The New York herald., 1921-01-30
SUNDAY. JANUARY 80. 1921.
The Rapid Transit Crisis.

Inc N0Pko AAokhoAh NAASs~s
In this city of ours there Is a popu-
Iation. including the daily workers
and visitors from without, of perhaps
100000. There are few of them be-
yond the age Of early childhood that
have not had their bitter fill OF the
hardshIps and miseries of New York
rapid transit.
Men or women, old or young, ro-
bust or feeble, not one Of them goes
into the morning and evening crush
with anything but reluctant fortitude
or violent disgust. Not one of them
is secure from danger amidst over
powering multitudes that are herded
like cattle by the very force of their
own massed straining and surging.
Not one of them escapes some physi-
cal shock OF offensive contact. All of
them must undergo a sort of involun-
tary debasement that numbs the
spirit OF fine manhood and mortifies
the delicacy Of sensitive womanhood.
Sometimes IL Is brutal and some
times it is indecent; always 1t is
un-American.
Yet this daily outrage on and OF
vast public which is naturally the
salt of the earth must go on as long
as any one can foresee for all the
help that can come out Of the city
itself to mend a situation which is
insufferably degrading and immeas-
urably harmful to strength, health
and even morals.
1t must 60 on, for all the city it
self can do, because the majority of
the transportation companies are
helplessly bankrupt and the munici.
pal government, shackled by Its debt
limit, is impotent to provide the half
billion of dollars that must be put
into new construction, extensions and
equipment before the millions Of this
city's population can be salvaged
from the rapid transit chaos II which
they are swept.
Yet when Governor MILLER In such
last desperate situation asks the
state Of New York to step in and do
The work which nobody else can do
The needless or dishonest make him
he target of political abuse and In
element. He is accused Of seeking
tc traffic away the city's home rule
birthright among insolvent corpora
tlons, of aiming to fatten their empty
treasures with high fares heaped
upon the public against It's will.
And, what is It that Governor MIL
LEg proposes to do? Stated in plain
honesty and plain English this is 1t:
Governor MILLER wants to put the
various traction companies into one
unified system, with all the water
squeezed out Of the capitalization, so
hat it can be handled as a sound
business proposition to give to the
public the highest possible service al
he lowest possible cost. And only
the State can do this.
Governor MILLER wants to establish
single fare so that the local trav-
eller may go anywhere he needs to
20 in this big city for one ticket. And
only the State can do this.
Governor MILLER wants, by making
the unified system self-supporting, to
enable the municipal government to
tighten the taxes which must now &c
into everybody's rent, because the
transit companies in which the city
has invested q quarter Of billion
dollars cannot now pay the city inter
est on that money. He wants, by get
ting that interest paid regularly into
the municipal treasury, to pry the
city away from its debt limit. t
which II Is now stuck hard and fast
and increase its borrowing capacity
by about a quarter Of a billion Of
dollars.
Governor MILLER wants, on thl
basis OF restored municipal credit ant
on this basis Of self-supporting trac
tion system to which private inves
tors will again lend capital to get tn,
required half billion Of dollars 4
bald the absolutely necessary new
construction, extensions and equip
ment without which the people o
,dew York cannot have the rapid tran
alt service they need
And Governor MnLEB wants to pm
on this job, the biggest Job that eve
was tackled in this the biggest cit.
on earth, commission OF undivide,
responsibility and full power to max,
start and then get action all alonI
the line before those rapid transl
multitudes of New York are force'
TO endure worse physical suffering
and more bestial indignities.
But politicians and newspapers to'
rage that this Governor, strong In hi
courage and infexible In his duty, 4
.tttornv,ftno a moral .,rfyno a0ofuof fh,