The broad ax., 1925-04-04

/ PROBABLY De uHdDtc 10 ACAhdllNS tA~n
present obligationsr-and certainly it
would Be impossible to bring in any
such great amount Of new capital to
provide these extensions to the sys-
tenn.
Some OF the railroad people very
frankly say that they could get along
and do very well if the city would
grant them an out and out ffty-year
franchise They would be willing to
pay the city a reasonable compensa-
ton for a ffty-year franchise or on
the basis of ffty-year franchise or
an indeterrninate franchise. You can
cali II perpetual or indeterminate
franchise In some of the states where
the laws have been amended SO as to
permit Of that situation they call them
indeterminate franchises. They have
no definite termination and can only
be revoked after a certain procedure,
which Is indicated in the different
statutes, where the corporations fall
down on their obligations. Concern
ing indeterminate franchises there
have been a great many ideas in diff
ferent states. There is on record one
case in the United States, a water
company case where there was a
revocation Of an indeterminate fran
chise. So that an indeterminate fran
chise is practically synonymous with a
perpetual franchise for all practical
purposes.
'The companies say that under an
indeterminate franchise or under a
tifty-year franchise they would be able
to refnance, they would Be able to
raise the necessary money to give Chi
cago the extensions and betterments
that modern transportation needs. AS
to that, we are baked again BY the
laws Of the state.
Nov, that is all you can do, that is
all you can do as a matter of private
operation and private management
twenty-year franchise which the
companies say would do them no good
because they cannot refnance under it,
or hfty-year or an indeterminate
franchise, which we could not give
without enabling legislation, possibly
constitutional amendment.
There are states in this union
where the obtaining Of enabling legis-
lation and even of constitutional
amendments is not an insurmountable
task. In Illinois, however, | think any
ones experience will readily prompt
the conclusion that if you want to do
something, if you want to get some
thing done you have got to 60 ahead
on the basis of trying to act within
the law as you have it and not spec
ulate on the law as you would like to
have it because our record in the
speedy obtaining of remedial legisla
ton or constitutional amendment IS
certainly not attractive enough to lure
anyone into that field.
In such a situation, and still con-
fronted with the necessity of a set
tlement to avoid the chaos and con
fusion that will result in 1927, the
question arises what next to d.
what can be done?
I'm 1913 the City Council passed
what is called unihcation ordinance,
unihcation Of the South Side lines and
the North and West Side lines, which
provided for interchange Of transfers
and really was the one-city one-fare,
as tar as the Surface Lines are con-
cerned. The city could not, without
the consent Of the companies. have
imposed that ordinance upon them. To
do that would be to deprive them of
their property without due process Of
law, and that ordinance is what Il
known as a contract ordinance. II
was an ordinance passed by the CITY
Council and accepted BY the com
panies. It is contract ordinance ~
are the 1907 ordinances and that ordi-
nance expires in 1927 just the same
as the other ordinances do.
so that our arrangement for
through-routing-it wouldn't be fair
to say all Of it; for through-routing in
a measure is provided in the 1907
ordinances, but a portion, a big por-
ton Of our through-routing and the
interchange Of transfers from one side
Of the city to the other expires in Feb
ruary, 1927; SO that it is within the
range Of possibility, at least, that we
will return this system to its Invisible
units and not have the advantage Of
that one-city one-fare as far as the
Surface Lines are concerned. That, /
say, depends on what arrangement