Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-29
THE RETURN TO REASON

THE RETURN TO REASON
IN CAMDEN and its environs the Public
Service Corporation has begun what it
blithely calls campaign of education to
harden the people to the nine, eleven,
thirteen and fifteen cent trolley fares
soon to be general under the recent as
tonishng decree of the state utilities
commission.
Pamphlets and painted poles and an
elaborate system of new regulations, as
we'll as remodeled equipment, are neces-
sary provisions for the new zone-fare
system. But in view of what is happen
ing elsewhere-to the InterborOugh in
New York, to food gamblers in Chicago,
to strikers who have lost their heads
and to lot of other jazzers in the high
cost dance-one cannot but wonder
whether the street-car companies in New
Jersey ought not to organize a campaign
of education not for the public, but for
themselves.
Food producers, a good many trolley
corporations and some Of the more radl-
cal trades unionists are, curlously
enough, in the same boat. They come
too high. The people are in a mood to
regard them as luxuries that may be dis
pensed with in pinch. This was demon
strated yesterday when meat prices be-
gan to tumble in Chicago. Cattle were
left unbought in the pens. Spectators
lost heavily in panic. Reports proved
that meat purchases in retail markets
were being vigorously curtailed. The
buying public had merely reached the
limit of it's endurance.
Who knows that the rule which is
operating simultaneously to defeat un-
reasonable strikes and throw the food
market into a swift decline will not
operate to bring confusion to street car
lines operated on the theory favored in
New Jersey? If Mr.. Mitten's theories of
street railroading are sound-and they
seem to be--the increases in trolley rates
granted by the Jersey utilities commits
sion are not only unnecessary, but un-
wise. The new zone rates announced for
the Camden district will certainly divert
great deal of suburban traffic to the
steam lines. They will encourage the
iitney systems. And unquestionably
they will cause a vast number of people
to walk.
1t has yet to be demonstrated whether
a schedule of rates that has brought dis
like and disfavor to the street-car cor
poraton and lessened its usefulness to
the community may even be depended
unon to return increased revenues. There
is nothing to prove that the Public Serv-
ice CORPORATION ever tried a thorough re-
| organization of its system and scientific
| improvements and economies as methods
| to meet an increasing financial obliga-
ton. 1t never tried to develop the Nit
ten policy of bigger business and smaller
| profits. 1t took the easier course and
| demanded higher fares. In this course
the trolley corporations have been acting
upon a theory demonstrated recently in
| some conspicuous strikes.
Bricklayers in this city, for example,
who are holding out for dollar and a
quarter an hour are not unlike the man
agement of Camdens trolley service. 1t
does not seem to have occurred to them
that builders would gladly pay that
wage-if they could get the public at
large to shoulder the burden. The pub
lie will not shoulder that burden nor will
it bear the weight of demands made in
Chicago by striking carpenters who want
a dollar an hour. 1t will not because it
cannot. The people will retrench. They
will live in old houses and crowd in re-
stricted quarters to wait return of rea-
son. Similarly they will use less meat.
They will buy fewer shoes if they have
to pay exorbitant prices. And they will
waik-"short riders" especially--instead
of riding in trolley cars.
The expected has happened. The crest
of the high cost of living has been
reached. Any one who tries to go over
and beyond it has long fall coming to
him.