Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-01-04

Philadelphia Jan. 1-At present this
city is in the threes of controversy
which is apt to be duplicated in nearly
every large city Of the country. The
question at issue is whether the uhiqul-
tous skip stop" system of the trolley
lines shall continue, now that demands
on fuel have so diminished.
During the war. skip stops were insti-
tuted in nearly every city of the country
with more than fifty thousand popula-
ton. The idea was adopted also by a
number of suburban and interurban, cleo
tric lines
Each time an electric car is stopped
and started it consumes an enormous
much fuel must be burned. By stopping
and starting the cars only every other
block, quite a tidy saving is effected.
When the big tax on the power pro-
ducing plants of our industrial centers
came, the fuel administration discover
ed" the skip stop idea. and encouraged
it's adoption throughout the country.
There are, however, number Of per
sons who refuse to give the fuel admin
istration credit for the skip stops, say
ing that a few suave traction magnates
had the plan up their sleeves for q long
time, but were hesitant about testing it
on their respective publics, until the war
gave them a patriotic excuse.
Although Philadelphia is undoubtedly
the greatest manufacturing center of the
nation. and hence the greatest consumer
| of fuel. the skip stop system was not
| 1t was established then at the command
| Of the state fuel administrator. Demands
on the dynamos of the Philadelphia Elee-
| tric company. which supplied current tc
/ the Philadelphia Rapid Transit company
/ and to most Of the shipyards. stee
| plants. shell factories and rifle works
! clustered about the city. made such q
move imperative. 1T is a choice sale
| the engineers who were graphing witt
/ the problem, 'hetween skip stops anf
| putting severe restrictions on the. con
sumption Of current by householders.
! SO the Rapid Transit company mstl
! tuted skip stops on all of its lines. The
| plan was little different from tha'
/ followed in most cities. The sklps weft
| not effective downtown. because the con
/ gestion of traffic in the business section
| is such as to render it impossible not t
| admit and discharge passengers at ever,
crossing. Roughly, the skips Were con
| fined to the districts outside a mile ant
| a half radius from Independence Hail
that IS. to about seven eighths of a.
Philadelphia Now blocks are long, Il
the residential section. and the furtheI
/ one gets into it, the longer the block
! become.
Ry the time skip stops had. been .es
tablished in Philadelphia. five things ha'
to be noticed: First. that the saving 0
many thousand dollars worth Of fuel fa'
been achieved; second, that the trolIe!
cars completed their schedules in mucl
shorter time: third that the percentas'
Of street ear accidents had taken a con
siderable increase: fourth. that the work
ing population was doing more wa.klnt
than ever before: fifth, that the Transi
company was interested in making skll
stops 4 permanent institution.
With peace. OF course, has come
slowing M of industrial Philadelphia
Most of the war plants had made prepa
rations for the advent Of peace and the
have slipped quietly into their new pro
gram Coal is still scarce, but it is no
being burned SO rapidly. There is n
fuel problem of the proportions ther
would have been had the war continued
That was why, some weeks ago. Admin