New-York tribune., 1921-02-28
Transit Board
Sees Joker Inn
Miller.'s Bills
Preferential Payments Are
Preserved Contrary 10
the Governors Message.
Is Citizens Charge
Curran Points Out Flaws
''City Hall Buffoonery'' Is
No Reason for Taking
Away Rights, He says

Miners S traction bills, which are to be
given public hearing at Albany on
Wednesday, came yesterday from two
sources
Charges that the bills contain Joker
by which the preferential payments of
the marlborough and the B. r. T. under
the dual contracts will be preserved, con-
trary to the Governors assurances in
ms recent message. were made by the
city transit committee. At the same
time henry II. Curran, president of the
borough of Manhattan. made public a
letter he had written to Senator John
Knight, chairman of the committee be-
fore which the hearing is to be held
Mr.. Curran. in pointing out five amend
ments which he said were desirable, de-
clared that the measures as now framed
would throw the whole transit situa-
ton into chaos"
The city transit committees report
vas signed by Louis IL Pink, j. NJ.
budlsh, John j. Hopper. Hamilton Holt
and j: Howard Melish. They some time
ago joined with Delos F. Wilcox, for
merly chief of the franchise bureau of
the Public Service Commission. in a re-
port on the traction situation.
Sees Joker in Bills
The unfair advantage secured to
the companies" by the dual contracts,
tne committee says, are strengthened
by the proposed legislation.
This" the report continues ais done
by d joker in the section dealing with
the. general power of the commissions
to fix rates. It is there provided that
the commission, by which is meant
either the new Public Service Commits
sion or the transit commission, in de-
tormining what is just and reasonable
1are shall give due regard, among other
things, to agreed provisions for sery-
Ice Or compensation These words
mean the perpetuation of the prefer
entails, or their equivalent in financial
advantage to the companies.
/ ms Joker has been adapted from the
Jenks bill, which the companies them
selves drafted and tried to jam through
the Legislature last year. 1t makes a
mockery of the Governors message, in
which he referred specifically to the
preferentials as unfair to the city,, and
said that they must be revised if the
problem is to be solved
The provisions for changing the
fare contracts are in the interest of
the companies only and against the
interest of the car riders.
"The provision for temporary in
crease of fares places the city COM
pieteiy at the mercy of the companies
II gives LueIn tIP WnlD-hdNd over the
transit commission itself
Crooked Finance
"1n his message the Governor en-
phaslzed the fact that crooked finance
IS primarily responsible for the present
financial plight of the transit compa-
MES of New York City. He said that
under present conditions, with the mar
ket value of the securities depressed
much below the intrinsic value of the
properties, the public now has an op-
portunity to escape from the conse-
quences of past misdeeds or mistakes,
and that it would be little short of a
public calamity if advantage were not
taken OF the opportunity now pre-
ssented. His bill provides that changes
lr fares shall be upon such terms con-
dltions, safeguards or readju stment of
franchise or contract rights or obliga-
tcns as the commission may pre-
scribe This reads like the Big
Stick Yet, the bill contemplates 'an
Immediate reasonable temporary in
crease or decrease in fares pending a
hnal determination of the matter
THE transit commission is to devise
plan for the solution of New York
City's traction problem, but under Sec,
ton lot of the bill this plan will not
go into effect unless accepted by the
traction companies. 1t is clear that if
& Il
increase in fares it will give away its
trump card in the negotiations for q
readjustment Of the subway contracts
in the interest of the public.
The city is robbed of any power
to solve its own transportation prob
lens. The policy embodied in this
measure harks back in principle to the
shame shameless days when the state .Legis-
lature was giving away perpetual fran
chlses In the streets of New York CITY
over the protests of the local authori.
ties"
Other members of the committee
who made the report public are Calvin
Lompklns John Martin, Justice Johr
Ford DR.. S. S. Goldwater, George Fos.
ter Peabody, the Rev. John Haynes
Holmes. Samuel Seabury, DR.. Stephen S
Wise Alfred j. Boulton, George Henr,
Payne, Abraham Lefkowitz, Stoughtor
Cooley, Dr.. Harry G. Friedman, the
Rev Percy s. Grant, William J. Coyne
Allan l.. Benson, George Soule, Ordway
Iead, Herbert Croly, DR.. Frank Crane
Or. Charles A. Beard and John De Wit
Warner
Mr.. Curran's Objections
Mr.. Curran, in his letter to Senate
knight. argued that "the ignoranc,
and buffoonery that sit in the City Hal
to-day" do not warrant the states tax
ing over the city's local problems II,
also declared his belief that the publi
had no sympathy with "the trapezt
performance of Senator Johnson, who's,
advent from California is just an addet
ndignity." Objections to the present
bill, for which Mr.. Curran asks amend
rnents are:
1.-The bill should be amended t,
leave with the city, as represented b!
the local government, all power tina
VIC now possess. The incompetence O.
the rresent city administration doe
not constitute sufficient emergenc,
TO warrant the state in brushing asid,
with one gesture the accumulated
rights which have come to us in tht
course of the last fifty years.
"The unfair and burdensome prefer
entail under which we labor TO day Is
our legacy from q state commission Of
the very kind that you now propose te
create all over again.
"My third objection is the power OF
the commission to increase fares tenn
porarily. The proposed amendment to
take out this power does not take it out.
In point of fact it leaves it with the
commission as much as ever.
"i object to the following clause In
the section that gives the commission
power to increase fares, with due re-
gard. among other things, TO agreed
provisions for service or compensation.
What do those words mean? If this