The New York herald., 1922-04-20
Continued from First Page.

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before they could be put into operation
and meanwhile your necessities are 60
ing TO continue TO grow.
THE city now has three hundred mill
lions OF its credit either invested OF
pledged frozen IL you please, in the In
vestment already made in raph transit
facilities, and while IL is asserted that
the city has still a margin OF borrowing
4 capacity sufficient to inaugurate new
lines, the fact is that even on the face
OF the figures there is a totally insult
| ficien margin for ihe other great public
necessities Of the city.
Getty Has Enough Credit"
The city now has enough frozen credit
| in the subway securities. il they could be
released and II that credit could be con-
verted into a revolving credit. TO finance
indefinitely all of the extensions and new
lines that will be needed to meet the
growing necessities Of the city.
80 1t is patent that two things are Inn
peratively, Immediately needed. The inn
mediate Improvement Of existing facili-
ties and the release OF the frozen credit
of the city for the building of additional
of those two things can be accomplished
without reorganlzlng the existing sys-
TENS and without providing new basis
for treating the investment OF the city
in those systems.
THAT need was patent one year, two.
| three and four years ago, yet during that
time nothing constructive has been done
| or even proposed up to a year ago, and
why was that?
'It was because, IN the first place,
there was no single authority competent
to deal with the problem to undertake
solution. And, in the second place, the
attitude of the companies and OF the city
administration but tended to infiame and
disorder the public mind.
"City's Absurdity Successful"
"On the one hand, the companies were
giving poor service and demanding an
increased face. That enabled the city
ADMINISTRATION to curry popular favor
by appealing to the very prejudice which
| the companies themselves were daily
creating. That enabled the city admin
istration to get away temporarily with
the absurd proposal to scrap the existing
facilities and to substitute others which
the city was without means to provide.
Both of these positions were wrcng.
The companies were wrong in demand
| ing an increased fare. They were not
entitled to an increased fare. They
had entered into contracts under which,
| for a stipulated fare, they had under
| taken to discharge a public duty, and
they were not entitled to more. The
city administration was equally wrong,
| first, In proposing to scrap the facilities
of which there was public need, and
4 inC n
others which there was no means to
provide. even IL practical And so be-
tween those two issues or two positions
both wrong--the battle ragged and moth
| ing was done.
"While you were discussing the five
| cent fare you lost the five cent fare,
! for. by accurate computations. !. Is
now costing the people or this city
on the average more than six cents
ride. That means the rent payers are
paying an additional cent and more for
services which would be dear at any
price.
"Resentment Natural"
"That is the situation to-day. That
was the situation year ago. when 1
raised a storm of disapproval in this
city by proposing that the time had
come to undertake a constructive soiu-
ton of this problem. There Is a natural
resentment against outsiders butting In
To family ouarrels. People like to at
tend to their own affairs, even though
| they do Ii badly, and respect that SEN
| timent. AS Governor of this state l
| have troubles enough without seeking
| them and I have not undertaken to
solve your transit problem for you.
"All that + proposed was that the
State Legislature. the only body hav-
ing the power to do II, should create
an authority and clothe 1t with the
power to solve this problem. some peo-
ple. even those who are quite ready
to run TO the Legislature when they
want something. seem to forget that
ths state had a responsibility in this
matter. This was not wholly family
affair.
"The state had already become In
yolyed in the problem: but people seem
to forget that every one of your existing
rapid transit lines or subways were
| constructed, and every dollar OF the
city's three hundred millions OF credit
| invested or pledged under contracts
made in the name of the city. either py
the original Rapid Transit Commission
or its successor. the Public Service
/ Commission. both agencies created by
tbe state Legislature. The present
Transit Commission. in fact. has nc
powers which were not already pos
sessed and exercised by Its predecessor
"City Lacked New Argument"
I'm the city's appeal to the courts ir
which Il was found necessary 10 en-
ploy imported counsel to defend home
| rule. not one single point was raised
which had not already been finally de.
cided by the courts and so the courts
1 said.
"The responsibility was there on thu
State, already assumed; the gravity ol
the situation was here, daily becoming
more grave. could have shirked thai
responsibility. The Legislature coult
have shirled its responsibility. w
could both have allowed matters TO &C
from bad TO worse as they had beer
drifting, and could have passed ths
blame on others. But we preferred
to discharge rather than TO evade re
sponsibility.
"And as the result you have thu
Transit Commission. three Of your owr
citizens working in the light OF day
developing the facts pertinent 20 these