Evening star., 1936-07-21
RULING
WILL WAIT MONTH
Public Utilities Commission
Ends Hearings on Plea
of Transit Firm.
BY DON s. WARREN.

o1 OoIN % "AAs1SEs3Ns
Whether the Capital Transit Co. Is
to be permitted to place 40 additional
street cars in one-man operation-re-
quest for which is regarded by some
as q step toward extension Of the sys-
tenn to all remaining two-man cars
probably will not be known for q
month.
Public hearings on the issue were
concluded late yesterday before the
Public Utilities Commission, but the
transcript Of the six days Of testimony
will not be completed until next Mon
day, and opposing counsel have been
granted 10 days in which to file argu-
ments on evidence.
Even after the commission reaches
its decision the case may not be ended.
The possibility Of an appeal to the
District Court was raised today by
Thomas z. Lodge, president Of the
Federation of Citizens Associations.
The federation was a party to the
case, with William NICK. Clayton as
its counsel. Should the company win,
he said. the federation will plan an
appeal to the court II means Of financ-
ing can be arranged.
Company May Appeal.
There is also the possibility the COM
pany may appeal If it loses. An i'm
portant part of it's argument has been
the economies that would result. The
company already mas petitioned for
an increase in street car fare, declar-
ing additional revenues are neces-
sity. Hearings on that issue are to
be started later in the Summer.
An appeal from either side would
throw the case back to the commits
sion for a review of its findings on the
evidence.
The hearing ended with several
legal issues still beclouded Clayton
and Peoples Counsel William A.
Roberts both asked dismissal of the pc
tition on the ground that one-man
operations were illegal because a sta
tute Of 1892 provided that no cars
operated on rails could be without the
services of q conductor. While the
law was enacted in the days of the
horse drawn cars, it never has beer
repealed, they argued. Acting Com
mission Chairman Richmond B. Keech
reserved decision on the point.
Clayton also repeated motions he
made at the outset OF the hearings
That the petition be dismissed unless
the North American Co., majority
stock owner of the transportation sys-
tenn, be made party to the case, and
that the hearing was illegal with but
one Of the three commission members
hearing the evidence. Keech again
denied both motions.
Keech heard the case alone be-
cause Of the absence of Engineer
Commissioner Dan I. Sultan and the
serious illness Of Commission Chair
man Riley E. Elgen. One or both OF
these later will read the record and
confer with Keech before the case is
decided.
For four hours yesterday Roberts
subjected Commission Chief Engineer
Fred A. Sager to cross
seeking to cut the ground from under
his argument that available statistics
indicated that one-man cars are safer
than the average two-man car. al
though they are somewhat" slower
in movement.
Roberts succeeded in drawing from
Sager statements that he. himself,
had not segregated the accident rec
ords of one-man and two-man cars
but that he had based his findings
on figures gathered from the rail-
roads; and that only approximately
so per cent of the total number of
accidents involving street cars are re-
ported to the commission.
Roberts also sought to prove by
repeated questions that If figures used
by Sager show one-man cars here are
safer it is because the one-man cars
have better equipment than old two.
man cars and because one-man cars
predominately are used on lines hav-
ing the lightest passenger demands.
Further, he sought to show that
Sager's mathematical calculations
were based on the scheduled" run
ming time rather than the actual
running time of cars, in dealing with
the comparative speed as between one
man and two-man cars.