The Penn's Grove record., 1920-11-19
ture. Nearly all will tell you they
"know" they can make money.
More Money Washing Windows

More Money WashIng WINDOWS
In gathering the facts for this ar
ticle long and earnest effort was made
to establish a reliable set of figures
showing the cost of operating a Ut
ney at Bridgeport, but without sue
cess. One former jitney owner who
drove his own car said his wife had
kept his books for him and discovered
at the end of two months that he was
losing money. When asked about
charges for depreciation, he looked
blank and said he did not what 1t
meant. When he said this he was
washing the windows of a department
store, his job as porter, he declared,
being more profitable than carrying
the public at a scent fare. Of course,
this ease is unusual, but the fact that
the majority of the out-of-town jit-
neys which descended upon Bridge
port remained only a short time
would bear out the conclusion that
many of the jitneys were operated at
an actual loss.
The manager of a large motor-car
agency which sold many of the jitneys
used at Bridgeport declared he knew,
to his sorrow, that operating a jitney
in Bridgeport was a losing PROPOSE
ton. Almost invariably, he said, the
jitneys were bought by an initial cash
payment of a few hundred dollars.
The majority of them consisted of a
standard touring a chassis, OF the
popular price type, fitted with a u
body seating from ten to sixteen pas
sengers. Naturally, this type OF
chassis is not designed to withstand
such a load, and especially as a jitney
is often u continuously from twelve
to fourteen hours a day, seven days a
week, without inspection or overhaul
ing. On this basis, and from his per-
sonal experience, this dealer fixed the
life of a Bridgeport bus from nine
months to one year, which would mean
a charge for depreciation, which the
jitney owners count not, of 100 per
cent. a year.
Auto Dealers Suffer
This may be overdrawn, but it is a
fact that many jitney drivers, bought
buses, operated them a month or two,
and then either turned them back on
the dealers or sold out to some n
else seeking large and quick profits in
the jitney game. The dealer named
complained of having many buses he
had sold a few months after their sale.
With the change in public sentiment
gradually swinging away from the jit-
ney the attitude of Bridgeport's news
papers towards the experiment also
underwent a noticeable change. There
are four daily newspapers in Bridge
port and from the first they had been
as a unit in condemning the trolleys
and advocating a jitney monopoly.
Undoubtedly this attitude was due
solely to the theory that if you want
to lead the procession you must find
out which way it is going and then
get in front of it. There is no better
circulation getter than giving the peo-
pie what they want to read. In this
case the people were for the jitneys
and so the newspapers were jitney
champions.
Press Changes Tune
AS soon as the public began to tire
of the jitney experiment and voice
their wish for a return of the trolleys,
even though it meant the jitney's ex-
tinction, the newspapers carefully re-
f1ected that change of mental attitude,
and their advocacy of the jitney fiat
tened out just in proportion as the
change of public sentiment grew.
The mechanics were the first to feel
the blight of a trolleyless city. AS
the women in increasing numbers re-
fused to ride in jitneys to do their
shopping trade fell off accordingly,
their loss being authoritatively stated
as between $4,000 and $4,000 per
day. 1t finally reached a point where
they insistently demanded that the
city authorities exercise their rights
and restrict the jitneys routes not in
direct competition with the trolley
lines.
Nor were the women of Bridgeport
satisfied to merely refrain from pa
tronizing jitneys, they went further,
and women's clubs and organizations
began to bring pressure to bear upon
the city's officers, who were reminded
that thousands of women would have
the privilege of voting at the next
election. .a
In the meantime the mayor had ap-
pointed a committee to investigate the
entire transportation situation in
Bridgeport. This committee made it's
report on August 26, recommending
that jitneys be restricted to certain
specified routes. The report included
a draft of an ordinance making these
recommendations effective and giving
the routes upon which jitneys should
be permitted to run. The mayor
called a public meeting of the City
Council for August 80 to act upon the
report. At the meeting which was at
tended by more than 600 persons,
representatives of The Connecticut
Company said they could not consent
to resume service should the ordinance,
as drafted by the committee, be
adopted.
Cars To Run Again
The Council met on September 7
and passed an ordinance restricting
the operation of jitneys to certain
streets not in direct competitor with
the trolley lines, and the next day
were notified by The Connecticut Com