Arizona republican., 1919-09-15
MITCHELL SAYS
 RAILS WILL BE
 EN ROUTE sO0N

The contract for the rails for the Grand avenue line of the Phoenix Street Railway company was cancelled by the company that were to supply them. but another contract has been let for rails for the line, and it is hoped to have them here and ready to put down in not to exceed ten days. according to a statement made by Manager Mitchell.
 The Grand avenue line has been quite a bone Of contention, between the city, and the state corporation commission, and the company numer- ous clashes of one kind or another having occurred.
 To lay the company's side of the case before the people, Sam H. Mitchell, ! the local manager, recently issued q general statement, in part as follows:
 There appeared in the daily papers of Sept. II, and in one of the papers with prominent headline. an article f indicating that the fiye-eent fare in Phoenix was to remain, after the matter had been discussed by the manager of the Phoenix Street Railway company and the city commission. This would | lead the public to believe that the | prominent subject discussed before the 1
  Permit the writer to state that the fare question was not the question up for discussion, and assurance was not giy- l en the city commission that the fare is to remain at five cents. This ques ton is a, serious one with all the street car companies over the country, therel being about one hundred and seventy five car companies in the United States which have already Increased their fares to as high as ten cents. where a five cent fare formerly existed. This question with the Phoenix Railway company has been held in abeyance, and not yet presented for consideration.
 Reason For Conference
 The principal reason for a confer ence between the city commission and the Phoenix Railway company was on account of the condition that Grand Avenue line has been left in the last zen days. Commissioner Henderson requested the manager to appear be- lore the commission and explain the rcasons why it was so left, for the mason that number of complaints from citizens in the neighborhood of Hive Points had besn filed with him. some even went so far as to threaten 10 remove the dirt from the Street and feplace it in the trench where the railway company had already placed it's ties preparatory 10 the laying of Eaiis The manager agreed to be at tEa fBeFD4ng meeting of the .ecmmis sion aSllen the quas5ienl s1as sfzi<en up and iu fhe sEessk poasstse sza9 1Tsained 10 the comsnisx{nfs fkat hes 9s ss using his best efforts to have zhe Grand avenue line completed on or before f9etober Is. as per the agreement with he city. that he has proceeded to dig the trench through the paved district apd lay the ties so that the rails which bad been ordered and expected daily Ter the last week, could be laid in with Yfomptness, and the street closed up with as little delay as possible. How eVer we were disappointed in not re- ceiving the rails as per the arrange lnent that had been made with the party from whom they were purchased, who gave various reasons for the de- lay, the recent strike being one of the reasons. The company was criticized for leaving Grand Avenue in it's pres ent condition, which to our minds is not nearly as serious as many of the streets left by other companies, who like ourselves, cannot control conditions in regard to the securing of materials. It is only matter of a few years since Monroe street and Van Buren street for about a mile was torn open by competing company, the White Line. and left open for months. with no serious complaint from the citiezns
 Line Criticized
 We were criticised by Commis sioner Henderson for not having our rails and other materials gl in time for this work We endeavored to explain 10 the commissioner that he had pur- chased 5000 ties, all the poles from Washington state, all the line ma teriaIs, and all other necessities. and had many of them in place. This did not seem to satisfy the commissioner who contended the rails should have been here on time. and who apparently did not give us credit for securing all the other material at the earliest pos sible date. Rails. however, are all un- der the control of the United States government and most difficult to se cure under favorable price and cendi- ton.
 The railway company is under an agreement to perform certain things within certain specified time. A DOT rion of the time has already elapsed. Some of these matters have been at tended to principally on account of the difficulty of securing iaborers for track work during the heated summer months. Also, on account of being obliged to do other work which was absolutely necessary for the operation of the road and the safety of the pub lie. These matters were brought up from report which had been placed on file by the city engineer and acting manager. which is part of the regular routine of the commission.
 Henderson fnsistent.
 Commissioner Henderson was quite insistent on having a motion passed that the city of Phoenix proceed at once to do much of this work and col- Iect the charges for the work from the Phoenix Railway company. To this we objected. He showed so determined a spirit that he was going to see that the street railway company perform all it's contracts, apparently, no matter how laborious they were. or how they oppressed the company, or under what conditions. and he has shown this same spirit ever since he has been in office. However, through tke fairness Of the other commissioners this or der was not passed.
 The manager of the Phoenix Rail- way company stated that he had had difficulty in securing labor, also, a competent track foreman in the early summer months. but that some weeks ago he secured a competent man from Los Angeles, who has been on the work for the past four weeks, pushing the work to completion to the best of his ability.
 E T might further state that some of z the complaints in regard to Grand ave-