Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-03-11
Where the Jitneys Won
Out
BY Frederic J. Hsskin

Miami, Fla, March 6.---Miami h al a
| jitney service which is said by widely
| travelled parsons to be one of the best
in the United States. But this jItney
service has greater distinction than that.
II has fought two corporations and the
city council and licked them NIL. IL
now parks its cars on the street car tracks
which are mere rncmentos Of a dead
enterprise, and II has also put bus line
out Of business These gant-k,lling
feats 1t accomplished IN a dramatic
struggle by reason Of having the people
back Of It, The Miaminns liked their
little jltney service and they refused to
let 1t die.
This bat tic between the independent
jitney operators and the street car and
other corporations is Of course an old
story. The same fight has been fought
In scores Of cities. But almost if not
quite everywhere else the corporations
have won out In these United States,
for some reason, corporations almost
invariably win out against independent
operators of any kind. Organized money
seems TO command the sympathy of
Judges and legislators to an almost
incredible extent, and the public seldom
has nerve enough to take a hand in the
game. Here the legislators syrnpathized
with the corporations, too, but the public
made its wishes in the matter most
clearly known, literally taking both law
and equity into their own hands. II is
refreshing TO discover ono instance in
which the little fellows won out.
II would appear that the street cor
service in Miami, however, WAS never
very big fellow and certainly not very
efficient one.
STREET CARS CURIOSITY.
II is said that the people used 70 run 10
their doors to watch the street cars go by,
it happened so seldom. None-the-lcss, old
citizens remember that way back about
1917 the street car company made some
kind Of an attempt to have the Iitneys
put out OF business and that the attempt
failed. Then the car barn and all Of the
street cars burned up, and the car COM
pany was out of the running.
II was then that the real enemy Of the
iitney drivers was organized in the form
OF bus company which proposed TO
operate large motor husses over the same
routes the jitneys travelled. II is said
that they intended to charge ten cents
for exactly the same trips that were
costing the citizens nickel in the Jitneys.
IL is also said that they had signs all
painted and ready for use, charging a
quarter for a trip that could be made in a
jitney for dime. But il never got a
chance 10 use these signs.
About the time the bus company was
organized, the town council passed law
which placed q variety Of limitations upon
the operation of jitneys. The most forrni-
dable of these made IL necessary for each
driver of jitney to furnish bond for the
good behavior of himself and bis car in
the sum Of several thousand dollars. II
was a sum which no jitney driver could
possibly pay. 1t was intended and
expected, by some people, TO be the death
of the Miami jitney service.
Protected by this law, the bus line put
eight buses into operation with the fare
fixed at dime where the Itneys had
charged nickel. But The busses imme-
diately encountered the formidable diff
Guilty that almost nobody would ride
in them. They made their regular and
scheduled trips in lonely and empty
state.
Meantime, all of the ntneys reappeared
on the street II was against the law
for them To operate for hire without hav-
ing put up that prohibitive bond, so they
did not operate fer hire. Instead, each Of
them carried q sign saying Free Union
Jitney,n and general invitation was
extended to all the good people of Miami
to ride wherever they wanted 10 go for
nothing.
The iitneys had already commanded
good deal of popular sympathy, and now
they won the town folk over completely |
Everyone rode In the free union litneys, an |
no one rode in the busses. When he got /
cut of iitney, the passenger threw his /
fare on the seat, and in order to show that |
he was on the side of the independent /
operator and the hve-cent ride, he often /
left quarter or fifty-cent piece instead /
Of a nickel. The iitney operators made
more money giving free rides than they
ever did charging regular scale OF fares.
Meantime the iitney operators, who
had organized themselves into Local
Number 494 of the International Brother
hood of teamsters, chauffeurs, stablemen,