Evening star., 1924-05-19
FIVE-CENT CAR FARE
INJURIOUS, SAYS HAM
W. R. & E. Head Tells Senate
Deficit Would Have Been
$1,106,621 Last Year.
md John ID. Price, pilots.

William F. Ham, president of the
Washington Railway and Electric
Company, today told the Senate Dis
trict committee that if the rate of
street car fare in Washington had
been five cents with six tickets for
quarter, as proposed in the Nickel
lar bill. during 1928 there would have
been an operating deficit for his COM
pany amounting to s1,106,621.S9. The
Capital Traction Company. he said.
would have faced an operating deficit
of s294,565.41, and the combined oper-
ating deficit of the two companies
would have been s1,401.1S7.30. He
strongly opposed the enactment into
law of the McKellar bill.
The hearings on the McKellar bill
are to be continued Monday morning,
with Mr.. Ham again on the stand.
Senator Mckellar of Tennessee, au-
thor of the ive-cent-car-fare bill,
plans to offer his bill as an amend
ment to the District appropriation
bill when that measure reaches the
Senate, notwithstanding the fact that
the hearings on his bill have not yet
been concluded and the Senate Dis
trict committee has taken no action
now before the Senate appropriations
subcommittee, but it is expected that
it will be reported to the Senate by
the end of this week or early next
week.
MckeIlar Renevvs Charges
Senator McKellar during the hear
ing today renewed his charges that
the Public Utilities Commission of the
District had been partial to the street
railways and had virtually agreed to
every proposition put up to it by the
companies. Mr.. Ham said his com
pany had been almost constantly in
conflict with the commission over
matters of Importance.
Senator Mckellar has laid parti-
cular stress on the fact that on vir-
tually all of the street car lines in
New Jersey a scent fare has been
re- established and that the companies
in that state have agreed to it. Mr..
Ham called attention in detail to the
different situation maintaining in
the New Jersey cities from that
more costly underground system in
use here, to the fact that in New
Jersey there is a zone system where
by a cash fare CT cents will carry
passenger a certain distance and
then when the passenger goes into
another zone he must pay an addi-
tiona cents. Also Mr.. Ham point
ed out no free transfers are provided
for in the New Jersey system
Mr. Ham laid before the committee
map of Newark, N. j., superimposed
on map of Washington, showing the
street car lines and the zones in ef-
feet in Newark and the street car
lines here. He said that it showed
clearly that If zoning system such
as that in use in Newark were in eff
feet here, a very large number of the
passengers carried on the lines of the
Washington Railway and Electric
Company would be compelled to pay
two fares of cents each instead of
riding for an Scent cash fare or on
tickets which cost 40 cents for six.
Opposition to ZOninE Plan.
Mr.. Ham said that the people of
the District had declared emphatically
ton, when that plan was proposed
and the Public Utilities Commission
had decided against the proposal
also, although the coming plan pro-
posed by the Washington Railway
and Electric Company had been far
more to the advantage of the trav-
cling public than that in operation
in New Jersey.
Mr.. Ham showed, too, that in New
Jersey, since the adoption Of the s.
car companies there were using far
more one-man cars, which cost less
to operate. In a discussion of the
one-man car, which is being used on
some of the lines OF. the Washington
Railway and Electric Company, Mr..
Ham defended their use, saying that
it had been demonstrated there were
less accidents on one-man cars than
on the two-man cars. He said that
the company is now experimenting
with an automatic rear control for
one-man car which, If it proves sat
isfactory, should do away with much
of the criticism that is leveled against
them. He said, however, the one-man
car saves only the salary of one train
man, as compared to the two-man