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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.