Newspaper Page Text
I ***ratfcar (M iwS will an« aid of a nswtpapsr wttn • s.rCulatlon si NtOOO that la taka* horns and road In «Ha than la hava that of ono with a oirautatltn of a million that to only Inokod at and thrown Into tho autt«r.— MAYOR (JAYNOR. OF NSW YORK. HOW WOULD THOSE SIDE-DOOR I CATTLE CARS LOOK ON WOODWARDf j DON'T FORGET: > That the option olaueo in the Thompscn-Hutchine franchiee 11 NO GOOD—axtil tho charter it revised to provide tor municipal ownerahip. That the paving obligation, which meant a large extra tax burden, wns the principal oonootsion made by Mayor Thompson in return for that option, and it booomes binding on the city IMMEDIATELY on the adoption of the franchise. That the Thompeon*Hutchini franchise is lint of all a FRANCHISE, and not a “six months' option to buy the lines,” as the mayor has called it. That the wily D. U. R., once more in lawful possession of the streets, % 18-year franchise grant, will leave no stone unturned to stave off the advent of municipal ownenhip. That even the mayor admits the possibility of hostile lawsuits. That the remainder of the franchises on the flve-cent lines expire in 1916, when the city will be in a position to dictate terms for the use of its streets and valuable terminal rights. That the maximum rate of fare, under the proposed franchise, is FIVE CENTS and not THREE CENTS. Bear these facts—and they are facts—in mind on your way to the voting booth Tuesday. " To the citiaen living on what is called a three-cent line, we have this to say: The franchise for the Detroit United railway proposed by the mayor, offers you NOTHING. You would be entitled under it to a transfer on the ticket you now ‘ nave in your pocket, to a car on a present flve-cent line, but there are three facta to be taken into consideration by you, all of which go to show that in the conferences. Mayor Thompson FORGOT the citizen on the present thiee cent line, so-called. . .. . , If in transferring, the first car to come along should be a car bearing the tien “INTER URBAN.” whether it is really an interurban car or whether the men at the barn forgot to take the sign off, YOUR TRANSFER WOULD BE NO GOOD, „ The next car, we will say, is another “interurban The next is a city car, but it does not stop. The next w a city car that does stop, but it is packed and jammed and yaa are unable to get on. a , . The next is another city car that stops and you find room for your feet on the steps and grab the next mans coat sleeve for a hold. Braving injury and possible death you grab another man’s coat sleeve in changing hands to get the transfer from your pocket, hand it up to the conductorand he tells you the time limit has expired and it is NO GOOD. Now in ease the franchise passes, this may never happen in your case, iroi you w ;n agree that it MIGHT happen, won't you 1 The same thing has happened in Detroit hundreds of thousands of . tinea since we have had the Detroit United railway, or. rather, since the Detroit United railway has had us. , . I We call attention to the POSSIBILITY of its happening to you, simply to .how TOO that the franchue doe. not provide for you a. safely and a, I U„1, at it provides for the Detroit Enited railway m the matter of having burden .addled upon the .houlder. of the taxpayer, wliid. paving item i. the second fact for the oilmen living on a three-cent; line, so-called, to take into consideration. He may not own a home; may own no property at all. but he is a tax payer just the same, as is every woman in Detroit disfranchised by the tact that she is not a property owner. On a corner near him there may be a business block oi three stores, occupied by a butcher, a grocer and a druggist, and all of these he patron ‘ He doesn’t own the bloc* and. therefore, he may imagine that he doesn't pay the taxes upon it, but HE DOES just the same. He doesn’t rent any one of the stores and may imagine he is not pay ing the rent on any one of these stores, but HE IS paying the rent on every one of them. 5 It works out this way . ... . , The man who own. the block will find hu taxes higher because of thi. pacing clause and he will take it out of the butcher. th« «rocer and the drunhst in higher rent., and the butcher, the grocer and the druggist wtll • . t _u_ their higher rent out of their customers in the shape of prict. for » nd (or ,h « l* 11 ! <*“ oth " “ifts tr-s ~ r *5 -sste along will come the milkman, the coal man. the ice man, the clothier, the dealer and so on and so forth, to get theirs. . wm the homerenter and propertyle,. citizen on the pre.ent three wnt line, feel the higher taxes! Ye., he wtll. And now comes the third fact, which is the matter of service on the three-cent Hnes, which, be it always remembered, are NOT three-cent lines but four cent lines, as will all the lines be should the franchise carry. PROVISION HAS BEEN MADE NOWHERE FOR ANY IMPROVE MENT IN THE MISERABLE SERVICE THAT IS GIVEN ON THE THREE CENT LINES TODAY. In his eagerness to give the Detroit United railway a franchise, the mayor seems to have forgotten all about this matter of service. And in their anxiety to see the Detroit United railway get the fran chise the mayor wants to give it, some of our representative men. honest in their oonvictions