davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

tai. The example of the jitneys still
remains to show the trend of public sen :
timent in this regard. The jitneys were
popular. They rendered desirable
service. The p. II. 7. objected to
them, not improperly, since they oper :
ated only in the most profitable areas
and left to the transit company the com :
pulsory and improbable long hauls
which are necessary part Of an efficient
transit service.
Nobody denied the limited utility OF
the jitneys.
Tradition and lack of funds appear
to have eliminated motors and motor
| service from the thought Of the Z. II. L.
Yet no motor transit system such as
seems desirable would be possible unless
it were CO. ordinated with .the trolley
system and synchronized with trolley
schedules.
Such relief as the Public Service
Commission and the transit company
and business interests desire to bring
about will not be possible by means OF
trolley alone until new rail equipment
and extensions are provided for. In
other words, it may be years before the
=. r. Il. can expand its service to meet
normal needs in normal way. Motor
busses, on the other hand, might be
placed in operation within few weeks
if the funds necessary to a really ex-
tensive use of such vehicles were avail
able. But until the p. r. L. is per-
mitted to use more Of the peoples money
in the service of the people no great i'm
provement or extension of its service
will be possible by any method. Mean
while the business of the country is
being motorized.
Why shouldn't the peoples business
be motorized?
The sudden interest of the Public
Service Commission in the street car
situation in Philadelphia has yet to be
fully explained. The precise motive
behind the proposed survey has not yet
been disclosed. 1t is remotely possible
that the long delayed movement IL
amend the existing arrangement between
the p. Il. 7. and the franchise holding
companies may be developing, and that
the present survey will relate to the
phantom companies rather than to the
operating corporation.
Even in the tacc Of what may appear
to be hopeless task. the business in
terests of the city should insist on a
showdown. If riding in a trolley is to
be a hardship or a disagreeable ad :
venture, the commercial and social life
of the community will tend toward
gradual stagnation. And it is idle to
blame the p. r. I.
The burden upon the Mitten man
agement can be best understood by
reading the charge made yesterday by
representatives of the United Business
Mems Association, who estimated that
five sixths Of the money collected as
street car fares goes not to the transit
company, but to underlying companies
which render no service whatever in
return.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

James E. Hagcdorn, chairman of
Philadelphia's fair-price committee,
says the committee has accomplished
much, but he believes that if it reduced
the price of 100000 commodities the
people, in the city wouldn't notice il.
Perhaps If Mr.. Hagedorn would get
down to cases" and mention a few of
the 100, 900 the people could be induced
to sit up and do what is expected of
them. Or does Mr.. Hagedorn mean
talk" when he SAYS "accomplish"?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30
Important decisions worc mado Ia

Important decisions were made last
week at the meetings of the Tech
nology Clubs. and the trained man and
the big job may have better chance to
connect as consequence; but the fact
still remains that the School of Ex-
perience is the only school that turns
out graduates able to handle men, which,
as NJ. G. Brush pointed out, is 99ia
per cent of the necessary qualifications
Of an executive.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30
What Do You Knotp?,
QUIZ

QUIZ
1. In what part OF Germany Is the
Ruhr district. now hot-bed of
revolution?
2. What are the tympani of an
orchestra?
s. Who was Juvenal?
4. How long Is an ell?
s. Who was called 1.-THE good gray
poet?
8. What is the hottest part OF the
United States?
Z. What is the origin of the word
tornado?
g. What is repousse metal work?
0. Who discovered the principle Of the
barometer?
10. What king of England was member
of the Dutch house of Orange?
Answers to Yesterdays Quiz
1. Antelopes can run at the rate of
sixty miles an hour.
2. Charlotte is the largest city in North
Carolina. with an estimated pop
ulation in 1915 OF $4,000.
3. The expression From A to Amper-
, sand" IS flguratively used in the
sense of from beginning to end"
Ampersand Is the name or the sign
q. The word Is corruption of
itself"
4. Antonio was a celebrated Italian
sculptor He died In Venice in
1929.
g. The boy kings Of England were Ed
ward V, who died at thirteen, and
Edward vi, who died at sixteen.
G. The ballad Dixie" was written by
u. ID. Emmett. II originated In
Bryant's Minstrels, New York. and
was first sung in Mechanics Hall
In 1853.
Z. Citizens of Delaware are known as
THE Blue Hens Chickens" In
reference to Delaware troops IN
the revolutionary war, forming
what was called The Game Cock
Regiment" Captain Caldwell, one
of the officers, maintained that a
true game cock must OF necessity
be the progeny of a blue hen.
s. A cavatina Is a short. simple song,
a smooth, melodlous air.
0. Ivan the Terrible was Ivan ~. Car
of Russia. He died In 1854.
10. The extinct language Sanskrit was
spoken In India.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

