The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-02-06
Rapid Transit Essentials.

In the following extracts from
letter of a taxpayer who asks tina
his name be not revealed there
just enough Of truth to make the ar
gument seem plausible at first blush
The errors OF fact and conclusio
merit attention:
"You remember Mayor GArNoR'S
observation of the cornfieid route OF
the subway over in Queens? Well
it Is the cornfield routes that are
bankrupting these concerns and tho
city With them.
eff you will go over to Brooklyn
some day and look around you viii
fnd among other things four OF tho
most costly railroad systems OF two
and four tracks running to Coney
Island. These lines traverse long
spaces where there is hardly house
IN sight and not FIVE passengers an
hour to maintain stations costing
alone S150,000 and up to build. In
stead OF four OF these lines one would
not pay but would suffice. They
cannot be made to pay in twenty-five
years, no matter what the fare.
',After looking over Brooklyn ride
over to Queens. where you viii fnd
a costly four track subway running
through places where there Is not a
house TO q block. These systems
cannot pay FOR more than twenty
Ave years, no matter what fare you
charge.
AFTER viewing Queens ride up to
the Bronx and White Plains extern
sion. You will ind another subway
running through farm lands where
often not one passenger gets on an
hour.
Remember these arc the most
costly rapid transit lines ever built
In the world They would not pay
even though the most cheaply built
on earth and operated by Chinese
Al
that is eankrupting them and the
city precisely as wrote seven or
eight years ago.
But the remedy is not higher
fares, SO far as pertains to any in
side zone OF these lines In Manhattan
or The Bronx proper. The remedy
cannot be applied except by econ
onny and ceasing to haul people sew
enteeu miles through vacant farms
for one fare"
Now. in the first place, IL is funda
mental that public service must b.
for the people as whole. 1t is s.
as 10 the police and the fire depart
ments; it must be so as to lightin
and telephone utilities no less thar
transportation facilities. This doe
not mean that AS many trains and a
many cars must run over "cornfiel,
routes as in Broadway. il doe
mean that, In the vital interest o
the city itself, there must be ade
duate service everywhere.
There are not, for example. teI
postal deliveries in the business sec
ton TO one OR two in the outlyin
districts merely to favor unduly III
people in the congested parts. Tn
larger service is required to dlspos
Of the mass or postal matter withou
which the business and welfare o
this whole community would suffer
But in its measure an adequate SCI
vice everywhere 10 as essential.
In the secohd place, there is D
public utility all OF whose bushes
is profitable. For the matter of that
there are few private undertaking
all OF whose business is profitable
But the Fat must 20 with the lear
The essential is not to cut off the M
profitable haul to the direct injur
o. part OF the public and TO the indi
rect detriment Of the whole commu
nifty, but so to balance the genera
charge, organize the service and pro
mote its efficiency as to enable tn
profitable major divisions to carry th
minor divisions.
In the third place, and bearin
Immediately upon the second, Il !
not merely the failure OF the presen
routes to earn profits that !
impoverishing the city and bankrupt
ing all the transportation compsnic,
Systems that have no cornield eft
tensions at all, systems that operst
in the very heart OF the thickest trai
fc. arc in desperate straits More
over, very little Improvement 1
general operating costs or In nc
earnings Of profitable territory, how
ever achieved, would put the yer.
with cornneld extension