Evening star., 1943-11-11
Capital Transit Given
Right 10 Convert
81 Streetcars
PUG Ruling to Effect
$104, 900 q Year Saving
In Costs Of Operation

The Public Utilities Commission
today granted the Capital Transit
Co. the right to convert So two-men
streetcars to one-man operation be-
cause of the shortage of manpower.
The decision reverses the stand
which the PUG took on similar an.
plications of the transit company.
in 1910 and 1941. Conversion will
cost an estimated $1,000 a car, but
will effect operating savings OF
$l04,000 year.
While concurring in the opinion
OF Chairman James A. Flanagan
and Engineer Commissioner Charles
w. Kutz, Gregory Hankin, member
OF the PUG, charged that the COM
pany has made no substantial ef-
fort to employ colored persons"
adding:
THE company has been notorious
in its discrimination against colored
persons, and the Presidents Com
mittee on Fair Employment Practice
on November %. 1912, issued an or
der requiring the company to de-
sist from such discrimination. This
order has not yet been complied
with"
Opposition Recorded.
The majority opinion did not en-
ter into discussion of the question
OF Negro employment, other than to
record that opposition to conversion
was registered by the Committee
on Jobs for Negroes in Public Utili-
ties" 1t also noted that the Right
Rev. Francis J. Haas, former chair
man of the Presidents Committee
on Fair Employment Practices, tes-
tilted at the hearings last month.
Mr.. Hankin said that in view Of
Father Hass' testimony that there
were several hundred Negroes in
the District that might qualify for
positions as bus drivers or streetcar
operators, he felt constrained to
come to Che conclusion that the
Capital Transit Co. has not made
a sufficient effort to avail itself Of
the existing labor market. and ordi-
narily. would have dissented from
this order.
But we are up against 1t, so to
speak. There is shortage of plat
form men, which shortage will con-
tinue. There is need for conserving
buses and bus miles, requiring the
operation of as many streetcars as
are available, and the conversion of
the So streetcars, which is the sub
Ject OF this application, will make it
possible to operate more streetcars
than otherwise"
Mr. Hankin said he had reached
the conclusion that denial of the
order would work a hardship on
the riding public"
Operation Limited.
The converted cars, under the
terms of the order, can be operated
only one year after the war, unless
1T can be clearly demonstrated by
the company at that time that the
continued operation of this equip
ment is necessary in order that ade-
quate service can be rendered"
The majority opinion stated In
part:
According to the record. the
principal reason for converting two
man cars for one-man operation is
to provide manpower for an addi-
tional number of vehicles. The COM
pany has been faced with a serious
problem in that it has not been able
to hire sufficient number of men
to provide full service on both buses
and streetcars.
Witness for the company testi-
fed that at present streetcar and
bus service is furnished at the rate
OF about $4,000 vehicle miles per
week. as compared with 1,O47,0OO
vehicle miles for the week ending
May %, l943, at which time the COM
pany was required by order of the
Office of Defense Transportation to
curtail its bus service.
Platform Men Needed.
1T was further testified that this
curtallment of service is due largely
to the fact that the company now
has available ST fewer platform men
than were employed during the week
ended May %, and that about 172
additional operating platform men
would be required to operate at the
level of service which existed last
May
The company anticipates the
receipt of IS additional Presidents
Conference Committee type street.
cars (streamliners) before the end
OF the year and has on order rs
streetcars of this type on which
delivery is expected sometime dur
ing the year 1914. The necessity for
providing increased streetcar serv-
ice will undoubtedly arise, and it is
therefore important that the maxi
mum manpower be provided in Or
der that a greater number of vehi-
cles may be placed in such service"
In reviewing the history of the
efforts of the transit company to
convert some of it's tWo-man cars to
one-man operation, the majority
opinion recalled that in 1910 the ap-
plication to change Is cars was
turned down because the PUG felt
economies could be effected through
the purchase of streamliners and
because there was insufficient evil
dence to show loss of labor.
In l94l the company asked to
convert 161 tWo-man cars, but the
application was denied on the
ground that conversion would slow
down traffic. and because the COM
pany had failed to compete sufi-
GENTLY IN the labor market.