The Houston Post. (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 212, Ed. 1 Saturday, November 2, 1918 Page: 3 of 12
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THE HOU:mU. MST: .SATUUD
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Condition Where
That Service Refuse To Pay the Cost for It?
IT IS HIGH TIME that Houston was looking the
situation which confronts its street car company squarely
in. the I ace. For months advertisement have been ap-
pearing in the Houston newspapers from time to time
setting forth the FACT that conditions oyer which the
company has no sort of control are forcing a condition
which will result in the breakdown of that service
STEAM RAILROADS broke down under the war
strain and in order to win the war the government had to
take them over and operate them. .The first thing . the
government did was to raise both passenger and' freight
rates and cut service to the bare bone; institute every pos-
sible economy and at that the steam roads are held up
only through-the credit of the government'
GET THAT SERVICE CUT! Pin your attention
right there. The government cut service as an economy
-a necessary economy as soon as it got to operating the
steam railways. Hpuston's streetcar service has not been
cutyet. Service has been maintained at the expense of
the property. . v ?
BUT Av TIME IS COMING when no genius yet
born can operate Houston street cars and give adequate
service satisfactory' service and meet . the demands of
Houston unless the physical property is rehabilitated and
there is revenue sufficient to make both ends meet.
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. THERE IS NO MAGIC in operating a street car.
It runs on well known principles just like any other busi-
ness and it can noturvive the starvation process pf being
compelled to exist or try" to exist on a starvation diet. '
THE FAMILIAR NICKEL no longer pays the cost
of a- street car ridevl U has not paid it forjs long time.
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And this condition is getting worse instead of better.
Street car securities no longer are attractive. The. hope
has disappeared and the returns no longer look good to the
investor. And' this picture is not going to pe helped any
by refusing to relieve necessities of Houston's street car
company' and condemning it to struggle on to the end on a
five icent fare which can no possibly be trotehed far
enough to cover the cost of a street car ride in this city.
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A;; RECEIVERSHIP may gHbly .be prescribed as
the remedy. But receivers are not magicians. They can
not buy any more for a nickel and the chances are they
can t&fbuy as much as those' who today are operating
Houston's street cars. That remedy would be just as effi-
cacious as doctoring a patient for fits who happened to be
suffering with a boil on his neck.
BUT SUPPOSE FOR ARGUMENT a receiver-
. ship should come. What would the result be? Houston
would that moment lose all control over its street car sys-
tem. Suppose the receiver should report to the United
States court that a five cent fare or a six cent fare or a
greater fare would hot pay expenses and make bom ends
meet What then? That seems to be the answer.
. HOUSTON DOES NOT WANT control of its.
street cars to pass out of its hands. Those who own and
operate these cars do not want it. And they are not go-
ing to have it if they can help it. So it is better to forget
that receivership idea as a cure-all. Houston's-street cars
are not suffering from fits that a receivership will cure
any more than the hundreds of other street car companies
are suffering from fits because they are in the same fix.
TTie trouble is the financial carbuncle on the neck that can
only be gotten rid of by revenue sufficient to make both
ends meet
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The Houston Post. (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 212, Ed. 1 Saturday, November 2, 1918, newspaper, November 2, 1918; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth609211/m1/3/: accessed April 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .