Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-21
SEVEN-CENT FARES

no THE gentlemen of the Public Service
- Commission and the stock -jobbers in
their anterooms know more about the tech
nical requirements of the street car lines in
this city than the man who revitaized the
disintegrating corpse Of the r. r. T. and
made Of it an efficient organization with
strike proof system that recently has been
the envy and admiration of the public in
almost every other city in the country?
Does Mr.. Benn. or Mr. Clement. or Mr..
Stotesbury. or Governor Sproul know more
about transit than Mr.. Mitten? No one in
his senses will believe that they do.
Mtten. who played an open game and put
his cards on the table because he knew that
other methods do not pay in the long run.
was fooled and outplaycd just as the public
was fooled and outplaycd. The service COM
mission and the group whose views its
members represent played in the dark.
1t is clear now that the decision to scrap
the Mitten plan and substitute another one
more favorable to interests that have no real
concern with Philadelphia was reached last
week and became at once known to a limited
group even while the officials who actually
operate the +. Il. T. were left without a
hint of what was pending. And it is clear,
too, that the war against Mitten has been
waged not in the interest of better street
car service. but in the interest of groups
which, controlling street car lines elsewhere.
have shown a desire to drive Mittcn and the
nickel fare together not only out OF this city
but out of the street car world.
IL the recent history Of public service in
New Jersey has any moral or meaning. the
men who forced the seven cent fare decision
through the Pennsylvania commission may
live to regret the job they performed so thor
oughly. Mr.. Stote>bury and the underlying
companies are not the chief victors in this
instance. The victory is for forces of re-
action which looked with cynical contcmpt
upon the humanizing policies that have op-
Grated here in recent years for the good of
the public, the good Of the employees and the
good of the p. r. T. Mitten. with his CO.
operative system and his theory that maxi
mum service and minimum profits would
bring the largest returns, has been rcpudiated
in peculiarly ungracous fashion. This is
true whether Mitten stays or goes.
The rate aspect of the case may be left
momentarilv aside. What the public will
want to know is why the fare decision was
withheld for days after it had been reached
while p. r. 7. stock was bought in clumps
In the open markets by people evidently on
the inside. Who were these people? Whose
friends are they? What explanation have
the commissioners TO make for the precedent
they have thus created?
This is sorry end to the long discussion
Of streetcar rates and the affairs Of the
p. r. T. The decision is. to say the least.
OF debatable value. II is the method by
which it was reached aud promulgated that
is astonishing and altogether lamcntablc.
We seem to have drftcd back twenty years
to the days Of jobbcry when city franchises
were handed over for price to those who
grew rich through them without ever a
thought OF rendering a moments service in
return for their fortunes. With one fine
gesture tho interests behind the i. Il. r.
have deprived the corporation of the public
confidence created by the Mitton manage.
ment through years Of labor and fair deal
ing. No one on the nSid" seems 10 realize
the value Of the asset thus thrown away.
The ghosts of the old spoiIsmcu seem to BE-
walking about again ~ receive the Dioug
kow.tows Of the service commissioners. the
members Of the City Council, the Bulletin
and the Inquirer.
History is repeating itself. All these
things have occurred BEFORE