Evening star., 1933-08-06
Unregulated Competition.

code by street car companies ii WASH
inston in relation to the local trans
portation problem may be CONSIDERED
as nationally unimportant. But 1t Is
highly important to Washington, as
readers of the news article printed
elevs..> In today's Star will agree
Chief interest, Of course. senters on the
competition between strictly regulated
street cars and grossly unregulated taxi
cab competitors. In a nutshell, can the
companies survive the added expense Of
adopting the principles Of code which
adds to operating costs, and at the
same time continue competition with
popular form of transportation which,
in washington, may largely escape the
responsibilities implied in subscription
to the code?
The companies pay their platform
men about fifty-one cents an hour for
a fifty -four hour week. They have al
ready cut their operating expenses,
under the pressure of falling revenues,
to the bone The adoption of shorter
working week means the employment
Of more street car men. The hourly
rate Of pay will remain the same, or
substantially 50.
Competing with the street car COM
panies for public patronage are the
taxicabs, not required to carry liability
insurance nor conform to other strict
regulations imposed on the street cars
as common carriers. The Public Utili-
ties Commission estimates that the ma
jority of taxicab drivers are working on
an eighty hour weekly basis, and that
their gross pay-out of which must
come rental of the cab for some, Gil
and gasoline and depreciation for 9TH
ers-averages twenty-seven cents an
hour.
Because Of the cheapness OF labor
and absence Of regulatory burdens, the
cabs can offer cheap transportation.
But the street car companies have not
been able to take the sort Of advantage
Of cheap labor that is represented in
cutting pay to anything like the level OF
twenty-seven cents an hour. As is the
case in all cut-throat competition, the
street. car companies have been blcd
almost to death.
The fundamental idea behind all the
codes Is to eliminate the cut-throat
competition. There are plenty of en-
ployers who long since would have elm
mated child labor, sweat shop working
conditions and other such iniquities OF
the Industrial system. They could not
do II, snd survive, unless their competi-
TORS did it. The code, aptly called the
blanket code" represents an attempt
to make every employer do the same
thing at the same time.
The question now is whether the
street car companies are to sign the
code as street car companies, but as
mas transportation agents remain un-
protected against the inroads Of their
Goddess competitors. One Of the taxi
cab companies is anxious for the code.
But what about the scores and hun
dreds of independent drivers, and de-
pendent rental drivers, for whom no
code Ia in prospect. If there is to be q
taxicab code, win II be framed on the
basis of fair competition with the street
car companies, or will it be framed for
the protection Of merely some taxicab
drivers?
II Is well enough to say that the
street car has outlived its day, like the
horse and carriage; must bow to the
progress represented by cheap taxicabs
and gradually fade out Of the picture.
But that, Of course, is not the sensible
view. This city. as any city, Is depend
snt on the street car companies for
mass transportation The taXicabs can
not take the place of the STREET car, nor
can other competitors give the sort OF
service that the lowly and abused street
car still gives. Until there is a substi-
tute for the street car, it has not run
its course. 1t serves necessary func-
ton in the life of the city
What will be the result Of the codii-
cation Of transportation agencies in
Washington? viii it mean the end of
the street car, or the end of the unres-
ulated and unfair competition between
taxieabs and street cars2 1t is to be
hoped, of course, that it will be the lat
ter. There is a place for street cars
and for taxicabs, but both should be
regulated. Perhaps the N. r. A. can do
what the Public Utilities Commission
under express mandate of Congress is
forbidden to do-compel the sort of
taxieab regulation that would result
from adoption of q code of respensi-
bility and the compliance with certain
sfAadaYdg