New Britain herald., 1920-07-17

With the growth of the city, steps should be taken to control the erec- tion of garages in proximity to resi- dences and two and three-family houses. So far as known, nothing has ever been done to stamp out the nuisance, which is becoming more and more obnoxious. Whether any thing ever can be done is a question.
 It is becoming a common practice for owners of tenement houses to erect garages on spare lots in the rear and rent them to people living in the vicinity who are fortunate enough to have automobiles. Thought full vehicle owners have respect for feelings of the people living in near by buildings but there are many oth- CTS who think only of their own com- fort and pleasure and consequently create an uproar every time they put their cars up or take them cut. These people usually return late at night and often succeed in waking up everyone within a radius of a hundred yards or so. Another objectionable practice is tuning up the automobile for a weekend spin. What with their pounding and tinkering and the roaring of their engines there is no peace in the peighborhood they in fest.
 The Observer happened to meet an old acquaintance who returned from Europe recently after visiting several countries which have been remade or unmade by the war. He spent some time in Germany. visiting different cities, and reports that there has been no change in the attitude of the average German toward the rest of the world. He also reported that most of the Germans he met are still attached to the Kaiser, whose picture in his old War Lord" uni- form, is displayed prominently in all public buildings.
 The people in the large cities of Germany have more money than they ever had before the war and are spending it as if the supply were in- exhaustible. At the dance halls, in particular. they are extravagant and champagne runs like water. The only Germans who are low in funds are the aged who have to depend on dividends from pre-war investments. Prices of food are high but the workingmen are making large wages and do not suffer.
 An idea of conditions in Italy can be gained from the experience of travellers on a train running from Lake Como to Milan. While the train was out in the country it stopped suddenly and the crew came through the cars demanding money. It was not until their cupidity was satisfied that they agreed to proceed to their destination. The people of Italy are in great want and in need of food, the traveller reports.
 One indication that man refuses to profit by mistakes of others is found in the present dispute over the jitney in Connecticut. It was generally known months ago that just such a situation would arise and yet city governments ignored the rumbling of the thunder that warned of the ap- preaching storm. Lawrence and Salem are two Massachusetts cities whose experiences might have taught a lesson if there was anyone to take heed. In those cities the street rail- way companies went on strike and refused to run cars unless the muni- cipal governments ordered the jit- neys off competing streets. After a great deal of inconvenience to the public the street car operators won their point.
 New Britain. Bridgeport and other Connecticut cities should have taken the hint and been prepared for trouble that is breaking out now. But it seems that the politicians who run our governments for us were too busy with other affairs and we now find that our transportation is threatened.
 The writer has never wasted any tears on the Connecticut company and declines to sob now because that corporation finds its income dwin- ding. But common sense and good business demand that the company be supported in it's insistence on the removal of the jitney menace. The Connecticut company is long estab- lished. has paid thousands of dollars into the public treasury, has been to the expense of laying rails - and stringing wires as well as maintain ing them and has had to buy expen- sive cars and pay men to operate them. It has also maintained regular schedules. or has gone through. the motion of doing so. By right of priority they should come before the jitneys in a test. On the other hand the jitneys have a legitimate place in our transportation needs. They can be run on routes not now served by the trolleys, or on streets where trolleys now run without satisfying the needs of the residents of those streets. They can go off the beaten
 paths and they will soon find that they can establish a gainful patron age of their own. If people know that they can get service at regular in- tervals they will patronize the jitneys on streets that are not now consid- cred. It is an unfair business prac-