The Washington herald., 1918-01-13
To Try Public Ownership
On Toledo Trolley Lines
Modified Plan for Municipal Operation OF
fered by Henry L. Doherty AS Solution
Of Transit Problems.

For many months the City Of
Toledo. Ohio, has been in a municipal
fiutter over the Toledo carfare dead
lock. PRO Bon Pubhco'' and 'sVox
Populi'' have bombarded the news
papers pro and con anent the ques-
ton Toledo has had its Golden Rule
Jones and Brand Whltlock and the
populace Is trained to take a keen in
terest IN all questions affecting the
public welfare.
Doherty, of 50 Wall street, who con-
trolls the Toledo Railways and Light
Company, is to give the city Of Toledo
municipal ownership in homeopathic
doses. II was the scheme he devised
to lead them out Of the municipal
wilderness.
His plan Is called Community
Ownership and follows a carfare
deadlock that rivalled the experiences
Of Mayor Tom Johnson in the city of
Cleveland.
The DOherty PIAn.
The plan devised by Mr.. Doherty is
embodied in the draft of anew trolley
ordinance for Toledo. op~which or
dinance Mr.. Doherty and his as
<sociates have been working with the
city's traction committee for a year
and half
Il is shortly to be submitted to the
voters. as Toledo Is a referendum
city. When this times comes the
public will have the opportunity to do
a little by the way of criticism and
advice.
Mr.. Doherty Is trying by his plan
to show them that corporation men
are human and the the public be
damned policy has gone to the limbo
Of forgotten things along with the
Gickey, and that rara avis-the dodo.
The cause Of the trouble was the
same that has torn the municipal
spirit to tatters in many Western and
mid-Western cities. It was the scent
fare against the scent fare The old
administration in Toledo-a relic of
Golden Rule Jones-had left over. to
the new administration an ordE-
nance to force a s-cent fare on the
traction company.
The new administration attempted
to put the reduction in fares through.
The people were for It They had
suffered at the hands of corporation
impudenee and they saw the op-
pOrtUnity for revenge.
It was Just at this time that Mr..
Doherty secured control Of the street
railway. He was a New Yorker and
from Wall street. That was enough
to condemn him.
The herculean TASK was imposed
upon him to prove to the people of
Toledo that all Wall street magnates
were not descendants of Jesse James.
He had to win over the people at
great odds. He didn't send smooth
tongued emissaries. He went him
self.
Wins Against Prejudice.
Nm. Doherty considers himself one
OF the so-called common people He
started out in life as a newsboy on
the streets OF Columbus, Ohio. He
wasn't equipped with a college educa-
ton He was a graduate of the Uni
Versity of Hard Knocks and today
he Is q multi-millionaire, the second
largest producer OF refinabIe oil in
the world. the owner Of some 200
public utilities and a banker.
When he got to Toledo the public
was not at the station to meet him
with brass band In fact some
Of the opposition newspapers in
hnated that Captain Kidd was not
dead and referred to his presence in
thar fair city. All Of this Mr.,
Doherty accepted with good-natured
tolerance He says smiling has saved
rim from many precarious financial
situations.
So he met the people. He bought
spaee IN the newspapers labeled "a