapid transit changes which would have
made 1t impossible for the city to deal
with any corporation save that which al
ready possesses exclusive control over the
citys transportation system the enormty
of the betrayal Of the City's interests be-
comes only too apparent The one supreme
virtue of the Taylor plan Is that while
It deals justly with the Rapid Transit
Company, 1t makes the interests of the
city paramount, and gives 1t the inesti-
mable advantage of position in treating
with the company for an operating agree
ment. To surrender that position would
have been a shameless betrayal Of the
city to a corporation which, whatever it's
present good intentions, cannot escape
from that deep popular dstrust the seeds
of which are sown with the stolen and
juggled leases, watered stock and evaded
obligations that are the foundation on
which 1t is built.
%" The Mayor has probably
found out by this time what the people
want. 1t would have been better for him
had he led the van in acceding to that
demand, instead of posing before the COM
mittee and the public as the facile nstru-
ment of the Rapid Transit Company.
The Inquirer has this to say, editorially:
After all, public opinion is powerful in
the city OF Ihlladelphla. 1t mas demanded
the Taylor plans for rapid transit and APP
parently has got them.
We say apparently because when sturdy
opponents of a proposition all of sudden
tumble over each other in their haste to
outrval its friends, there is always
ground for some suspicion. If, hidden
away in the Lennon amendment to the
loan bill there is n snake, 1t will appear
in good time. But we prefer to think
that nothing underhand is contemplated
Many weeks have been worse than vast
ed because of the suspension of work
while Director Twining has been tearing
in pieces the very plans which he helped
TO make. Now let us have done with all
this fooling. Since the Finance Commit
tee has voted unanimously to sustain the
Taylor plans, it is taken for granted that
Councils will acquiesce. Let the order,
therefore, be given by the Mayor to pro-
ceed with the work. Let bygones be by
cones and let peace prevail.
Under the caption Mayor or Engineer"
the Record says in part, editorialy:
Really it is a bit of impertlnence for
the Mayor to inject his views about the
safety of the City Hall into the dis
cussion of the transit question. He may
be a past master on the intricacies of
2Sth Ward politics, but he knows nothing
about the engineering problems involved
in the underground work at the City Hail.