Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-10-30
Fares, Please
Today's Riddle
Ry Frederic ]. Haskin

/
fares, the street car will follow the Buffalo,
| the passenger pigeon, free silver and the
open suaer bowl into the limbo Of things
| that were. The street car passenger is
| wailing that unless he gets better service
| If there is anything IN the theory that
| acquired characteristics are hereditary,
| his children will be fiat like founders
and have one arm foot longer than the
other. The street car conductor and also
| the motorman are striking for higher
| wages And tha street car itself lifts up
10 high heaven the sad voice of its Hat
wheel.
The magnet poirAs 10 the fact that
thirty companies have already gone out
| of business, bankrupt From his view
point. there il nothing for IT but a raise
| in the rate of car fares. And from any
viewpoint, such raise seems necessary
! If the cars are TO go on running.
Unlike the price Of doughnuts or eelu
| loid collars which may he indirectly
| fixed by the War Industries Board a
| raise in car fare rates depends on the will
Of the public. Naturally the public is
not in favor of investing two or three
extra cents in street car rides, especially
when street car riding involves series
of acrobatic stunts on the part Of the
passenger while swinging pendulum-llke
| from n strap IN order To MAINTAIN equll-
| ibrium.
TIRE pUBLTC's SIDE
| What will we get out of a higher rate
of farc2" askslthe public. And the street
/ car company answers chccrfully that tho
| extra cent or two is needed to keep the
| system IN operation al all
| To support arguments as 10 its un-
enviablc financial condition any street
| car company will produce statistical re-
| ports showing that the net income of the
| electric railway business for tho past
| year fell over eighty per cent in com
parison with the proceeding year
Few people understand that an ordinary
| green-backed street car. with no velvet
| uphostering or artistic wall decorations
| costs between ten and twelve thousand
| dollars Before the war. tho same car
would hvac been delivered for FIVE thou
sand The extra five thousand now paid
| represents 10 the street car company m
overhead expense for which no return can
be made. because tho company cannot
fix its rate To correspond with rs IN
| creased expenses.
Another blow to the once thriving IN
dustry is the high cost OF labor A street
| ear conductor in some cities now com
mands a salary rs high rs s175 month,
by order of the National War Labor
Board This figure, which IS somewhat
larger than the remuneration Of many
| Of our scientists and educators, ls not an
| unusually high rate in war labor wage
scales The War Labor Board awards
| n certain scale of wages to the employees
| Of company according ~ living ron-
dtions in the locality II rests with the
company 10 pay the price or lose Is men.
| Estimates on paw Of electric railway
/ Il Al - >
| the wage increase IS 300, 900, 900.
TROUBLES.
Most Industries meet added expenses
and proats by raising rates 4 street car
system being a public utility cannot do
| this because the companies are organized
according to contract with the city govern
ment. and invariably the contract pro-
vidcs for service al fixed rate Of fare,
| In order TO raise the rate il is necessary
| 10 secure the cnnsent Of the city council
or other clvic body responsible for
public utilities Tackhng these officials
IS according to the railroads feat re-
auiring the tact Of a diplomat, the elo-
| quence Of q lawyer. and the patience Of a
school teacher, and then. nine times out
Of ten the rate remains the same.
The Company has 10 deal with clti-
zen associations, popular vote, and the
city officers, all influenced by the fact
that street car systems have the repu-
tation of making easy money In some
ei les municipal sownershlp OF pubic
utilities has been established as a Solu-
ton of the problems. lpon lnvestlga-
| ton Of conditions, the utilities committee
almost invariably raises fares to defray
| expenses. \ conspicuous example OF tins
| Is found in Boston where municipal
/ hos hp "a tlya
| cents to seven.
POOR CAR SERVICE
Comparatively poor car service in
war industry centers Is due partly 10 the
| labor shortage and partly to the scarcity
of street cars In one southern city, even
the head bookeeper of the car company
and other officials of dignity turn out and
run cars at rllsh hours. Companies hesi-
tate to invest too extravagantly IN cars
because war conditions are uncertain
and a crowded war-factory town may,
shrink 10 the size of a village after the
war Even where n company Is willing
to risk borrowing in order to purchase
ears, the situation Is not helped. Bankers
will not lend money TO electric railways
because of the latter's poor financial
condition.
1t has been suggested that a fair deal
for both railroads and public might
be insured by National Public It'll
tiles Commission with authority granted
by the President to study individual
cases and fix reasonable rates. 4 com
mission of this sort would prevent more
companies from going out of business
and see that rates were not raised by any J,
companies already making fair profits.
Such commission would undoubtedly
help in this emergency But the present
breakdown Of the nation street car svs-
TEN is seen by many observers as proof
of tho futility of having the government
contro land regularc, rather than own
public utilities Government regulation
both city and national, is always a COM
promise measure. Like good many
other compromise measures, it often
doscnt work The city governments
generally fixed the street ear rate at a
nickel, when the companies were granted
their franchise. For long time the street
car companies piled up millions at this
rate Then the war came along, and at
the very same rate they all collapsed.
Plainly, the logical thing would be
for the city governments to run the street