and well-intentioned, no doubt, seem also to forget the spectacle presented on the three-cent lines in the rush hours of the day, and most of the day, for that matter. .... . . .. . Not a word about improved service in the franchise, but the paving I aksta ia there, so plainly worded that the Detroit United railway knows exactly what it will get if the proposition carries. And after all is said and done, there is the perniciousness in the fran* S hhise—it always specifies clearly and positively what the public service [ pprporation gets and leaves the public a guess and a few hundred lawsuits. We have addressed this editorial to the citizen living on a three-cent I so-called, because should the ordinance carry. WE WILL ALL BF XJVING ON THREE-CENT LINES, so-called, “enjoying” the same kind of cars and the one kind of service and contributing a like amount to the { hharity fund to meet the D. U. R.'s paving bills, with 10 per cent added to At Osgar’s Club Adolf Again Sees Somebody He Doesn't Like - - - - By Condo 13* CLtm rooms, ADocr. ycm, wc hap a vcry v I 119 j .ft/T / ' c>o^' AIN'O •TO 3VCEU- ? COW 6 U>e 3fT |N > S6LEQT W. _ ', | l|jbiL |jl[ Voo HURT*#. TSSZi y ,»-5=51 Ul| »yz J x |^\* t " ORC 33 * a CM O you has - ll |F Ii flHig ’ lfcl jp — 51 IfJ rnr'V —TrSb? / , wtT someverc. pot on*p y — ■ l —\ - ill J,l *ibJ /WSii ■ | ji|| Editorial Page of The Detroit Times “The Only Good Franchise Is a Dead One” —MAYOR THOMPSON (Then a Candidate) JIMMY DISCOVERS SOMEONE IN HIS SECRET SMOKING PLACE. rV iL 4 i , smoke as— i | as his .resolution\ • t -. * —From Chicago Post the cost for the D. U. R. by way of a bonus to the D. U. R. for doing the work at our expense. This franchise is a grand instrument, appealing strongly to one’s in dependence and patriotism as a free-born American citizen! However How would those three-cent line cattle cars look on Woodward-ave f And how would it strike us if one should have an “Interurban sign tacked on its front and a ride in it should cost us five cents flat? From Another Point of View Sharpen your pencil. • t • • And then came Jsn. 23. • * • • How are you on figuring percentage*. « • • • Only one more day left to be called a liar. • • • • To make sure of getting to the voting booth, we suggest you walk. • • • ♦ In which event, who will be the Democratic candidate for mayor? « • • • At this writing it looks rr if we had had the £>. U. R. down for the count. • , • • • However, it will leave us pretty well supplied with newly-discovered orators. * # • • Important! if you want to vote for three-cent fares, as advised, go to Toledo. m # m By the way. where was Allan H. Frazers mayoralty boom in the meantime? . * • • By the way: Don’t be so eugrossed in the subject that you will forget to vote. * • • • The price the D. U. R asks us Isn’t so bad. but the goods don’t seem to be exactly what we want. # . The only good franchise is a dead one and this ones case, apparently, has gotten far as the oxygen tanks. a Tomorrow we are going to find out whether the Free Press and Jour nal can fool any of the people any of the time. . . _ The Situation. If the Democratic party should hold {a primary election tomorrow. Wood row Wilson would get fully two-thirds of the vote anil carry about three fourths of the states. He is really the only one of the Democratic candi dates who outside of his own state, in the country at large, has a personal following—the sort of following that would go with its candidate Into a | third party if the occasion arose. Wll ! son has a Urge group of this sort of • adherents: none of the other Demo crats-, have. There are many party leaders in small communities, local machines and state and countv bosses who are lor Harmon. But outside of Ohio. Harmon has no devoted follow ing among the rank and file, (’lark hns a few small and lsloated groups of followers of this kind in rural Kan sas and rural Kentucky. Underwood s strength is confined to his own state wholly. Folk has a considerable per sonal following, but it Is scattered. Much of Wilson’s following is subject to Bryan's veto, so to speak. That is to say. if Bryan were a candidate him self. or if he should givf the sign or his favor to some one>lse. Wilson would lose probably half the supiwiT he now has. But even so. Wilson, alone among the Democratic candi dates. has a large following which is personal to himself. Wilson s prob lem will be to hold his present posi tion for six months; if he is to lose It, his opponents must find arguments against him more fundamental than the Carnegie pension story And the resurrection of old letters. • * * If the Republican party were to a primary election throughout the nation tomorrow, Taft would get about 800 delegates and laiPollette about 200. Probably more than half the Republicans would stay at home, anti of those who would vote for Taft, two-thirds would do so with misgiv ing snd a heavy heart. K very body knows that Taft can be beaten read ily by any one of the seven or eight men whom the Democrats are consid ering. The great body of Republican leaders great and small, all the party officials, all those who hold public of fice or hope for It, all w hose bread and butter or political prestige depend on the Republican party winning next