The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-04-02


 IemaucaI nature is however recon lueuded in the shape of regulation O.. the jjtueys. Whether that relief VIII be sufficient to make up the neces- sary additional $1,SU0.O00 ($90V.00O a year), ill order 10 permit the com pany to come out even at the end of that time We very much doubt and we very much doubt also wheth- CT relief by way of jitney regulation ought to be sufficient to save as much as $90O,OO0 for the Connecticut Com pany. The evidence adduced before our Commission seemed to us to poin. very clearly to the ultimate desir- ability of the substitution of the jit Ecy, or automobile omnibus, for a good many of the electric railway lines now in operation. This is par tcularly true of rural and interurbau lines. Having this view we do not think jituey regulations, so called should be so drastic as to prevent the development of that means of trans portation when conducted by persons of reasonable and moral and financial responsibility, but some regulation such as has been recommended in the Commissions reports seems neces- sary for the purpose of avoiding g too sudden transition from the pres ent means of transportation by the electric railway lines. and this is for the reason that q sudden trc cnsItition would be extremely likely tD have tha effect of putting the old method Of transportation out of business before the new method had developed suf- cientIy to take it's place in those To- calities where the change might prop erly and with entire convenience to the public be made.
 The recOmm dalton of the Report of the Commission will, We think, provide regulations under which jit- ney service may develop gradually without dislocation of the entire transportation system of the State, but we do not think the recommen- cation of the Commission provide such a relief from competition as will enable the Connecticut Company to add s900,0OO a year to its net rev enues.
 The condition of the Shore Line Electric Company, and the Hartford &s Springfield Street Railway Com pany, and the Danbury 6 Bethel Street Railway Company, is in each instance much worse financially than that of the Connecticut Company, so
 
 adequate for the Connecticut Com pany it is much more inadequate for them. None of these Companies has any credit upon which it can borrow money from banks, and the question will necessarily be presented whether the present agencies operating street railway companies are to be con- tinued, or whether the State will take them over and operate them itself. Under these circumstances it can do no harm if the State loans a, reason able amount of money to the Street Railways during the next two years for the purpose of enabling existing agencies to continue their service to the public during that period. If that State has to take over the street rail ways because they cannot repay the money loaned, it will amount to the same thing as if they took them over now and paid the amount of such loans for the purpose of keeping those railways in operation. Rather than impose upon the car rider fur ther burdens, then as suggested in the Report of the Commission, by increasing rates of fare in order to keep the street railways in opera tion We should like, therefore, to add to the recomme ndations of the Com mission the further recommendation that the Board of Control be per mitted to loan the street railway com panies of the State such amounts of money from time to time as may be necessary to secure the continuance Of the public service provided that the aggregate of all such loans shall not exceed $2,OO0.00O for the two year period and that no such loan shall be made unless the Public UtiN- ties Commission shall have first found that the Board of Control may ra&S tho money for such loans by issuing the notes of the State of Connecticut for the amounts necessary 10 be raised, the rate of interest to be charged to the Street Railway con- pauies upon such loans to be one- half of one half of one per cent. greater than that which the State may be required to pay upon such notes"