Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1919-01-04
To Skip or
Not to Skip
by Frederic ]. HAskin


ubiquitous skip stop sysfem of the
troll y lines shall continue, now that
| demands on fuel have so diminished.
| During tho war, skip stops were in
stituted in nearly every city Of the
country with more than fifty thousand
| population. Inc idea was adopted also
/ by number of suburban and infnuIr-
4 ban electric lines.
| Each time an electric car is stopped and
| stovaedi il Consumes an enormous amount
/ Of electricity, 10 produce wi h much
fuel mnst be burned BY stopping and
starting the cars only every other block
quite a tidy saving is effected.
| When the big tax on the power pro-
ducing plants of orr industrial ccnters
| came, the fuel administration discovered
| the skip stop idea, and encouraged it,
| adoption throughout the couutA There
are however, number Of persons who
refuse 10 give the fuel administration
| credit for the skip stops saying that o
| few suavc traction magndtes had n
| plan up their Sleevcs for q lorR time.
hut were hcsitant about testing II on
their respective publics, until the war
| gave them q patrIot:c excuse.
Although Philadelphia il undoubtedly
| the greatest manufacturing center of
sumner of fuel, the skip stop system wac
not rcsortcd To until midsummer 81
last vcar II was established then at
the command of the State fuel adnln
istrator. Demands On tho dynamos IF
the Philadelphia Electric Company. which
supplied current 10 the Phliadclpn'a
Rapid Transit Company and f. most
Of the shipyards steel plants, hell iar-
torres and rife works clustered about
the city, made such q moe imperative
1t IL d ehoicc SAID the engineers who
were graphing with the problem, be-
tween skip stops and putting severe
restrictions on the consumption ii
current by hotsnhnlders
So the Rapid Transit Company IN
etituied skip stops on al Of It's lines The
plan was little different from that
followed IN most cities The ektps we're
not effective downtown, heca1sc the
congestion of traffic ~ the business
section is such ~ to render it impossible
not to admit and discharge passenger
OF every crossing Roughly, the sklps
were confined toet the districts outside a
mile and half radius from Independence
Hall-that is 10 about scvcn-eigh'hs
of al Philadelphia Now blocks arc long
IN the residential section. and the further
one gets into II, the longer the blocks
become
SKIP STOPS SAVE.
BY the time skip stops had been o.
fablished in PhiIadelphla five, things
had 10 be noticed First, that the saving
Of many thousand dollar worth of fuel
had beer achieved second that he
trolley ears completed their schedules
~ much shorter time, third, that he
:
taken . considerable increase. fourth.
that thc working population was doing
more walking than ever before, fifth,
that tho Transit Company va inter
csfed ~ making skip stops . permanent
institution
With peace Of course. has come 4
slowing up u industrial Philadelphia.
Most of the war plants had made prep
arat!ons for the advent 0f peace and
they have slipped quietly into their
new program
Coal Is still scarce, but It il not beng
burned 50 rapidly. There Is 40 fuel
problem OF the proportions there would
have been had the war continued. That
was why, some weeks ago, Admins
traitor Potter informed the city that
so far Is he and the fuel administration
was concerned skip stops might Dc
abolished 1t once
This was hailed joyfullv hv the news
papers as one 81 the less renowned bless-
'ngs Of peace. l. meant, thcr SAID, fewer
drenehiugs fewer pay docking. and
fever old ladl,, Killed on the way 10
market rs i vi measure the citv would
uet W with skip stops gladly, but nov
Il was httlc short o. sinful u continue
tnem, seeing the damage they had done
Will II be tomorrow. they Lsked or
next day that the Transit Company
Will order its motornen to stop At eycrx
corner?
PUBLIC SENTIMENT DIVIDED.
Bat in the meantime reporter had
seen one OF the coMpany's officials and
Z OF from hun i statement SaNInC that the
company WASH t quite - sure the sl1Ips
ought to be 1bolished, nor Mas lie quite
sire that the reoplc wanted them to be
Then the stron broke. -Four powerful
newspapers cried 'perfdy, charging
that the TRACTION gang had taken
advantage OF the Cltys patnotlsnl 20
put something over On It. One news
paper sided With the company, while
the rest maintained an attitude Of crit
ie;d neutrality. The company Indignantly
denied the charges, and said it had dem
tLSBlA&
the increased fare issue, even when there
waS ample Justification. 1t pointed out
that with no sign Of let-up III the over
head cost of operation the hvc-cent
fare rate couldn't hold out forever, IN
less some sort Of retrenchment was made.
Anyway, it claimed, most Of the people
were in lavcr Cf skip stops, and anxious
to keep them.
The antI-SkiD uewSpapers dHl NOT
deny that skip stops would save more
then 81 ,000, 00O yearly as the transit
officials claimed. but expressed cont
dence that the passenger would get
none of it. They played up" the in
crease in deaths from accidents 1T street
crossings. and each fresh accldcut w:.s
gwen front page display with appro-
pirate headlines.
The Transit Company then announced
that the passengers themselves Shall
finally decide whether skip stops are 10
go or 10 remaIu They have appointed
a committee Of thirteen To decide whether
the temper q the public IS favorable
or unfavorable 1t Will make It's decision
some time this month
Meantime both the company and It's
opponents aro carrying on active cam
palGns The company got psycholo-
giat to say that the increase in street
crossing accidents was due TO an epidemic
of the psych0SIs Of wartime reckless
ness, rather than to skip stops II gave
this TACT TO It's passengers by means
oi bulletins posted in the cars and fol-
lowed 1t with others Fresh bulletins
arc now beng added under the slogan
know the Truth and the Truth Shall
Make y on Free y