November—all these want a stronger man thun Taft at the head of the ticket. It is from these, and not pri marily from the friends of Roosevelt, that the demand sos him arises. Roosevelt's refusal to countenance these solicitations is likely to result soon In a turning to some new candi date. probably someone like Borah or Cummins or Clapp. The size or part in the national con vention will be determined by his suc cess during his coming Invasion of the east. —Mark Hulllvan, in Collier's. A POEM A DAY. THK I. \«**r til KtT. The elms tire leafless ’gainst the sky, the oaks are almost hare. The hr<- titles* squirrel-harvesters are •to :ig winter fare. The tawny needles of. tho larch drift down from the golden spires, Hut the heerh-hedge rings the wood land round the sunset's lingering tires. Each night the frost a silver veil along the landscape tllngs. To change at mom the wispy mists like fairies' filmy wings; Kach night the elfin spinners weave their webs o' silken sheen. • Their gossamers that wind o' dawn sets sailing o'er the green. Tho swallows left us long ago, but from the Northland* white The fieldfares and the redwings coma like pilgrims through tho night; The lapwings leave the lomfiy fells to roam the plow’d lands nigh. And wildly sweet the storm-cock sings of springtime by and by White hoods the far-off hills put on. the winds more coldly blow. Toe shepherd downward brings his flocks against first fall of snow. Tho robin preens his russet wing the shejt’rlng homestead near. And autumn, wistful-eyed, but waits the last of the year •—London News The Harvey-Wilson Episode There Is nothing, so far ns wo cau see. In tho Harper's Weekly episode, now the topic of so much political small-talk, that should shake tho cop* tldenro or esteem which any lair mint ed Democrat may entertain toward Woodrow Wilson. Indeed, the facts In tho case, as thus far presented, would seem only to indicate the thor oughgoing sincerity and independence of Oor. •Wilson and to heighten rather than diminish his claim to public and party respect. Col. George llarvey, the editor of Harper's Weekly, has beeu singularly aggressive In pressing the candidacy of Wilson for a Democratic nomina tion The fact is his ardor became well-nigh monopolistic and it is an open socrei that in many reuctionary quarters, both Republican and Demo cratic, tills strenuous attitude of Har per's Weekly gavt* rise to a deal of tynical comment. Col. Henry Wattcrson makes a sig nificant statement when he declares. “I had iu>self, as far back as last October, suggested to Gov. Wilson that in view of his (Harvey's) su|>- posed environment, it might be well for Col. Harvey to moderate somewhat the lather aggressive character of Harper's Weekly in the Wilson lead ership. I am not sure that I had not said as much to Col. Harvey himself." If. therefore. In view of his "sup posed Col. Harvey’s In tense advocacy of a Wilson boom was proving Injurious to the later, It was certainly Gov. Wilson’s right to say so: more than that, It was the part of candor and of honeat friendship Editorials by the People. An Across-the-River View. To the Editor of The Times Since you claim many of the unknown are getting their names on the first page through writing against municipal ownership, will you in fairness give one likewise uuknow n. the same protn mcuce who ia writing for ic Every individual must look at this controversy from his own view. From mine, the facts appear thus: This franchise ia one of great value to the city, then why should it bo given away. The truth of this was brought to my notice some years ago, in the town of Topo Chico, Mexico. This municipality owned a water spring, water being scarce in the vi cinity. The manufacturers paid a good round sum for the use of it. and every year the property owners, in stead of paying taxes. RECEIVED A DIVIDEND; for enough revenue was received from this source, to more than pay the expenses of operating the town. It might be argued that paying taxes thus with the D. 17. R , were merely charging expense from one account to another. This would he true if every one who rode on the P. C. R. were a property owner, but such is not the case. While I reside In a nearby Canadian town, much of my time is spent In Detroit, and I have the use of your pavements, your elec tric lights, your water works, your parks, etc., hut I do not contribute one cent to their upkeep, vet I will gladlv do this If the city takes over the D. l\ R„ and instead of lowering the rate from five cents, will gladly pay lo If you will Insure us a better service. Much of Detroit's population is now overflowing Into Windsor and nearby suburban towns, and since you have thousands ot' summer visit ors, Detroit is particularly to be bene fltted by municipal ownership, and I say again, instead of lowering your rate, raise It and let ns foreigners help pay your taxes. The co-operative Idea has demon strated Its fitness by its survival abroad in many forms, and would do so here if given a chance. The wis est utterance Abraham IJncoln ever made was the tribute he paid to the ability of the common jtcople, and the working people of Detroit could run this thing successfully If they would take hold of it and do it. DAVID M. HACKETT. Hotel