New York is considering plan
which contemplates an appropriation of
S10,000,000 for the erection of city
owned houses. Some objections TO such
a plan in this city Immediately occur
but any plan is better than none.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

For the third time since January
the window of leather store on Chest
nut street has been broken and beaded
bags taken. Some Of these DAYS a local
sleuth is liaiA to get a bead" on this
frpak thief
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

Among the plans for transit probe,
wonder if it wouldn't be possible for the
Colonial Danes to introduce a course in
old fashioned courtesy for the benefit of
motormen and conductors?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

A dispatch from The Hague saws
the ex kaiser is so poor a man that he
IS unable to pay his board. We always
suspected that William was not as good
wood sawyer as he was cracked up
IN he
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30
A FouR.YEAR PROGRAM FOR
PHILADELPHIA

ikThings on which the people expect
the new administration TO concentrate
its attention:
The Deldpdre rirer bridge.
A drUdock big enough 10 dccomWo-
ddfe the largest ships.
Development Of the rapid transit syS.
tenn.
a cont 'ntion hail
Il buildin1 for the Free Library.
IN Art Museum.
Infringement Of the Gdter supply.
Homes to accommodate the pOpuld-
ton.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

When New York milk dealers fol-
low declaration that their profit is
only quarter of II cent a quart with
the promise to reduce the price two
cents u quart, does this prove them phi
lanthropists? Or
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

uERE, too, is. one very old orphaned
l. house, now altogether a ruin. that
bears tackled upon its old patched door
written note, please call at the
Fourth district police station and tell
who owns your house.
had almost forgotten the neat.
pleasant looking little girl who led me
into Bread street but as ] came out
into Vine. chance directed me to her
home. Finding that my small street
had ended, | went north half square
to Third and then up along its east side
to the corner, where the single DID,
fashioned block of Florist street breaks
into the city plan with its reminiscent
houses, and its occasional carriage steps
Of old white marble.
There going in from Third street
hetwrcn two shops, is a small unprom- :
Using doorway. labeled Branch place.
Some instipCt led me eastward up its
dark approach and ! was rewarded by
the sight Of q clean little oasis of small
three story houses thrOngcd with uuirt
polite little children. There were chairs
out on the pavements before the houses
and on three successive doorsteps three
large sleek cats--a gray cat, white cat
and n cat with tortoise shell fur. They
sat there in the sunlight carefully preen >
ing their fur as the small boys frolcked
on the pavement beside them.
1t was pretty good test of the so .
cial amenities of Branch place that the
cats never stirred muscle when the
gang came chasing and laughing up to
their resting place. And what is more
their confidence was justified.
1t was pleasant, homely little spot
a true neighborhood in the old village
| aansa nnU unhannilV rare ennugh ayan
on the borders OF our great city: bui
here, flung in its very heart, a cheering
sight indeed.
AS stood there gazing blandly about
me one of the house doors quietly opened
and out tripped the little lady who had
lured me up the aisle Of Bread street
So having found her at last, i felt thai
=, re- HEIToN.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

One way of making sure that Berg
doll will receive plenty of punishment
would be to turn him loose among the
priyates on Governors Island.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

Darby has fish that lives after
being packed in ice for a week. There
are fish stories that live after a much
longer period in the same condition.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

oh, well, even the weather man is
liable to make mistakes. The April
showers were just a little ahead of
schedule; that was all.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

II talking means anything, Lady
Astor il making a big success in the
British House of Commons.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

Old Father Time wears a worried
look these days. Daylight saving has
mixed him up to such an extent that he
doesn't know where he is at"
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30
IT'S TIME TO MoToRIzE
THE PEOPLES BUSINESS
Efficient Bus Lines and a Curb on
Ghost Corporations Would Relieve
Street.car Congestion

l. Clement in his survey of the transit
system will learn anything that the
average trolley rider could not tell him.
or define causes for inadequate service
not already too well understood by tax =
payers. Expert confederation of familiar
criticism will serve purpose of sorts.
But what the city needs is frank and
direct approach to the origin of the
trouble rather than microscopic
scrutiny of surface flaws.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

One ofNthe most joyous facts in un-
natural history is that the Easter rabbit
lays CANDY sggss
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

II may be argued that motor vehicles
would be more expensive than trolleys.
1t is certain, however, that the people
would be willing TO pay fares adequate
10 maintain this new sort Of service and
provide A fair return on invested CAPT
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30
Travels in Philadelphia
Journey up erlndstone Alley

