The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-18
STREET RAILWAY LINES
 AS REALTY DEVELOPERS
By E. H. MOONSY

 The relation of street railway to a l city or community is identically the same as that of a railroad to 8 state, or sec tion of country. Just as the growth of l state or section is measured by the de- velopments of a railroad or railroads, so is the growth of city determined by the development of the street railway l lines.
 | The value of real estate is, in the final estimate. determined by the access to it | and the use to which it may be put Without street railway lines connecting a ] piece of real estate to other centers of activities, whereby communication be-
 tween them is easily and economically
 established and maintained, real estate l cannot be well utilized.
 | And that is the history of Birmingham | just as it Is the history of all other cities and all sections, all countries. The rela- | tion of the street railway to urban and suburban real estate is the same fela- 1 tion as of the railroads and steamship lines to commerce. And the Birmingham Railway, Light and Power company has been one of the biggest and surest de- 1 consistent and real boosters of real es- tate values that Birmingham knows or could know.
 | Nothing in life is absolute; everything bears a relation to something else and may be judged and valued only by req | son of it's relation to something else. street railway or railroad may not be successfully built to any land or section l that is not capable of development. Sini- Ia r1y without means of communication with other parts; and the street railways form ! the chief means of communication in cities
 1 Without street railway lines 1t would have been virtually impossible for the South Highlands sections to develop as | the big residence section of the city. At
 the same time. without the possibilities | for development on the Southside, there could have been no successful develop ment on the part of the street railway | company.
 1 Without street railways the outlying sections of Birmingham would be prac- tically vacant. Real estate values would | be chaotic and abnormally below their rightful level If 1t became necessary to l eliminate street car service to Wood- l lawn and East Lake, and to increase 1t l to Ensley majority of the people ly- l ing in East Lake and Woodlawn would move to Ensley-they would be forced to. What would happen to real estate values?
 l Real estate in Woodlawp and East Lake would be without real value--it would | go begging--would be drug on the mar ket And Ensley values would rise top- high: they would add all that East Lake and Woodlawn lost in such an event. 1 That impossibiity is only used to Illus trate the relation of street railway to \ real estate values. Take central real es- | tate The section or sections or city having the greatest number of car lines are always the most crowded. Being the most crowded they become that much more value as locations for stores. The result is that real estate In those crowded sections is worth more than in the less crowded sections.
 l The value of real estate that IS put to 1 retail commercial and mercantile use may be determined by the number of per- 1 sons passing by every day. What makes ] it possible for the populace to pass by! The street railways that bring them to the city.
 | The west was undeveloped and wild and
 woolly until the railroads began 10 pullo out there The building of the Union Pa | cific railroad in the west opened up the west to the rest of the nation. Then fol- flowed the first big development. Other railroads were built--and today the west lis one of the best developed and most prosperous sections of the country The answer: Railroads that made 1t possible for the development of the potential greatness of the west.
 In Birmingham the Birmingham Rail-
 way, Light and Power company has
 played a similar role. Without street
 railways connecting the city with North
 Birmingham, East Lake Woodlawn, Ems
 lev, Pratt City, Fairview and other sec tions. there could never have been any | Greater Birmingham Real estate values l in the outlying sections would have been
 far below their present level. and without the splendid possibilities for development
 The Birmingham Railway, Light and
 Power company has played big part in | putting Birmingham real estate values 1 up to their rightful level. The company has helped materially in opening up new residence and industrial sections, and in creating new and sound values in such cases.
 The civilization of the modern world
 may be summed up in iron and steel
 In another sense we may say that the