Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-10
TRAFFIC PROBLEM
BATTLES OFFICIALS
New York Tries to Solve
Question of Increasing Con-
gestion Down Town.
BY JOHN F. sINCLAIR.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, May I0.-Local trans
portation in New York City is as con-
gested today as it ever was. Strangers
call it outrageous, but the average New
Yorker regards the overcrowding as
something that must be endured.
Unlike Philadelphia, under the Mitten
unified plan, where the taxicabs, sur
face, elevated and subway lines all have
been unified, New York has several
subway owners, several surface car
owners and thousands of taxicab own
erS.
That is what makes the problem SO
extremely difficult.
Should a taxicab, the real source of
New York's congestion trouble, be made
common carrier and placed under
public regulation?
Any individual today who has the
price to buy taxi can secure license
and traverse the streets of the city
The average taxi driver makes from So
to Sc day, and the problem has be-
come more acute in recent months, when
unemployment has increased. Many
inexperienced drivers have taken to il
to make living.
Officials of the city, however, recog-
niZe the increasing seriousness of the
problem, and several committees are
now at work hoping to arrive at So
luton. But SO far it has baffled them
all.
Toward Civilization" This is the
name of the latest work of Charles A
Beard, one-time professor of politics al
Columbia and co-author with his wife
of that epoch-making work THE RlSt
of American Civilization"
Associated with him are group OF
brilliant American writers, who tel
rather intimately of the machine anc
modern business.
Every modern machine has soul:
is part of the soul of its inventor ano
of the men who developed it,. writes
Prof. Michael Pupin of Columbia Uni
versity. "I do not regret that 81 years
ago I deserted my beloved Siberian
oxen and ran away to the land of ma
chimes"
The white haired mellow, tolerant
and keen DIR. Beard says: "These
| writer's are fully aware of the
criticisms brought against machine civil
lization in the name of humanisn1, re:
| ligion and ehthetics. But one nott
runs through all the chapters thu
revolution wrought by science and ma
chinery is not completed, 1t has just
started and its immense possibilities arc
only beginning to be appreciated"
| Among the other writers are Rob.
ert A. Milliken, Lee de Forest, e. A
Sperry and Thomas G.. Campbell.
| But read the book for yourself.
| The agitation against the chain store
apparently has had no adverse effect
on the sales volume.
The sales of the 20 leading system:
| for April totaled $109, $4,000, an in.
crease of $13,513 600 over April of las
year, according to figures compiled b,
George H. Burr e. Co.
| For the first four months of thi:
year the record of these systems is f.:
per cent over the corresponding periot
of year ago.
| Merrill Lynch 81 Co., chain stor,
bankers. compiled the totals of 20 chair
store companies showing sales for Apri
of $247, 1923 900, as compared with $224,
100000 for April of last year. an in
crease of 9.95 per cent this April owe
| last.
When the first four months Of 1885,
are included, the totals of these sam,
companies aggregate $9l 100000, a.
against $872, 100000 for the same periot
a year ago.
The figures of the leading chain store
are included in these totals.
4 Expansion programs continue will
! the chain stores. John A. Hartford
president of the A. a. p. Tea Co., ha
plans for adding more than 100 store
in Southern California, while the mum