The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-09

I
! city Of respectable size in the mid
die west has made the experiment
, of trying to transport itself to and
from work in pursuit Of pleasure
without the aid of street cars The
I outcome of the experiment, while
not actually disastrous, has been
far from pleasant for the people OF
Des Moines, Iowa, where this oc-
Cured
After long struggles to make
both ends meet, the street cars were
run into the~barns when the COM
pany failed to make money at the
fare it was allowed to charge.
Then, from Aug. until Aug. Is, the
city depended for transportation
upon bus lines, privately owned
automobiles, hay wagons, trucks
and practically everything else in
the line of conveyances down to
roller skates. On Aug. 26 the state
fair began, and the fair committee
arranged for the operating of the
street cars during the time of the
falr, guaranteeing to meet any de-
felt
II is estimated that of the city's
population of about $4,000 people,
10000 regularly used the street
cars. The first day the city found
itself without street cars, there
were about so buses on hand to
try to Handle this press of people. !
Crowds were swarming on every
corner, trampling on each others !
feet, kicking and jostling, at
tempting to force an entrance into |
vehicles already crowded to full !
capacity. The temper of Des Mofnes |
was drawn to a fine edge before the !
morning was we'll under way.
Retail merchants Immediately
noticed the change. People having
difficulty in getting down to the
SHOPS cut down the volume of bust
ness right away The thousand
men thrown out of work when the
street cars shut down cut off a part
Of the purchasing public almost en-
tlrely for the time being.
The bus lines were reinforced by
owners of private automobiles. The
newspapers of Des Moines fostered
community spirit, distributing
piacards bearing large letters in /
black, reading Hop In These
were for automobile windshields,
and were used generally. Run
abouts built for two people would
haul eight downtown on one trim ,
Larger cars were literally covered j
with people clinging to the running |
boards and swarming all over the !
,
One curious fact was noticed I
about the crowds after a few DAYS. {
'eopie, noticing that when buses
cached their corners they were c
Usually damned to the window f
rames, took to walking eight or +
en- blocks up the street in the di-
ection opposite to that taken by /
ne busseS. In this way it was S
ometimes possible to get to a point b
o near where the bus started that [
seat could be obtained Perhaps
man would have to walk ONLY h
Oxen blocks downtown to his of G
ce, but almost Invariably he pre- d
erred to walk 10 blocks uptown. s
ay his fare, and get a ride on i,
rowded and uncomfortable con- v
eyance p
Prizes for Drivers. N
10 heIp the situation still more. il
he newspaper offered prizes of in o
er tubes to private automobile D
wners who carried most people to a
from their work. Records were D
ept and inner tubes distributed Il
noiesale. A man would load W
own his car almost to the point of o.
reaklng the springs, and no doubt W
amage his car so that the repair n
III would be several dollars, all for
lie sake of an inner tube not worth O,
quarter the amount of the dam al
&c sustained by his motor. d.
me street railway people have b;
lied upon the situation created bv Sc
e suspension of their services tn 81
Y and get better charter and re- fl
me operations. Their contention NJ
that under the old charter, grant m
III 1916 for period of % years. b,
e company was forced to operate re
loss of about $4,000 a month. tr
was in the hands of a receiver MS