The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-09-15
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, D. C.
BUS VERSUS STREET CAR

| or street cars. The outcome or the
experiment, while not actually disas-
trous. has been far from pleasant for
the people of Des Moines, Ia, where
/ this occurred.
After long struggles to make both
ends meet, the street caRS were run
into the barns when the company
failed to make money at the fare it
was allowed to charge. Then, from
August 4 until AugustN 26, the city
depended fer transportation upon bus
lines, privately owned automobiles,
nay wagons, trucks, and practically
everything else in the line of convey
ances down to roller skates. On Au-
gust 26 the state fair began, and the
fair committee arranged for the opera
ton of the street cars during the time
of the fair, guaranteeing to meet any
deficit.
1t is estimated that of the citys
population of about 1000 people,
1 05, 900 regularly used the street cars.
| The first day the city found itself
without streets cars, there were about
4 sixty buses on hand to try to handle
this press of people. Crowds were
lswarming on every corner, trampling
on each others feet, kicking and
jostling,. attempting to force an en-
trance into vehicles already crowded
to full capacity. The temper of Des
Moines was drawn to a fine edge be-
fore the morning was well under way.
Retail merchants Immediately
! noticed the change. People having diff
ficulty IN getting down to the shops
] cut down the volume of business right
away The thousand men thrown out
| of work when the street cars shut
down cut off a part of the purchasing
public almost entirely for the time
being.
The bus lines were reinforced by
owners of-private automobiles. The
newspapers of Des Moines fostered a
community spirit, distributing placarns
bearing large letters in black, reading
Hop In" These were for automobile
| windshields, and were used generally.
Runabouts built for two people would
haul eight downtown on one trip.
Larger cars were literally covered
with people clinging to the running
boards and swarming all over the ma
chimes.
one curious fact was noticed about
the crowds after a few days. People
noticing that when buses reached
their corners they were usually jam
med to the window frames, took to
walking eight or ten blocks up the
street in the direction opposite to that
taken by the buses In this way it
was sometimes possible to get to a
point so near where the bus started
that a seat could be obtained. Per-
hapS a man would have to walk only
a dozen blocks downtown to his office,
but almost invariably he preferred to
walk ten blocks uptown, pay his fare,
and get a ride on crowded and I'M
| comfortable conveyance.
Prizes for Drivers.
To help the situation still more, one
newspaper ioffered prizes of inner
tubes to private automobile owners
who carried most people to OF from
| their work. Records were kept and
Inner tubes distributed wholesale. A
man would load down his car almost
| to the point of breaking the springs,
and no doubt damage his car so that
] the repair bill would be several dol
| lars, all for the sake of an inner tube
not worth quarter the amount OF
tthe damage sustained by his motor.
The street railway people have
seized upon the situation created by
| the suspension Of their services to try
! and get a better charter and resume
| operations. Their contention is that
under the old charter, granted in 1916
/ for a period of twenty-five years, the
company was forced to operate at a
loss of about $4,000 a month. 1t was
| in the hands of a receiver when the
courts granted permission to run the
cars into the barns and suspend serv-
| ice.
It is an undeniable fact that Des
| Moines was seriously hurt by waking
up and finding itself without street
cars. The merchants who had been
indifferent to the impending change
| in the methods of transportation
| about the city took a decided stand as
! soon as they found out that arteries
| of commerce were blocked, and that
| people could not get to their stores
readily to make purchases. They APP
pealed to the city council to restore
the street car service after very few
! days Of observing the new conditions.
| The original sixty buses We're sup
plemented by about twenty-five more,
| but this was not a drop in the bucket.
! The congestion seemed to be as bad
as ever before. At the end of a week,
| a canvass was taken among the en-
ployes and officials of several plants
and offices in Des Moines, the question
put being whether they wanted the
| street car service back again. The
result of this vote showed 2.922 in
| favor of restoration OF the street car
| service, and only 488 opposed.
The city officials were somewhat
amazed that some financially strong
! bus company did not come to it with
/ some sort of proposition to handle the
city's traffic. 1t was expected that
! there would be a number of applica-
! tionS for the service. It was found,
J tho, that all sorts of stipulations were
made even by bus operators of the
'fly-by-night" variety. Some wanted
a guarantee that they would be al
lowed to operate for at least a year
| WANAAOdI competition ETOIn the street
cars being resumed.
| Street Cars Did Not Pay. y
The direct cause of the suspension
of the street cars was that the chaK-
; ter limited the companies TO collect
ing a scent fare. The company went
into the~hands OF a receiver because
of this, and the receiver found that
the company was losing about $4,000
I a year. So, after securing the courts
permission, the receiver shut down
the expensive property, and left the
people of Des Moines to walk or take
the bus, if they could get into one
! The buses, which had been charging
5 cents as fare, in some cases boosted
the price almost Immediately to 1C
/, cents. and some instances were re-
corded where the fare for the longer
hauls was raised to rs cents. This
was done when it was found that
there was more than enough traffic
to keep the buses full and moving al
the time. almost regardless of the
fare charged.
!; The newspapers, some of which had