Normandie, Jnn. 20, 191*2. Can the Leopard Change His Spots? To the Editor of The Times:—The D. C. R. is Detroit's leopard, sly. treacherous and covered with spots of shame—unreliable and dangerous to the community, among whom ft roams at will, and upon whose citizens and purse it has preyed, lo these ntanv years. Through continued success and bloated oppulence. It has become I,old in its attitude and arrogant in Its demands. It slezes and slaughters At will. It gral>s whatever it wants and defies the people to Interfere or stop its lawless and fraudulent course. Rut lately, through dying franchises and the popular awakening It has come to sec the need of anew grip on Monday, January 22, 1912 for him to say so and to say it direct ly to Col. Harvey himself. That Is precisely what he did, and no act of the man's career Is more characteristic of his mental and moral fiber. Thlrfklng as he did, he could t not have been true to himself, hi* purty or his friendship and have done , otherwise. Yet. because of his outspokenness, Col. Henry Watferson Is now moved to aay, in the most civil and elegant manner to be sure, that he is disap pointed in Woodrow Wilson, that he had hoped to find In him another Til den, but that he doubts w’helher he' Is not a schoolmaster rather than a statesman. This Is g meat remarkable indict ment In view of the circumstances that have prompted it. Certaiuly there is nothing ucadetnic In the Wil son method of dealing with the Har per’s Weekly situation; and certain ly. in the governor’s record of accoin- * pllshment In New Jersey, there 1* nothing to suggest that n\e is a man of doctrinaire speculation rather thuu one of action and executive rapacity. Col. Watterson la a truly great journalist, whose views are always pic turesquely expressed and ordinarily command respect. ’ But because he falls to And tn Woodrow Wilson the qualities of another Tilden Is no rea-’ son that those, or even sturdier qual ities. are lacking. Because he, and others editors, have seized on this trivial episode to Injure the chances of a worthy Democratic leader, is no reason for the people at large to be misled. Indeed, we see no reason why those who have previously favored or op posed Gov. Wilson should In anywise be affected bv the recent episode.—At lanta Journal. Detroit, and catlike, has temporarllv changed it attitude to secure the re quired favors. So the great Cat stands before the people today, blink ing Its eyes contentedly, purring sweetly and with claws all hidden in a velvety covering, securely tied by ,i golden chain and led by a mayor, as meek as any lamb, while citizens, dupcß of its duplicity, are shouting with glee. "Behold the lamb.” For behold, it does not appear any longer as a leopard, but as a lamb, thanks to Its mayor. But a few are not nnd fo r their sakos we raise the cover and peer beneath an action which caqses tho Old Cat to growl, revealing the same deadly fangs, to send the same wick ed gleam from Its eyes, and to work it* cruel claws maliciously. I’nder ♦he deceptive cover, we aee the sam* shame spots as of old. The first one . discovered was the outgrowth of franchises. The second grew out of Its %rea< hery In broken promises and poor service, based on the poiicy of "the people be damned," and the de mands for unrighteous dividends mak ing necessary inadequate equipment and underpaid incompetent serv ants. The third shame spot was In diverging great scenes from its legiti mate channel of enlarged and better service, to accumulating a war fund against the eltv and people. Mayor Thompson and Judge Hally . are WHOLLY responsible for the i present TRAP in which the people of Detroit find themselves. being FORCED to vote on a question In which they have everything to LORE, and nothing to gain, and In which the D. U. R, has everything to GAIN and nothing to lose. Shame spot No. R is anew ope, not fully developed. It is in the form r circle and these words:—"Advocated by the Board of Commerce.” And hv I read I thought "what fools these mortals he." J. 1) FREMONT. lw troll, Jan. 22. 1912. In Appreciation of Clean Advertising. To the Editor of The Times: In giving you my subscription for the Detroit Times for this year, I do it to show in a small way my appreciation of your efforts along the lines of clean advertising As I have entered the advertising field an a life business, I want to en courage in every possible way all et : forts for the betterment of conditions i pertuining to the business. Very truly yours. E. 8. LEONARD. Detroit, Jan. Ik, 1912. , Don’t Forget It for a Moment. To the Editor of The Times: Keep it before the people that there can be no valid argument in favor of giving a dishonest and defaulting tenant a new' lease or an extension of an old ore. V ALNEY ELI LACY. Detroit, Jan. 20, 19121 Mr*. Hronke I,aid In Tomlt. The body of the late Mr*. Bridget R«ddy Brooke, wife of Justice Flavlu* L Brooke, of the Michigan supreme court * W'hs brought to Detroit and ta ken to Holy Rosary church, where fu i nersl services were held Monday morn ing at s o’clmk. Mrs Brooke for many i years was organist and choir leader of Holy Rosary church and the ushers of the church acted h* pallbearer i The funeral service* were In charge of the Rev F I Van Antwerp.