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Show - THE JITNEY MENACE Here are some excerpts from an article which recently appeared In the San Francisco Chronicle regarding the invasion of the jitneys: The Jitney Bus Is here. There is no doubt about that. It has arrived. Automobile dealers are figuring Increased sales, Dictributers of second-hand cars report that their stock has been "cleaned up." The supervisors su-pervisors are wondering whether they ought to do something about it. The police commission is agitated. The United Railroads is figuring what its losses were last week, and, sadder still, what they are likely to be next week. The casualty companies com-panies are wondering if there isn't a look In for them in the matter of writing a nice bunch of accident ac-cident policies. In short transportation business has -been shocked, and the shock is spreading. Just to show how far the shock is spreading, the Oakland Jitney Bus association resolved last night to seek the assistance of the Standard Oil company and other dealers in automobile supplies to prevent the passage of an ordinance in Oakland by which the trolley people are seeking to restrict the spread of jitney transportation. From Cafeteria Belt. It all originated in the Cafeteria Belt. Los Angeles An-geles has been jitneyed the hardest. Manager Black of the United Railroads figures that the Los Angeles street railroads are being jitneyed out of $1,000,000 a year. "And that comes right off their net," he adds. Chester Weaver of the Studebaker company has figured the Los Angeles jitney re- ceipts at $3,000,000 a year. San Diego caught the jitney fever from Los Angeles Its city council has received a long letter let-ter from the president of the street railroad company com-pany there, asking vaguely for relief. Pasadena has gone as far as to pass an ordinance ordi-nance requiring the jitneys to take out a license $40 a year for a four-passenger car, and up, and requires the operators to take out accident insurance insur-ance policies in the amount of $10,000 a car. In Old Monterey. The Monterey and Pacific Grove street railway is about to go into liquidation, according to Black, who is its president, and all on account of the jitney. But no jitney has yet ventured on the preserves pre-serves of the San iFranclsco Municipal street railway. rail-way. "We figure it would be bad policy," said one of the jitneyfeura yesterday. Possibly it would, for Mayor Rolph says that Mayor McNeall of San Diego told him that the southern cities were waiting wait-ing for San Francisco to take the lead in jitney legislation, as they reckoned that San Francisco, being in the trolley business, would have to move. But the jitneyfeurs are wise. Eugene Doyle, publicity agent for the newly formed jitney association here, says there are fifty-four jitneys operating in San Francisco. Chester Ches-ter Weaver says he has counted 120, and that there will be 100 more next week. United Railroads Worried. Manager Black says he put a United Railroads accountant at the corner of Powell ana Market streets one day last week, who counted eighty jitneys, with 420 passengers, going one way in one hour and twenty minutes. One was a seven-passenger seven-passenger car with eventeen passengers on board, which Manager Black says beats all strap-hanging records to date. "They take the cream of the business," says Manager Black. "If they would kindly operate in the suburbs we wouldn't mind, but they don't. So what they take comes right out of our net. If It gets much worse we shall have to cut down the number of our cars, and that means throwing out of work more than two men to a car, because while we have GOO cars we hire 3,000 men, or an H -aeragd of five men to the car. In fact, if tills K keeps up wo shall have to go out of business" w Car Receipts Falling Off. K Black says that while it isn't as bad here as H in Los Angeles at the present time, he has noted K a falling off of $200 a day in the receipts of the JH! Market line, as compared with last year. IH "It is so serious that it will prevent financing Hj new lines," Black declares. "And it's worse in j! Oakland," ho adds. M "The drivers plan to run just in front of a B street car," says Weaver, "until they have picked m up a load, and then shoot ahead." H Costs and Profits. H Weaver has figured the costs and profits of the B jitneys. lie says: "If a man with a small car B manages to take in $7.50 a day it will pay his ex- ftvfl pensas and fair wages. I do not believe it would Vw pay any one to put several cars on the street and M hire drivers. Most of the men who have gono AH into this business are mechanics out of a job or R without steady work I made a test h one of j our delivery cars rigged with side seats for twelve Hm passengers, and it took in $1.35 an hour gross for H a twelve-hour day. That should pay operation Ht charges; $125 a month wages and pay for the car K in a year. Hh "Most of the operators are overloading, and KVf j as many of them are making 120 miles a day VKj . which is 40,00 miles a year they will have to KVM run pretty carefully or they will wear their cars K out in short order, for that is a big mileage." Hf Weaver figures that the net returns a car a E day are not great, and his observation is the mos.t of the men in the business have gono in wtih the H cars they already owned. Ho says, however, that TaT one second-hand car dealer telephones that he is Ef entirely sold out and in the market for more cars Hj for jitney buyers. Hl Jitneys in Los Angeles. K Black, in estimating the gross receipts of the Bj business in Los Angeles, figures a minimum re- H turn of only $3 a car a day, which, for the 900 Jfll cars operating there, is approximately $1,000,000 Bn a year. Weaver says there aro 1,100 jitneys in Ec Los Angeles and that they are taking in an aver- Wnti ago of $7.50 a day. He says they have been or- Ift ganized and each operator assigned a route, so i that they do not conflict with ono another. So the supervisors will keep both ears to the Ht ground. B8 "Think of the added burden on the streets," M says Manager Black, "and the accidents when Hf five hundred jitneys are operating on Market Bgj street." i Yes; the jitney has arrived. Hi By An ordinance prepared by City Attorney Ben B F. Woolner, representing initial legislation on Hi the local "jitney" automobile problem, was given Hi first reading before the Oakland city council this Hi morning. Bffff The ordinance, the second reading of which Bxjf will be had next Monday, makes sweeping regu- Egl lations governing the handling of passengers by HI persons, firms and corporations using automobiles Hi for hire It affects taxicabs and rent cars or all Hi kinds as well as the jitney automobiles, and places Hj their control absolutely in the hands of the chief Hfl of police in so far as the establishment of routes B of travel, number of machines and fitness of the I drivers are concerned. ft One of the important requirements is that BI each dirver must file a $10,000 surety bond with Hfj ' the city clerk as a protection against accidents. HA Automobiles having a seated capacity of more Hi than four persons must pay an annual license of HI $60. Applications for a license must submit pho- HJ i tographs with sworn signatures, and must in addi- H ' tion submit to a detailed examination as to qual- H ifications. Numbered badges are to be issued, to- Hj , gether 'with identification cards, by the city. Hit Indicator signs must bo carried that can be read at a distance of 100 feet day and night, and machines must be equipped with skid chains on slippery pavements. Fares are limit . to 5 cents. Drivers are forbidden to smoke or uunk on duty and must stop machines at street car and railroad rail-road crossings. The penalty for violations of the ordinance is fixed at $100 or six months or both. |