Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-03-04
District Officials Rop
CC Transit Stand
Continued From First Page

said he had assured Congress.
last summer that there woule
be q number of satisfactory pri.
vate operators to take over thu
CTC franchise on the basis o.
advice of personal contacts
whom he refused to identify.
Reserves" Answer
He reserved" an answer Il
the question of whether he woulC
have pushed as hard for re-
vocation of the etc charter anc
franchise If he had known thai
no satisfactory private OPERATOR
would appear.
Gen. Lane, however, insisted
II don't think the views Of thu
commission would have been an!
different" and said they woulC
have worked for creation of Z
publicly-owned authority then.
On the bus-streetcar contro
versy, the statement said "in
terested parties are publishing
slanted and incomplete" data
Public Utilities Commissions
Robert M. Weston said this wa
mainly in statements to Con
gress" and in a recent paid adj
vertisement by Capital Transit
entitled "Debunking the Bunl
About Street Car Conversion.
Lane in Radio Attack
Later, in a broadcast over RE
port to the People" on WWDC
Gen. Lane again drove home his
attack on Capital Transit's de-
tense Of the streetcar system.
1T is time" he said ito de-
bunk the de-bunking." He con-
tended the company is "using all
Of its salesmanship to sell street.
cars" to the proposed authority
Gen. Lane declared. Il don't
want to see our people saddlec
with unwarranted costs of obso-
lescent equipment"
Commenting specifically on the
Fox-Colladay proposal to buy
Capital Transit, Gen. Lane said
the deal docs not look promising
at the time" He said the Util-
ity Commission will report to
Congress tomorrow on Mr.. Col
laday's interview Thursday, when
he promised to try to firm up
a deal and return to the Com
mission when he did so.
"Subvert Public Interest"
Celebrating on the formal
statements charge of a "calcu-
lated campaign to create
public confusion and thereby
subvert the public interest,
General Lane declared:
l think our statement
shows that Capital Transit has
an interest to some $40 million,
which seem to be an adequate
motive for such a campaign. But
I don't think the action is linn
tied to the company itself.
Its public knowledge that
there is very large group of
stockholders in this community
who have the same interest as
Capital Co. So I don't think
that the interested parties who
have a selfish interest in saving
if you want to put it that way
$40 million for Capital Transit
Company are by any means limi-
ted to the board of directors or
officials of the company. It's a
much broader element of the
community"
Time Growing Shorter
Asked IF you are going to
push the legislation from now
on as quickly as possible and to
the exclusion of any other at
tempts to start transit in
another way" he declared:
&c. We have stressed the
urgency for action in letters
transmitted by the chairman of
the Public Utilities Commission
and the Board of Commission
ers. in their personal appear
ances before both committees in
the House and Senate.
THE urgency of action has
been stressed SO that this does
not represent a change of posi-
ton in either body. We are
simply stresSing again that the
time is shorter. and that if II
was urgent a month ago it's
much more urgent now"
Interfering, District Commits
sioner Samuel Spencer declared
"I'll like to concur in that"
Opposes Any Delay
Again Gen. Lane was asked
IF the authority legislation is
urgent now and you are pressing
it hard, do you feel there is any
chance for a private company
now to succeed Capital Transit
Coz" He answered.:
THE purpose of Mr.. Hayes
chairman George E. c. Hayes
of the Public Utilities Commits
sion) statement, l think, was
to make clear that we have
nothing before us which would
warrant any delaying the transit
authority"
When another questioner in
quired, do you see any prospect
of having anything before you
general, and he replied:
II see none"
The officials insisted their ac-
cusation was not aimed at other
proponents of the streetcar sys-
TEN. including the Federation of
Citizens Associations. which re-
Gently issued a report sharply
challenging the decision to shift
to an all-bus system.
Supporting the proposal for
creation of an autonomous pub
lie transit authority financed
out of sale of revenue bonds. Mr.
Weston insisted that public own
ership has certain dynamic
possibilities that should not be
spoken of as completely unde-
sirable."