Norwich bulletin., 1919-01-27
TROLLEY LINES IN FINANCIAL STRAITS


receiver of the Hartford AMI Spring
field Trolley company, were speakers
at New Haven on Saturday before the
annual meeting of the Connecticut
Editors association.
In what he said to the Connecticut
editors, President Perkins called at
tention to the desperate conditions as
| to finances in which the operators of
the poor mans automobile find
themselves and made the suggestion
| that as the trolleys were supposed to
| furnish service at cost they ought
| to be sure OF receiving the cost of
| service. In view of the service which
| the trolley rC~'- -o~Io- to the in
rial and social relations of the
| cIIlzenS liz G~>--.-,. III. nc different
Woy of treatment towards two means
OF transportation, the highways and
the trolleys, and asked if. it would not
! be reasonable to expect that the stall
should contribute towards enabling
the trolley roads to meet the cost of
maintenance OF way.
President Perkins spoke as follows:
Any consideration of what is now
generally termed The Street Railway
| Problem" must begin with an accept
ance of the fact that the street railway
| systems of the nation have, as an in
dustry failed-failed financially and,
| what is of greater Importance to the
people as a whole, have failed as pub
lice servants. The first is clearly evil
| denced by the amount of mileage now
in the hands of receivers, by the ever
! increasing default in interest pay
nents, by the abandonment of track
age and the shrinkage in value of all
street railway securities, as evidenced
by the financial columns of our daily
papers.
That they have failed as public SER
wants is quite as clearly shown by the
criticism to which they are subjected,
by curtailment of service, by loss of
patronage, and by suspension of ser
vice and, finally, by removal OF tracks
which constitute to the community Of
fected absolute failure of Il untihty in
it's usefulness is only second to the
highways Of the state and the street of
the towns and cities. Some radical go
so far as to claim that the street cars
are simply moving sidewalks and that
they should be owned and operated by
the municipalities and transport the
people without charge.
Because of the nature of the service
rendered, THE Street Railway Prob
lem involves not only the investor
whose property is daily shrinking il
value, but the general public which has
come to look upon this service as in
dispenSable because of it's tremendous
Importance to the business, social an6
| economic life of the community. Fac
tories, institutions and homes have
been built with particular relation t.
the facilities offered by some stree
railway system, and abandonment O.
service would result in a loss of value
, of real estate not easily appreciated
by one who has not taken careful not
Of the appreciation in value resulting
from the Introduction of street rail
| way service.
l believe it is safe to say that if tn
, street railways were in position toda,
to exact from the property holder
along their line very small Fraction
; of the increase in value resulting from
l the construction and operation of thei
lines, that their financial trouble
would soon be cured-and renovin;
that serious handicap to efficient ser
: vice, cause for complaint woult
promptly disappear for, as a promi
nent railway operator said recently
the street railways have no trouble
: that money viii not cure.
That this problem then involves yo1
and the varied business and social in
; terests throughout the state quite a
much as it does us, and the investor
l. whom we represent, is our reason TO
appearing before you today, for hel
= we must have or operation of many 0
: the lines must of necessity be com
pletely suspended and, eventually. en-
| tirely abandoned. Just what today i
happening in Massachusetts. because c
failure on the part of tie Genera
n Court of that state, last winter, to re
d cognize the seriousness. of the situa
ton.
e The inquiry naturally arises "Wh
b is it that an industry of such import
0 ance should find itself in so deplorabl
= a condition." If but one system alon
: We're involved, or here and there
= system embarrassed, incompeter
l, management might be suspected. or W
k might look for some radical change
n in the industrial conditions of the com
munity as responsible, but when til
d condition is general throughout til
o entire country, we must search deepe
: for a cause-and the more you study
= the more thought you give to tn
g subject, the more likely are you to com
o to the conclusion that the present SIT
n uation has come about as a result
d the ignoring or violation of certai
= fundamental laws that must govern a
merchandising, for, after all, the mani
fcture aud sale of transportation
nothing more nor less than merChar
S dising.
- What prophecy of success would yc
- make for the merchant who on inves
a ing his money in a building on one
~ the business streets of our cities. ar
~ filing that building was merchandis
I entered into an agreement with II
# city authorities that bound him,
= long as he continued in business,
Il sell his merchandise at prices WhiC
- were fixed by Joint agreement befo
the store was opened for business al
" without knowledge of what the
q goods were to cost him? Yet that
exactly the condition in which son
railway properties We're placed as
result of franchise restrictions fixil
rate of fare before the tracks we
-. laid, and before it was possible
u know what would be the cost of oper
~ ton with relation to the use tn
-, would be made of the service rendere
IL Where charters gave the directo
- the right to fix rates from time
~, time, as conditions changed, the ma
~ agement were slow to make use of til
~ provision because of the storm Of O.
position sure to arise, and the unce
tainty of results that might so be o
tanned, for experience has shown tn
with each increase in rate Games a ce
tam loss or patronage that, in sor
IN cases, has meant a Reduction in gro
" revenue. This invariably means Gu
W tailment of service, which aga
~ y, means more loss of patronage lie
ne earnings and poorer credit, and wit
m out credit betterment of property, il
re proved rolling stock and better Sc
III vice are impossible and the vicio
circle is complete
. But back of all this, and to consi
PLY cradle extent, responsible for it,
owe government control, control and reg
BILE, latiOu without rasnopcih;Ji+1-
rly r,bo+ - ~
9Th. 1Iidl may NOT De misunderstood