Show THE STREET FEAXCIIISE The Tribune agitated This time it is because the city council has extended the franchise of the city street railway company com-pany for a term of years and denied to Mr RavrisoTox and associates the right to parallel par-allel some of its lines An entirely new and beautifully variegated vocabulary of billingsgate bil-lingsgate was accordingly prepared to do Tribune justice to the occasion and the othe day it was all hurled at the heads of the unsuspecting majority of the city council At last accounts however the gentlemei constituting that majority were pursuing I their usual vocations and it is fair to assume as-sume they were not much disturbed by the low abuse of our illbred contemporary It may be that one of the reason for the absolute sang frotd of the gentlemen in reference lies in the fact tha they are more or less accustomed to villi fication from the same vile source and in this particular instance perhaps their perfectly per-fectly unruffled serenity is emphasized by the utter maliciousness of the attack It is i only truth that hurts and the facts of thi whole matter are too well remembered for the poor old lieloving Trib to make out much of a case Here is one of its charges It the city council first granted a restricts and unwelcome franchise to Major VILKES one which prevented him going forward with an practical work he was obliged to accept what was granted coupled with so many hampering conditions and requirements that no capitalist would put up the money to go on with the work There is an undercurrent of humor in this statement that would induce a broad smile were it not that the brazen stupidit which also characterizes it rather excite the pity of those who know the facts Ii the WILKES franchise there was scarcely i a restriction that was not placed there at the suggestion of the major himself As if it were yesterday we remember with what hilarity the situation was viewed by the council when one of its members seriously arose and began to offer objections to the y provision requiring the major to furnish to the city for nothing a string of incandescent electric light along his track each to be if fabulous candle power and with what loftiness the major himself replied We dont object to that Then the item in regard to a bon < for faithful compliance with the terms of the franchise that was another bod of thi majors own making and one which at the time he was only too willing to lie in notwithstanding not-withstanding the present disposition of the Tribune to lie out of it In fact as we remember re-member it the only consideration in the whole franchise that was not apparently tithe < ti-the majors Jiking was one in regard to his route One evening the council changed his route on the eastern side of the city in manner man-ner that was not entirely satisfactory Then was no secret as to how this was doneeither It was shown at the time that the part of the city where it was originnaly proposec the line should run was far better supplied with street car service than the portion tc which the route was changed and it is bj no means certain the route decided upon would not have proven altogether better for the road had it been constructed thai the one sought At any rate there was no < such difference as to constitut3 a hampering hamper-ing condition to deter a capitalist if favorably fav-orably disposed from putting his money into the road Oh nol The facts are toe grc3n to chare the onus of the WILKE fiasco on tie city council It wont go down As to the REMINGTON franchise the position posi-tion of the council in refusing what was asked is a perfectly tenable one It is contained con-tained in the report of the committee or streets and is couched in unmistakable language lan-guage In view of aU these circumstances your committee com-mittee are still of the opinion that it is not advisable ad-visable to grant franchises to any one to parallel paral-lel to any considerable extent roads already in operation especially when we have such a large portion of the city not served by any roads al all and to which railroad facilities would not only be of great advantage to the inhabitants ol the dItsricts not served but to the city as a whole So long as there remains such a large portion of the city unprovided with railroad facilities and until there appears to be a necessity for it or until it shall appear thut parallel roads would be a benefit to the city as a whole your com mittco recommend that franchises for this purpose pur-pose be not granted Who will say that a company which has struggled on with the citys growth from the time it was a village until now with barely profits enough to subsist is not entitled en-titled to consideration Of course the case would be different if it were a huge monopoly mono-poly of some kindthen another company running on the samo streets would have a beneficial effect but in our opinion the conclusion of the committee and the council to grant no paralleling rights especially so long as so much of the city remains un served was eminently proper and just The Tribune also endeavors to carry the impression that the committee purposely waited until tho council had granted the now franchise to the street railway company com-pany so that it might come in and report that because the council had done so it could not grant the REMINGTON franchise The committee did nothing of the sort In the first place the council last summer refused re-fused the street railway companys petition peti-tion for extension of its franchise because be-cause of its poor service and it was agreed that until the company gave evidence of improvement in this respect its petition would remain tabled What followed That company came before the council again this winter with pledges that in tho near future it would put on a rapid transit system and that arrangements for an electric road were only delayed pending the extension of its franchise The street railway is owned by men who have helped to make the country who have the means and the grit to do what they promise and I whose pledge may be relied upon The council after mature deliberation granted I to this company not what it asked but what the council thought it was entitled to as the pioneer road of the city That the confidence reposed in the companys integ not misplaced is evidenced rity was in which dirt is the manner by flying on Second East street where the power plant is being put in The point sought to be made in regard to the com authority to charge ten cents for a panys single faro has been answered so frequently the council that when it was again in evening Mr SHARP on last Tuesday sprung that he felt at a loss at not being stated with a chestnut bell to answer the equipped puerility of the The utter gentleman going to is always claim that the company charge ten cents for a single faro because it has the authority to do so is manifest on its face The councils duty is to prevent extortion This it has done by placing the maximumfare at ten cents for one continuous con-tinuous passage The traveling public will do the rest If any more than five cents is charged the traveling public simply wont ride While the former charter allowed the company to charge fifteen cents the present charge only five Now the query is why does not the company charge fifteen fif-teen cents I Because if it did it would have no passengers to carry Tha maximum maxi-mum charge placed in the WILKES franchise fran-chise was ten cents and it would doubtless have been so in the REMINGTON franchise I had it gone through It is safe to say there is scarcely a road in the United States that I I charges as much for transportation of passengers I pas-sengers as thelaw allows The thing regulates regu-lates itself The people have their remedy they need not ride There may be exceptional excep-tional instances where this is not the case but as a general rule it is true Regarding MayorARMSTRONGS connection with the business that gentleman has don e nothing he had not the perfect right to do as a man devoted to home enterprise and the welfare of the community The fact of his being the presiding officer of the council coun-cil has acted directly against the interests of the company instead of to its advantage and there is nothing about the transaction that is not altogether straightforward and I honest or that in any way smacks of a job unless it be the effort of the Tribune to prove something underhanded which is a decidedly hard job and one it will do well to let out |