Evening star., 1924-01-21
HILLS MAKE ClTYS
RAILWAY PROSPER
Enable San Francisco to Keep
Fares at 5 Cents and
Make Money.
PEOPLE OWN THE SYSTEM
Is Only Profitable Enterprise Of
Kind in America.

Special Dispatch TO The Star.
SAN FRANCISCO. January 21.-San
Francisco's nine steep hills, which
the average citizen here looks upon
as largely useless except as scenic
adjuncts to chamber of commercc
boost" literature, have their uses
after all.
Likewise. the Bay of San Francisco
bestows other blessings than a sur
felt Of damp salt air upon cooped-up
Office workers.
The two. it has just been discoy-
fred. are responsible for the fact tina
San Francisco is able to maintain tho
only financially successful municipa'
States
San Franciscos municipal system
IS probably the most famous enter
PRISE OF its kind in the world, and the
hrst municipally-owned tranEporta-
tion line to be started in the United
states has just celebrated it's eleventh
oirthGay As part Of the celebra =
!loh u added another year OF div
dehus 70 ten already recorded
Started In 1913.
Fhe system Was started January
! 1919. with only six cars and a sine.
lire OF track from the downtown se..-
ton to the entrance Of Golden Ca.
Park, about three miles. Its tofa
cost in bond issues has been $500 !
900.
Today it owns sixty-seven miles q.
track and 109 modern "alI-weather'
cars. earns gross income OF more
than $3.o00,o00 yearly. and has ro
uuced its original bonded indebted
value. according TO conservative estf-
mates, has almost doubled, rising T.
$40, 100000.
All the profits above cost Of opera
ton and interest on Indebtedness. to
gether with 100000 used each ya;tr
TO pay off outstanding. bonds. Is M,
back into improvements and extar-
sions. In twenty years the entiry-
system, with many more miles az
track added, will have been entfrcl- =
paid for.
Keeps Five-Cent Fare.
While other municipal enterpriss :
and street railway companies have
increased fares, San Francisco has
retained its fve-cent rate. And II
IS credited with paying its empIoyeS
higher wages than any other street
car company in the United States
Only two other cities, Seattle ard
Detroit, now operate municipal syS-
tens. Both so far have been LOSING
ventures.
Behind San Franciscos OUTSTANDING
and love success, however, Their.
might be said to be moral It Is .
moral uf topography-steeph hills and
bay, on the other side of which
are the cities of Oakland Alameda
and Berkeley, with a combined popu-
lation almost equal to San Fran
cisco's. A quarter-miiiiou people
commute 20 San Francisco daily. And
it is this big committing army tha,
helps make San F-ancisco's munici-
pal car lines q success.
For with the committing CROW d.
travelling into San Francisco in one
direction during the so-called pea +
hours" in the morning. and with the
san Francisco working crowds COM
ing downtown from the other direc-
ton. the municipal" system avoids
that costly necessity for runnipS &
hundreds of cars empty one way
San Franciscos hills help tn swell
the total of cash fares materially
! during the slower hours. The city's
nine hills are steep-some with
grades of almost % per cent The
street cars negotiate most of them.
and the publ" invariably chooses 70
pay a nickel and travel in comfort
and more quickly
And il is this combination of hur-
ry. hill and a bay that has given San
Francisco the only paying municipal
| street car system IN the country