A 5 1 climbed the hill from Market
street ferry this afternoon, the
spring sunlight was warm on my face
and overhead the skies were clear and
blue with the fresh clearness of color
all but forgotten during these long
months Of winter storm. The crowds
clambering up and down the hill had a
sense of this change-eyes were lifted,
to come down reluctantly enough at
street crossings and curb stones; girls
were out in bright new bonnets,, and
large men jostled heedlessly by, clink-
ing with their burdens of garden tools.
Along the sidewalks the shops dis
played their dusty baskets of dahlia
bulbs like dirty sweet potatoes, huge
packages of baby chick food, wheel
plows and onion sets Of white, yellow
and red with thin sprouts of pale green
leaves. Under the seedsmen's windows
stood tall stiff bags of golden yellow
corn. black wax beans, or dark brown
clover seed.
But as l walked west past the "only
cork tree, in America" that still lifts
its two pathetic, dust gray branches in
front OF little shop, my eyes began
to weary of all this unaccustomed bril-.
liancy and l turned sharply north, up
that little dark lane called Grindstone
alley.
There are few alleys left in Phila-
delphia. Perhaps we think it below our
civic dignity to maintain the old hum
BILE name. By the same evolution our
streets all tend to grow into the dignity
OF avenues as they work north or west
into the newer neighborhoods.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

Board Of Health routine these days
is lust one mcasly thing after another.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

Broad street and the Roosevelt BOule-
ward are thoroughfares of a relatively
new type, which make automobile pas
senger service not only desirable but
imperative. Trolleys will never be
permitted on the Parkway, but that
should not mean that easy access to
Fairmount Park should be the exclusive
advantage of folk who own motors Of
their own.
The traditional view of the general
transit problem has always been too
rigid. 1t does not usually reach beyond
rail lines and electric systems. Even
the recent appraisal Of transit facili
ties in Philadelphia are not influenced
by an appreciation of the improvements
made in recent years by automobile en-
gineers. Passenger busses of the sort
that might be put on the streets of this
city would be far more dependable, more
efficient, faster and more comfortable
than the vehicles that carry consider
able part Of the traffic burden in New
York. Improvements in chassis de-
sign and even in tires have transformed
the heavy motor vehicle.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

II the transit company, as a partner
of the city and corporation intent
upon performing an indispensable serv-
ice. had only the S7,O00,000 which it
had to give up last year for the right
to exist, il could, and probably would,
so rcorganize its methods as to silence
all complaint, stimulate the business
life Of the city and give new impetus
to building development in suburban
areas.
Seven million dollars would be ade-
Quate not only for the extension of
trolley lines, it would permit the es-
tablishmrnt Of an elaborate notorious
auxiliary system of a sort that could
bring relief almost overnight on con-
gestcd routes. The gasoline motor has
been winning glory for itself in almost
every other line of business. 1t cannot
be barred forever out OF the passenger
carrying service--the peoples business.
Notorious lines operating westward
from City Hall over Market street, Wal
nut street, Lancaster and Woodland
avenues. the Parkway and Thirty third
street would have the benefits of open
and relatively clear thoroughfarcs which
run to populous districts.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

It is clear that the city has outgrown
the present transit system. 1t has out
grown the transit system because the
Z. X. 7. is hobbled and weighted down
b. the flock of shadowy underlying
companies to which it pays enormous
tells every year.
Mr.. Mitten's organization is like a
bafnacled ship moving with infinite diff
Guilty in the ocean of water on which it
is compelled 20 float. 1t is only by brill
liunt management that it can navigate at
all In every rational and honest ap-
praisal of the transit situation the fact
Of the underlying companies looms as
commanding-and, one might say, as
Signiicant-as club in riot.
No one at present in the p. r. T..
management or in the city administra-
ton is responsible for the inadequacies
of the car service. The people are pay =
ing the inevitable price for forgotten
years of municipal wild oats. In those
years of free and easy opportunities the
rights of the public were traded and bar
tered like claims about a boom town.
Financiers went into politics and poll
ticians went into finance to snatch up
the street car franchises. Companies
were hurriedly formed for this purpose.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

