Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-03-04
Continued From First Pax

Mr.. Colladay has no proposition
before it yet.
District Commissioner Robert
e. Mclaughlin. former chair
man Of the utilities commission.
said he had assured Congress
last summer that there would
Ibe q number Of satisfactory pri-
vate operators to take over the
etc franchise on the basis Of
advice Of personal contacts"
whom he refused to identify.
Reserves" Answer
He reserved" an answer to
the question Of whether he would
have pushed as hard for re-
vocation Of the etc charter and
franchise II he had known that
no satisfactory private operators
would appear.
Gen. Lane, however, insisted.
ST don't think the views of the
commission would have been any
different" and said they would
have worked for creation of a
publicly-owned authority then.
On the bus-streetcar contro-
versy, the statement said "in-
lterested parties are publishing
Islanted and incomplete" data.
Public Utilities Commissioner
Robert M. Weston said this was
mainly in statements to Con-
gress" and in a recent paid ad-
vertisement by Capital Transit
entitled "Debunking the Bunk
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.
"It 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. II don't
want to see our people saddled
with unwarranted costs Of obso-
descent equipment"
Commenting specifically on the
Fox olladay proposal to buy
Capital Transit, Gen. Lane said
the deal "does not look promising
lat 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"
Ia deal and return to the Com
mission when he did so.
"Subvert Public Interest"
Celebrating on the formal
statements charge of q "calcu-
lated campaign to create
public confusion and thereby
subvert the public interest"
General Lane declared:
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 lin
'ited to the company itself.
cts public knowledge that
there is a very large group OF
stockholders in this community
who have the same interest as
Capital Transit Co. So I don't
think that the interested parties
who have a selfish interest in
saying-if you want to put it,
that way-$1O million for Capital
Transit Company are by any
means limited to the board Of
directors or officials Of the COM
pany. It's a much broader ele-I
ment Of the community"
Opposes Amy Delay
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:
1.-THE purpose of Mr.. Hayes
chairman George E. c. Hayes
of the Public Utilities Commits
sionD statement, I 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 &C
cusation was not aimed at other
proponents of the streetcar sys-
tenn, 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."