Evening star., 1938-10-02
NORTH SHORE LINE
BELIEVED DOOMED
Wage Cut Dispute Sounds
Death KneI| After
Steady Decline.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

SSSsNsSs
Special Dispatch to The Star.
MILWAUKEE,. Wis, Oct. 1.-Rusty
rails getting rustier, stored up cars
getting dustier. and only the spiders
in the depots doing any work.
That is the North Shore Railroad
once the most shining example in
the world OF successful, high-speed
electric railroading-today after more
than two months without a wheel
turning because of the strike of its
1900 employees over a is per cent
wage cut.
In Milwaukee railroad and business
circles the belief is growing that the
grass is going to grow pretty tall be-
tween the tracks before the railroad
runs again. Rumors persist that the
North Shore never will resume, that
it is In such a financial mess that 1t
might just as we'll call 1t quits.
Even the fact that the strikers have
indicated a willingness to take IS per
cent Of their pay in cash and the
balance in company scrip is not ex-
pected to help. A Federal Govern
ment official said the trustee who
suggested the scrip idea is finding
that the road could not even find
enough money, after suspended oper-
ations, to pay IS per cent cash.
Victim Of Boom Finance.
So it appears that another electric
interurban is going to fall victim TO
changing times and the era Of high
financing" of the 1s20s and Of Sam
insult. For the North Shore was one
of insults great dreams and one of
the victims of his craving for over
expansion.
The North Shore was one OF the
lines that ushered in the day of the
electric street car and those Victorian
rapid transit trains that brought the
farmer into town Saturday night and
took the folks to the big city now and
then in the days of the horse and
buggy. 1t started as trolley line in
Waukegan and ran bit south of that
city in 1894.
Then came the period of building
interurban lines all over the coun-
try, OF selling stock to make that
possible. In 1908 the line was ex-
tended south to Evanston, ILL.,, and
north to Milwaukee, and bit later
it was run into Chicago over the
IL"
The line was an important fac
tor those days in the growth of Mil
waukee and the suburbs of Chicago.
1t carried people from downtown Mil
waukee to downtown Chicago and it
took lots Of business from the steam
railroads.
Boom Follows Setback.
Bankruptcy overlook it in the trou-
blous early days Of the World War,
but that was only q temporary set
back. New management came along
and insult got hold of the property
after 1916 and it began to boom. 1t
carried l6,146,802 passengers in 1923
and 445,s48 tons Of freight and took
in $6,978.751 in operating revenues
with its ~ steel trains, some of them
then considered quite de luxe. 1t
won prizes for high speed and, in the
words Of the American Electric Rail
way Association, For carrying to
fruition most Of the things that have
been talked about as the remedies
for making interurban lines pay"
But insult and Mrs. Harold McCor-
mick had visions of developing a great
new and beautiful residential suburb
alnS11 tho ehnree NJ In
between Waukegan and Chicago. So
the $l2,000,000 Skokie Valley cut
OF" Of the North Shore was built to
bring transportation to an otherwise
inaccessible section and to reduce the
running time between Milwaukee and
Chicago.
The running time was cut. Trains
reached IS miles an hour and averaged
IS miles an hour between Milwaukee
and Chicago but
Somebody forgot about the auto
mobile. Anyway the auto changed
from a chugging gas buggy to quiet
sedan that carried the family any
where, any time, for less and less
money. And people did not flock to
Mrs. McCormick's new suburb.
All Profits Cut Away.
Those 46 new miles of truckage with
their 1873 miles of electric trolley wires
and their costly Spanish bungalow
stations and the expensive electric
suostations. and the 100000 new
terminal in Milwaukee-largest elec-
trio railway station in the world
Just slashed all profits away For
insults group had-with the aid of
sales drives by employes-S21, ,522. 900
in bonds outstanding by 1881, in adj
ton to s20,000,000 of capital stock 1t
had a net operating annual loss for
1880 of s745,579 and it rushed to the
r. F. G. to borrow sl,15O000 because
1t owed S175.000 in taxes in Illinois
and Wisconsin and was unable to
meet It's then current obligations of
sl000,000 in interest on its securities.
So into receivership the line went in
1882. Those automobiles motor trucks
and motor bus lines had cut the pas
senger business down from the 1923
high of 100000 to an annual aver
age OF 100000 by the summer of
1882. In those years from 1929, the
depression had cut passengers down
from l2,500,000 in 1929 and freight
fell of 80 per cent.
In 1887 the North Shore loss, after
inclusion OF the funded debt. was
s1.17o,767, or only $37,647 less than
the debt of 1896. And according to
latest figures. passenger business at
the time of suspended operations was
only at the rate of 100000 passen-
gers q year.
Time Lost in Cities.
What, besides the auto, caused the
big drop from the heyday of IT,
100000? The steam railroads have
speeded up trains. Instead of travel
ing at the North Shores vaunted Is
miles an hour top speed, the steam
lines are hitting 80 and 100 miles
They are using heavier cars that dc
not sway like the North Shore cars.