Evening star., 1934-04-10
FEDERATION
| AGAINST TROLLEY
Montgomery Citizens Back
Abandonment of Line
to Rockville.
By STAFF Correspondent of The Star.

!
BY STAFF Correspondent of The Star.
4 BETHESDA, Md. April 1o.-Aban-
.donment of the electric railway op-
serating between the District of Co.
slumbia line and Rockville and the
Substitution of modern bus service
swhen impending Improvements are
made along Wisconsin avenue was
sstrongly advocated by the Montgom-
Sery County Civic Federation in a reso-
slution adopted at its meeting held In
sthe Bethesda Elementary School last
might.
e Passage of the measure, together
with the introduction Of four new
RESOLUTIONS dealing with the liquor
Adispensary system and the recent pur-
schase of the site for construction of
"a combined warehouse, dispensary
Sand Office building at Silver Spring
featured the monthly session of the
spowertul civic group. All of the new
measures were referred to committees
Sfor investigation.
One of the resolutions requested
ythe resignation of the county COM
gmissioners who participated in the
purchase of the Silver Spring site,
tanother asked that the land be re-
sdeeded to the Silver Spring Building
5& Supply Co. and called upon the
Estates attorney to investigate the
purchase. the third charged that the
scounty liquor law was illegal. while
Ethe other asks that the liquor law
sbe changed to vest in the county
sLiquor Control Board full authority
sto grant or refuse wine and beer
slicense applications.
: Abandonment Vote Is Landslide.
The street car measure, which was
Submitted by the Public Utilities Com
mittee, along with many recommenda-
4 tions regarding the routing of busses
through both the western and eastern
/ suburban districts Of the county, was
adopted by an overwhelming ma
y jority on an aye-and-nay vote, after
: an unsuccessful effort to have it re-
] committed was made by George H.
!; Lamar of Rockville.
2 Lamar charged that immediate ac-
i ton on the resolution would be "un-
3 fair to patrons of the street cars who
4 were not present." and declared that
y abandonment of the trolley line as
= proposed lis not matter to be taken
y care of in four or five minutes" He
Z proposed that public hearing be held
y by the Public Utilities Committee to
/ determine the sentiment of interest
ed people before the federation placed
itself on record as favoring the re-
j placement Of the trolley service with
busses.
/. His motion was defeated, however,
: and a substitute offered by j. Harry
WEIGH Of Chevy Chase, asking for i'm
mediate action on the question, was
adopted with but few dissenting votes.
i The motion vas made after Maj. E.
: Brooke Lee of the State Roads Com
mission announced that the commis-
( sion is now :.waiting an expression
( OF the sentiment of the people of this
1 area regarding their desire for a con-
tinuance or abandonment of the
/ street car line before proceeding with
{ plans for the advertisement for bids
on the repaving and widening of the
/ avenue.
Welch Asks Speedy Action.
Welch, who heads the Public Utili-
5 ties Committee, declared a few mo-
mentS before that his group had nc
objection to holding a public hearing
! as suggested by Lamar, but asserted
: after Maj. Lee had spoken that he
felt 1t was vitality important for the
= federation, in view of the road Off
claPs statement, to dispose of the
matter Immediately and thus help to
expedite plans to start work en- the
avenue improvement project.
+ Lamar, who was one of two dele
gates who spoke in opposition of the
resolution, earlier in the meeting
s scored the committee for returning
its report without granting a request
which he made recently to be heard
! by Welch and his aides, while he
; later challenged the committees right
s to offer its extensive recommended
tions on the routing of buses over
] the entire lower end of the county.
! He withdrew his objections on the
latter point, however, after Roy c.
4 Corderman of Chevy Chase, a mem
! Der OF the committee. pointed out on
! the federation calendar that resolu-
/ tions introduced by Capt. L. L. Dye of
i Garrett Park in May, 1898, by the
! Battery Park Citizens Association in
\ December, 1888, and by the Rock
4 vile Chamber of Commerce last
. month authorized the committee to
make comprehensive study of the
) entire transportation system in those
1 sections and t. submit a report with
recommendations for Improvements.
IS Per Cent for Abandonment.
In his Introductory remarks, made
prior to reading the report, Welch
explained that the committee, in con-
sidering the question, had before 1t
1 three resolutions from the Rockville
!. and Bethesda Chambers of Commerce
and the Citizens Association of Sec
( tion 8, Chevy Chase, favoring aban-
donment of the line and another from
Z the Rockville Pike Citizens Associa-
tion urging continuance of the rail-
: way and improvements in bus service
4 He said that the committee also
had been provided with figures by
! the Rockville Chamber of Commerce
1 showing that the trade body itself had
! voted 13 to / for abandonment OF
1 the street car line, while a mail vote
i taken by the same organization re-
vealed that 70 per cent of the people
Z who returned their ballots favored
4 abandonment Of the electric road.
OF the 1873 votes received. lot were
/ against the street cars, WEIGH de-
1 clared. The committee chairman
said that 80 of the -07 were property
I owners, SO were patrons Of the busses
and AZ were patrons of both the street
: car and bus lines. OF the % business
firms that voted. only five favored
! retention of trolley service, he as
I serted.
I In addition, Welch said, a Rockville
I newspaper received 80 cards advocat.
Z ing abandonment of the railway. ane
4 only Is urging that 1t be continued.
Manv ComnIaints Cited.