The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-08-26
WILL JUNK MILES
 OF TROLLEY TRACK
Shore Line Electric Road From Saybrook to East Lyme to Discontinue.
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Saybrook, Conn.,, Aug. 26.-The trolley car used to be called "the poor mans automobile" but now the poor man as well as the rich must own if he is going to ride in parts of Connecticut. for the trolley is fast passing into the obsolete class. In few days men will start to tear up the Railway in this section from Saybrook to East Lyme, since traffic on this spur is evidently never to be resum- ed.
 If the question were asked, Who put the blight on trolleys in Eastern Connecticut the honest reply would have to be, organized labor. The road was running cars from this point to New Haven with fair returns when back in 1919 the employees waited on the officials at headquarters in Nor wich and demanded increased wages. Robert w. Perkins of Norwich, then president, now the receiver of the road, made public statement show ing that a steady man could make from s1,20O to S1,4OO yearly, and maybe a little more The roads f- nancial condition did not warrant any increase in pay just then, since those cities in which fares had been ad- vanced from 5 to 10 cents had fought it out with the Public Utilities Com mission and had succeeded in getting the fare rates put back to the old schedule. The management was per- fectly willing to promise the em- ployes higher pay as soon as condi-
 tions were improved.
 Due warning was given by the men and one night every car on the road was run into the barns at midnight and strike declared. While par leys were being held at the instances of Boards of Trade and Chambers of Commerce in the various cities, in the effort to secure resumption of | < Is e%% 1,i d. | ing the road with an iron grip until 1 the thaw came, late in the spring. By that time jitney service had be- come pretty well established and has
 After number of parleying weeks and months of idleness, a few cars
 started running in the cities of Nor l wich and New London, but those pa | tronizing them were marked and in
 a number of cases were boycotbed by | members of the labor unions.
 In the course of time new men were secured from distant points to l gradually business has picked up The ] mara cement has added cars from tinre to time on the side lines of the system, which extended from the
 Massa cbusetts boundary on the north to Long Island Sound. east to be- yond Watch Hill and other Rhode Island neighboring beaches and west to New Haven.
 ! The 11ne rom SayDTOOk NO New
 Haven has been inspected several
 times by rumored purchasers, but i nothing satisfactory has mater5alized I in this regard. This week, Inspector F. F. Began of the New Haven divis- ion, Receiver R. w. Perkins, from Norwich headquarters, and others in- terestel have 1ookel the spur over and it has been decided to tear up ishe tracks. Three miles of the iron will be stored in the Saybrook June ton yards. The tracks east of the big bridge across the Connecticu'
 River will be put in storage at Lyme
 and East Lyme. to await orders fol
 shipment by purchasers. West o1 Saybrook Junction, as far as Gullford l the tracks will remain undisturbeC
 for the present.
 Within the current year a few O.
 the old-time employees of the roat
 have come back to work on the lines , but in the main the majority Of thu 500 or so men in-all department have long ago gone into other line of work. After it was started, tn = road from Norwich to New Iondon } through Montville, was accounted on' of the best paying electric lines il 3 New England. but travel on this to- t is only average. The big strik l dealt the entire road a knockout blov s and the last statement of Receive
 Perkins shows a deficit for the frs l six months of 1921 of s17 ,620.43.