782





RECORD  AJVD  GUIDE





June 22, 1918





Washington  Heights   Taxpayers   Will   Fight

.............."                        j





T





Want Dyckman Street Crosstown Line Built According to Contract

with Union Railway Co





^AXPAYERS and civic organizations of Washing¬
ton Heights are jubilant over the decision of the
Franchise Committee of the Board of Estimate
and Apportionment, which rejected the appHcation of
the Union Railway Company for a cancellation or
modification of its franchise to build and operate the
Dyckman street crosstown line.

The Union Railway Company appHed to the Board
of Estimate to cancel the contract granted to construct,
maintain and operate a surface railway from West 207th
street and Amsterdam avenue, along Amsterdam avenue
to Nagle avenue, to Dyckman street, to the easterly Hne
of the right of way of the New York Central Railroad
at the foot of Dyckman street, and to return to the
company the sum of $1,000 paid under said contract.

At the meeting of the Board of Estimate last week
the Franchise Committee recommended that the appli¬
cation of the company for a cancellation or the modifi¬
cation of the contract be denied. It recommended that
the contract be modified by granting the company an
extension of time of six months from March 18, 1918,
to commence construction, and six months to complete
construction of the railway. The committee also recom¬
mended that the form of contract granting this modifi¬
cation be advertised in the City Record and two daily
newspapers, and July 12, 1918, be fixed as the date for
a hearing on such form of contract. Both recom¬
mendations were adopted by the Board.





Because of this turn of affairs a mass meeting thai.
was being arranged for last week to be held at the
Claremont Theatre was called off, but the matter now
assumes a different aspect and plans for a mass meeting
are now well under way, so that at the hearing on July
12 the residents and taxpayers will be well represented.

It IS planned to hold the mass meeting some morning
within the next two weeks and in the meantime peti¬
tions will be circulated and signatures secured protest¬
ing against a modification of the contract and asking
the Board of Estimate to tq.ke action.

In view of the recent action of the PubHc Service
Commission m the matter of the Richmond Light &
Railroad Company, where a judgment for $77,300 was
tiled against the company for failure to comply with an
order of the Commission, the suggestion made by the
I^ranchise Committee in its report that failure to comply
would result m legal action on the part of the Com¬
mission and the Corporation Counsel carries more
weight than it did heretofore.

Harvey N. Bloomer, chairman of the Committee of
taxpayers and Civic Bodies, said last night that the
committee proposed pushing the matter and intimated
that a conference between his committee and officials
of the railway is not unlikely and some satisfactorv
arrangement made to construct the Hne when con¬
ditions brought about by the war would not mean a
great increase m the cost of construction





Judgment  Filed  Against  Public  Utility Company





FORMER Judge W. L. Ransom, Counsel to the
Public Service Commission, filed last Saturday in
the office of the Clerk of the County of Richmond
in the case of the People of the State of New York vs.
Richmond Light & Railroad Company, a judgment for
a fine of $100 a day from April 15, 1916, to May 28, 1918,
a total of $77,300, with costs and disbursements of the
action.

A copy of the judgment was served on E. J. Phillips,
Secretary and Treasurer of the Richmond Light & Rail¬
road Company, and the company has twenty days to
answer or judgment wiU be taken for the full amount.

The Public Service Commission ordered the double
tracking of Castleton avenue, Richmond Borough, on
April 15, 1916. The company appealed from the order
to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Second
District, and the Appellate Division sustained the order
of the Commission.

The company has persistently refused to comply with
the order, although the West New Brighton Board of





Trade, which came mto being for the expressed purpose
of compelhng the company to double track this very
important and profitable branch of its trolley system
and other civic bodies, have repeatedly taken the matter •
up with the Public Service Commission. Judgment is
asked pursuant to Sections 24 and 56 of the Public
bervice Commission Law for violation of the original
order of March 15, 1913.

This is the first case in which the PubHc Service
Commission has filed a judgment against a public utility
corporation for failure to comply with an order of that
' I'u ^ ^l^v ^o^" *^^ general belief that the law creat¬
ing the i ubhc Service Commission was defective inas¬
much as It did not provide a way to compel obedience
with Its orders. On Staten Island, where the matter
of double tracking Castleton avenue has been a very
important topic, the belief was general that the trolley
company had the upper hand and would continue to
disregard the order believing that the Commission
could go no further than the issuance of the order





Best Port Should Be Used

(Continued from Page 781.)

ment   of   modern   freight   terminals   and   other   con¬
veniences in New York City.

New York is primarily interested in winning the
war, and has spared no effort to exceed her quota of
men, money and the development of her port facihties
to speed up the transportation of troops and the
despatch of suppHes; secondarily, she is interested in
the nation's obHgation to prepare to meet commercial
requirements developed by after-war conditions, and
she should protest vigorously against being eliminated
by the federal authorities in the consideration of the
plans adopted to that end. A notable instance of this
IS the fact that no action is being taken by the federal
authorities to provide necessary accommodation in New
York City for the enormous tonnage which is now
being constructed and launched by the Emergency
Fleet Corporation piers, drydocks, coaling docks and
ice-breakers; and I respectfully commend these matters
to the earnest consideration of your honor and the
members of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment

MURRAY HULBERT,
Commissioner of Docks.





Fewer Coal Miners at Work

OUTPUT of anthracite could be immediately
increased by a quarter to a third with sufficient
labor. With the number of men, as now work¬
ing, it is with the utmost difficulty that production can
be maintained as it has been running. There is ample
development of mine workings for the much larger
output which now could be reached. The above-
ground development, breakers, etc., also is entirely
sufficient to prepare 20,000,000 tons of coal more per
annum than it is possible to mine and handle with the
present force of men.

Before the war there were 177,000 mine workers in
the anthracite industry. The number has been drawn
down to about 145,000 now. With such reduced labor
power the existing output of coal is large. It is beine
accomplished with the aid of the much more highly
developed facilities now employed in the mining and
preparation of anthracite. These facihties, which repre¬
sent a big increase in the capital investment in the
anthracite industry, cannot be used to full capacity now
because of labor shortage.
As a body the mine workers are giving good service.