Norwich bulletin., 1917-08-08
MAY ADVANCE FARES
 ON LOCAL TRoLLEYS
Extraordinary High Increase In Cost of Supplies ond Operation Respon- sibIe.

of Supplies ond Operation Respon- i sibIe.
 Owing to the prevailing conditions l and the extraordinary high increase 1 in prices of railroad material and supplies, many interurban electric railways have increased the fares and I it is expected that the Shore Line | Electric road will be forced to ad- vance the rates little in this vicin ity- It is possible that the six cent fare may be inaugurated here. Nothing definite has yet been de- cided upon by the officials of the company as to the raising of the fares. During the past two years the doubled and material such as rails | ties. switches, and cars has increased | from 100 per cent to 300 per cent Labor has also increased.
 President R. w. Perkins in com- pany with two other prominent rail- | road men have been investigating the | conditions of the trolley companies | they are all in a bad way.
 Some of them are at present oper ating at a loss. To remedy this it is necessary to raise the price of the fare. Sixty-eight companies have
 raised their fares in New England during the past few months. Some companies are operating fare zone similar to the Shore Line Company and others are charging so much bile but in either case they have been obliged to increase their rates. SiX-cent trolley fares are not new
 to Connecticut. The Hartford and Springfield Street Railway company has been charging a -cent-zone
 rate for several years The Shore
 Line Electric Railway company
 discontinued a strictly 5-centzone rate couple of years ago, and now collects on a sort of milage basis, although it's minimum charge con- times at five cents.
 All over the country. including Connecticut, there is an ever-in- creasing demand from trolley cor porations to be allowed to charge higher fares.
 Joseph K. Choate, chairman of the committee on ways and means of electric railways of New York state, has issued statement in which he says it is imperative that the trans sit lines get more revenue, because able to obtain money for mainten- ance and extension Of service. Mir. Choate indicated that the electric railways of other states had their eyes on the outcome of the move ment by the New York state com panies.
 Hearings on the most important
 electric railway rate ease ever brought up in America will begin in
 Albany on Tuesday" he said. and
 on the result depends in great meas
 ure the future of that business in
 the United States. Street railway
 ingly difficult problem. Indeed.
 the situation Is so serious that the
 ability of many companies in this
 state to keep going is threatened.
 The Consolidated Power com
 rany of Baltimore is now advertis
 ing an issue of short-term guaran-
 teed gold notes to be sold at e7 .1-2
 and interest. This means that they
 O
 for this money. The International
 Traction company of Buffalo has
 just issued some three-year secured
 gold notes. the money thus ob
 tafned costing more than 1-2 per
 cent. Now these are big, responsible
 companies.
 "There are very few electric rail-
 way companies upstate Tn New
 York that could get money at even
 12 per cent. so long as the present
 rate of operating expense and a
 fixed ffve-cent rate go Contin
 uance of such conditions would be
 disastrous. And it is the same else where. I have just received the details of the unsuccessful effort the other day by the West End Street Railway company, which owns all the surface lines in Greater Boston except a few extensions of other companies - to sell s1.5Sl 900 of
 their bonds at 6 per cent.
 They were forced to get the au- thority of the Massachusetts commits sion to pay per cent. The West End com pany's securities have always stood very high. but now it's bonds, despite it's guaranteed income under the lease to the Boston Elevated, are no longer attractive to investors at per cent.
 The lessons of this ominous fact are important in New York state. The credit of electric transportation com panies on five-cent fares is waning in face of rising costs. The f1ve-cent faf which ha haa0 a fatiPb 0f portation and regarded almost as a l constitutional right has been fixed | unit In days of pioneer street railway ' development, with light cars. cheap | it served. But it no longer meets the | bills. It takes nearly twice as many | fares to pay the supply bills ss it did | only three years ago, and dividends | already gone. That means less and i less margin of safety for the bonds, | and investors are shy of even lending | money except at excessive rates, and | the industry is threatened.
 Twelve Massachusetts, companies have succeeded in getting increased fares, and several more applications are now pending. One company after IS being forced to ask six-cent l fares or more. One company, the Hol- yoke Street Railway company, came before the commission only last week and frankly gave up the whole prob lem, leaving it for the commission to Gecide.
 Several six-cent fares. authorized as an experiment have proved made quate, and now it has been suggested that New England turn to the zone system so common in Europe.
 "One thing is certain-the antiquated l fixed five cent fare system will no longer serve. When investors will take no further part in business the ser vice must suffer. Despite the growth of the cities in both New York and New England, and the need for nc%.I lines street railway h1rfIdine has xrf, 1