Evening star., 1932-08-29
A Sick Industry.

The condition of the street railway
and city bus transportation industry
throughout the country is a pretty dis
NAL one. The picture in Washington
is bleak enough. In Baltimore it is
even worse. With few exceptions street
cars and busses everywhere have run
on the rocks, pushed there by the ubi-
ouitous taxi cab and the general eco
nonic blight, and nobody knows what
to do about it.
That something must and will be
done is obvious No one can consign to
the limbo of antiquity an industry that
hauls some fourteen billion persons to
work and back again in q year. The
United States Chamber Of Commerce
has just sent to a national referendum
a report taking tbs view that business
recovery is linked closely to good local
transportation in all urban communi-
ties, and that it is to the interest OF
business men in every city to see that
good service Is continued. The service
cannot continue, 1t is maintained. un-
less remedial steps are taken The steps
recommended, generally, are public CO.
operation which will enable private
arrangements to carry on" and subsidies
from public funds, together with relief
from charges that the companies main
tain are unfair, such as paving costs
and special taxes sometimes amounting
to tenth of gross income.
The plight of the street car is curl
Gus one, which is not duplicated in the
case of any other industry. The invest
ment in urban transportation lines to-
tails something like $3,350, 100000, and
hundreds of thousands of men and
women have put their money in local
ra,lws'- securities as an ordinarily safe
venture End of the service that the street
railways perform. or even its partial
curtailment, would amount to nothing
less than extraordinary confusion in the
normal habits of millions Of people, and
would only serve to boost the rates for
other forms of transportation. The
daily life of city is largely dependent
upon normal street car and bus service.
Yet in Washington, as in other locali-
ties, the slow strangulation Of the street
car companies at the hands of mani
festly unfair and unregulated competi-
tiop-which in itself is an inadequate
substitutes regarded alphabetically and
with amazing indifference Right now,
in Baltimore, the street railway system
is more or less hanging by thread
which, If severed, means receivership
and confusion worse confounded for the
city, as well as for the security owners.
AS temporary expedient the company
there has asked relief from a park tax,
presenting the alternative of gradually
being forced out of business. Yet the
proposal is not viewed by the City Coun-
Gil as a possible way out of bad jam,
but is regarded more or less as a red
flag would be viewed by bull. To re-
1ieve the street car corporation of tax
means that the tax must be showed to
the shoulders of other property owners,
having difficulties them Ives, and there
the matter stands. Such sl attitude,
while shortsighted and ultimately sui
cidal, is the natural outgrowth of the
tradition that the street car companies
have always tried to rob the suffering
public and the public is now enjoying
the last laugh.
In Washington, with revenue pas
sengers steadily decreasing and operat-
ing deficits increasing, the situation is
further complicated by the absurd man.
date by the American Congress forbid
ding the local Public Utilities Commits
sion from spending money to enforce its
taxicab meter order-that order being, at
most, a weak attempt to find way out
of the chaos of unregulated competition.
There is the additional complication that
a busy Congress has shown no inclina-
tion to take the time necessary to sane
tion the one tangible proposal for i'm
proving service and aiding the sick cor
porations, that proposal being the be-
whiskered merger resolution.
What the answer will be is far from
definite. Proposals for tax relief will
produce hollow groans from the tax
payers. With nearly everything else un-
der the sun receiving subsidies, the
street car companies may win the right
to their own. The single bright spot
on the horizon is the evident determina-
tion of the street car corporations to
adjust themselves, by research and ex-
pertinent with new-type equipment, to
modern conditions of dense traffic
which will cost money-and their at
tempt to force attention. and resultant
cooperation from the public, toward
solution of a problem Of real and i'm
mediate concern to the community.
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