Putnam patriot., 1919-08-08
BEGIN HALF-HOURLY SERVICE
 WITH MOTOR BUSES MONDAY
Merchants Committee Met With Delays, But Four-Motor Plan Will Overcome All
 Previous Inconvenience

Although the Merchants committee of the Chamber of Commerce has been delayed in getting the busses in to operation. it has now become an assured fact that half-hourly service will be put into effect between Put
 nam and North Grosvenor-Dale, and
 the committee felt this noon that the
 service would become certainty
 Monday morning.
 A representative of a Bridgeport
 concern operating motor busses was in Putnam this week and went over
 the ground and was favorably impress
 sed. He returned to report to the Bridgeport office and the committee
 is waiting to hear from the concern now. If an agreement is not made with the Bridgeport people the com mittee will make arrangements with local concerns and enough motor
 busses to give the half-hourly service will be on the job.
 To the south of Putnam at least hourly service will be maintained and if possible similar arrangement will be made as at the north of the city. This new service will be better than
 ever the trolley gave and undoubted-
 ly will be appreciated by people who have found Putnam stores the ideal
 places to do their buying and who do not care to turn away.
 The Merchants committee has met with disappointments and delays but
 at last the situation is beginning to
 clear and it is now believed the handi- cap has been overcome.
 A few people who are doubtless
 heart and soul in Putnam's welfare | but who hurriedly read the statement
 in last weeks Patriot, gained wrong | impression of the situation as |
 stands in this city. One man thought
 he read that seventy-five per cent o1 Putnam's trade was going to Webster and made a canvass of the stores to see if the impression he gained was true. Of course he found that Put
 nam trade is increasing rather than decreasing, so he kindly called atten- tion to the matter However, when q
 careful and simple explanation was 1 made it became clear that The Patriot said the traffic on the trolley lines go- ing north from West Thompson was
 seventy-fve per cent greater since the strike and not that Putnam's trade had decreased sexenty-fve, per cent The statement as made in last weeks Patriot still stands and is vouched for
 completely by the Chamber of Com merce.
 The canvass was good thing in . way for it showed that trade is con stantly increasing in Putnam and that in the case of one merchant business last Saturday under almost exact con ditions of year ago in the weather line for the day had doubled this year.
 Nevertheless it still remains that
 Putnam merchants have got to stand together through this crucial period
 for other centers of trade are quick
 to take advantage of Putnam's tenn porary handicap, as evidenced by this quotation from the Webster Times:
 Many Webster merchants are awaking to the fact that great vol
 ume of business that could be won
 for them, is coming now because of a
 situation caused by the strike and are preparing to hold the trade that has come.
 "The misfortune of Putnam may
 mean thousands of dollars to Webster,
 and while it may seem hard hearted