The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-08
WINTER RAINS ARE MENTIONED IN THE. ]|TNEY ARGUMENT
One Man Says Real Bad Weather Has Been Over looked by ChoruSAgainst
 Street Cars

WI NSh SSh
 Overlooking winter is another thought brought out in the street car jitney problem.
 Related advocates of the street cars arc beginning to talk. One man asks what the jitneys would be good for in a driving winter rain.
 Some of the opinions expressed yesterday are as follows:
 What about winter in this street car iitney problem?" asked Homer Leasing.
 Five or six months of warm weather are all right for the gas cars, but when winter rains set in, with children going to school. flu ep- idemics. driving rainstorms and hard winds, what thenT Let's be sensible; the frightfui racket of the street cars, but the jitney is 8 fair weather bus For our own sakes, let's see that the street cars get show, but make them give decent service at the same time.-
 C. C. Bates said: q have lived here many years, and I think I know the people of Birmingham. The Scent carfare is not going to take with them, They arc a fairly sturdy set of people, and when they think they are being hit too hard they simply step from under. The company will take in fewer fares than before, and the revenues will be less than they are now.
 The people like the jitneys. They are here to stay. I admit it is 8 l tight place for the car company, but you cannot get away from conditions. | The electric car ran the steam dum- my out of business, and now the electric car must recognize that the gas buggy is here. Raising car fare is the poorest of all ways to fight gasoline"
 R. c. Redus said An evolution in | urban transportation is in process, and we may as well recognize 1t. The talk of eliminating the gasoline ve- hicle as a factor in the problem is getting us nowhere. When we see the people taking to new invention we might as well admit that it is here and adapt whatever we have to it. You cannot escape facts.
 "The Scent car fare will not bene- fit the car company. It will stimu- | late the jitney business, especially in the warm weather when a ride in the open air is additionally attrac- tive. The people are working on this problem, and they are going to solve 1t in the end. It cannot, however, be solved by charging a fare that people will refuse to pay, and which they will sidetrack with all the inventive ness of the human mind"
 1 C. B. Rencher said: The S-cent car fare is an error in calculation. It 1 looks all right on paper to figure that so many passengers hauled at cents | will bring greater revenue than the same number hauled at T cents, but the same number iS not hauled at S cents. Each time car fare advances a cent there arises little army of 1 persons who quit using the cars, ana gets there in some other way In my cpinion the Scent fare will bring less revenue than the ', just as the I-cent care fare has brought less revenue than the 6.
 At the same time I think jitneys should bear a responsibility for ac- cidents, and get out of the way or the cars. But that will not make an .cent fare pay. The lower the rare the more people ride; the hisher the fare the fewer people ride. The S- cent car fare will produce on paper only In practice 1t Will De hz.ie' | D. w Mills said: The S-cent car fare will produce more jitneys, pri- yate tin lizzies. motorcycles Wfth buggy attached and bicycles. dt VIII produce jitney lines travelling greater distances.
 .I already hear of a proposition 10 operate a line from Fairyiew, usihs large motor busses. I know Of young men who are preparing to use pi- lcycles and many persons VIII waih who have not walked before III the 7cent car fare did not get more money, l do not see now an o-oeh' | fare is going to do 1t.
 Then there is the element or reel | ing involved Az Scent car rare IS going to rouse spirit of reprisai' and will lead to greater patronage of the gas vehicle. Good car service Is the making o. city." said l.. Wilson. our supur | ban property would be Nalueiess 1T VI. did not have service to these sec t.offs. canot help feeling that 1t IS a lnistake for the people 10 patron ize the iitneys at the expense of the street cars. | hetter for the car company itself T | 1t would, fix a five cent fare and freeze tho jitneys out. At any rate the jitneys certainly should be regu- lated" .They ought to put the fare back to five cents," said M. Stein. "oper- ating expenses are whole lot cheap- l CT and labor is not getting as much as it did back in 1918. I can't see N hy the fare should be raised un- l less it Is because the company wants to make more money.'
 Its high enough already" said j. 0. Thomas, 2300 Sixteenth street Ems | ley, "i live out in Ensiey, and fhsve three children who come to town ev | cry day. As it is. car fare costs our | famil-, s6c d day. You can see what | that mounts to for us, and we do not get transfers, either. Half of the time. too. we have to ride stand | ias.
 ft iooks to me ike with all the people of Birmingham riding on the cars that they puget to be able to make mcpey without raising the fare | [. Ac.
 | Facts. not theories, confront the people of. Birmingham in this street 1 railway situation" said Paul Angeli, bank cashier. Thirteenth avenue and | Twenty ghth street. north. Tt is all very well to say the fares must not be raised and that the present | fare is too high, but how is the com pany to run thec unless the Tn come equals the expense?