Evening star., 1936-08-06
BRIEFS ARE FILED
CONTINUING FIGHT
ONONE-MAN CARS
Dramatically Opposed
= Views Given by Roberts
and Transit Firm.
PURCHASE OF new
TWO.MAN CARS URGED
Peoples Counsel Says Equipment
Is Needed-Company Deplores
"Prejudice.'

The battle over the petition of the
Capital Transit Co. to place 40 addi-
tional one-man cars into service was
resumed today when the company and
Peoples Counsel William A. Roberts
filed briefs with the Public Utilities
Commission offering diametrically op-
posed views on the question of the need
or wisdom of extending single man
operation.
Roberts declared the correct alterna-
tive to granting the companys petit
tion would be an immediate order for
the purchase of an adequate number
OF new two-man cars, funds for which
he claimed the company could obtain.
The peoples counsel renewed his in
sistence that one-man cars are not as
safe or fast as two-man cars having
anywhere near comparable equipment.
The company, in a brief filed by its
counsel, S. r. Bowen and G. Thomas
Dunlop, not only claimed new one
man cars were faster and safer than
two-man operation, but sought to dis
credit the opposition which has come
from civic and labor spokesmen as
being based upon "deep-rooted preju-
dice"
Financial Necessity Cited.
The company also renewed its plea
that an increase in one-man cars is
based upon financial necessity.
Attorneys for both sides reviewed
in great detail arguments and factual
testimony presented to the commits
sion at the recent public hearing.
In conclusion, Roberts said:
The problem as to one-man cars
can be epitomized as struggle be-
tween service and revenue. The grant,
ing of the application may, if the
estimates of the employees are correct,
save the expenditure of some 100000
per annum. The offsetting losses will
be borne by operators of one-man
cars and by patrons who suffer from
delay and other hazards of this type
Of operation.
The commissions decision newt
ably will be used to support a con-
tinued expansion of one-man car
operation. The evidence submitted
does not establish a greater safety or
a greater speed claimed for the one
man car, but, on the contrary, makes
1t clear that modern equipment with
modern safety devices can accomplish
much In the way of rejuvenation Of
transit facilities and in the satisfac-
tion of the clamor for improved serv-
ice.
New Cars Urged.
"The correct alternative for the
granting of the application is an i'm
mediate order for the purchase of an
adequate number of new two-man
cars. Funds for this purchase would
be available from the depreciation re-
serve created by patrons of the COM
pany if the integrity of that reserve
had been maintained. There is still
a balance of several million dollars in
this reserve in spite of the extensive
rehabilitation program. The company
has not touched its resulting credit
due to the merger and the correspond
ing benefits of monopoly granted by
Congress
The company brief claimed that
there was such overwhelming evi-
dence" in support of the safety ard
speed of one-man cars that the COM
mission should not be swayed by the
testimony, "if such it may be termed,
of citizens, however well intentioned,
whose opinions are not based upon
factual information, but upon preju-
dice which originated with the general
idea that one man cannot competently
do the work of two"
This prejudice, the commission was
told, has become widespread and deep
rooted "at least among those who in
terest themselves in the affairs of citi-
zens' associations"
The company claimed that testimony
of this character came from various
chairmen of committees on public
utilities Of various associations, and
that resolutions condemning one man
cars had been adopted in meetings
"where, in general, comparatively in
significant portion of the total men,
bership was present and without any
factual information or evidence to
support them"
On the question of its financial
need, the company said:
THE evidence shows that the COM
pany is barely earning its operating
expenses, depreciation and interest
charges, with no return whatever to
the owners of the property. Only one
dividend has been paid upon the stock
since the merger on December /,
1888. which was 81 per share, on
December IS, 1884, and which was
prior to the increase in wages,
amounting to over 100000 per an
mum. and which increase absorbed
practically all of the net revenue
which would have been otherwise
realized"