nEEP down in the cutting, some hi
- teen feet below the present street
line. laborer was digging into stratum
of dark earth. and every now and then
as his shovel would throw down its con :
tents. there would CLEAN out of the dirt
a little shard of thin blue china.
walked north then for few PAGES
past the doors of dingy little workshops,
and so came out into the sunlight at the
corner of Arch street and Littleboy's s
court. where row of small Colonial
houses that faced me with the little dim
lights up in their ancient dormer win =
dows tempted me to cross over and
continue my wandcrings up Bread
street. This old lane cuts in somewhat
! nauspiciously between two tall. modern
factory buildings. but after hundred
! feet or so it develops character.
Before me went little yellow haired
girl with a bundle of wood in her arms,
and as | walked on after her, idly won e.
dering where such a clean, pleasant
little person could live amid all these
tall, blank eyed shops and factories, ]
came on the end of Cherry street. There,
on one side, was another vista with
| its glimpse of the gayPr outside world
on the other, decaying old red brick
building, inscribed Newlin's Brewery
1850.
In this region are to be found the
earliest skyscrapers of Philadelphia
The old red walls rise seven or eight
stories. and down on the street leve
open through arched gateways into
courtyards now given over to rows Of
ash barrels. or to piles of crates, among
which flutter focks of blue pigeons tha,
rise like cloud when a team drives
in and disturbs them
There is busy, changing life up Breat
street-machine and boiler shops. noisy
with riveting hammers or whirring with
crowded lines of belts, below which pa
tient men bend over great lathes thai
cast off long, corkscrew curls of silver
gray iron. Further on, where Breat
street encounters Quarry street, on,
may hear all day the shrek or drone o
the bandsaw. The air Is sometimes thicl
with shavings, and children are to b,
seen about the street, gathering up lonI
thin sivers of wood into bundles, anC
in their greed amassing huge fagots tha
burst and scatter klndIings all abou
| the narrow sidewalk.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

Not for years and years have any of
these concerns owned a trolley car or
even n horse.
They are spirit companies, as remote
from the life of the city as the dim folk
who are supposed to talk to us through
Sir Oliver Lodge or the ouija board.
They exist only in memory or on paper.
Yet last year the P. r. T. was forced
to pay over 81 900, 900 to their repre-
seutatives. 1t is more proper to say
that the trolley riders of the city had
10 pay this enormous tribute. The
people and the Mitten management be-
tween them pay such vast sums every
twelve months-for what?
For the privilege of maintaining a
public service on the public streets.
Unless Commissioner Clement and
his associates can suggest some way of
escape from this terrific burden general
surveys of the street car service will do
relatively little good. The p. X. T. is
organized under legal agreements with
the underlying companies. And when
ever any one complains Of the fantastic
injustice of the arrangement spokesmen
for the franchise holders arise blandly
t. refer 10 the sanctity of legal con =
tracts and thus rest their case upon
what appears to be indisputable ground
Some people have odd notions of
sanctity.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

NJ Address oil Communications 10 Evenino
Public Ledger, independence square,
Philadelphia.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

4 Philadelphia. Tuesday, March 30. 1920
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30
WE CANNOT tolerate the implication
w nf horcoaIeoa tall x,a,. .l,aN IL, -, oa

w or bayseed'and tall grass that clings
to the name of ancient roads-and
| must rename them TOR more dainty
! generation. So down here in town we
elevate the titles Of all our old alleys,
save one, and lend them the dignity
but not the dimension Of streets. 1t is
| the cheapest form of civic improvement
Grindstone alley is short and has no
scenery but it is the gateway to a
strange land. 1t is so narrow that my
progress was, for short while, com
pletely blocked by two teamsters argu
ing on the causes of "prOhibition," but
when i had maneuvered by them.
stepped out into the comparative splen .
| dors of Church street. with its rear view
of the tall brick tower of Christ Church
and its lines of tall, old battered ware
houses with rusty iron shutters.
Most of the little streets in this patch
OF the town between Market and Vine
streets and Second and Third. come ou,
into the larger highways under the
shadow of long rooted passageways-
| just tall enough to clear the top of O
dray. They narrow toward the outlet
and as one looks down them, afford briei
! pictures of the more brilliant life out
side-of passing girls, quite unconsciou:
of the dim, old fashioned world al
their elbows. or of push cart men heay-
ing along like snails, up and down the
pavements.
Back of Christ Church / could SCI
over the wall a little line of wash swing
| ing in the breeze which now and ther
! lifted up a row Of babys stockings
strangely small and white and dainty
against the dim red bricks behind them
Here at a turning was deep excava'
| tiOn for some new factory or ware.
house. On its far side, below the lin,
of modern concrete wall, was foot oil
so of earth, and then the jutting bricks
of what seemed to be a buried pave
ment of earlier years.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

CROSS KEYS Market ST. Below Goth
ASSORTED DAINTiES"
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

BELL, 5000 WALNUT KEYSTONE, MAIN 5000
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

BROADWAY Broad 4 Snyder Ava
MOVIE LAND" MgsIeAL MY
| AEETA sFrWApr IN OLD KENTUCKY"
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30

and shaved and cringed and given your
whole life.
Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1920-10-08

(Other Fair News on Pages 4 and 81