The day book. [volume], January 22, 1914, LAST EDITION, Image 7

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
SOME VIEWS ON THE SLBWAY DEAL THAT THE
TRUST PRESS DON'T BOTHER WITH '
The Day Book is not faking a stafcd
either for or against subways, at this
time. There are some sides of the
question that are shut out. from the
advertising newspapers. These wilf
be shown up in The Day Bobk:-
Editor.
That the "comprehensive" Hearst
Harrlsbn subway and the "initial"
Tribune-News subway are both
wrong-and either one of them will end
in just as many straphangers hang't
ing desperately to Btraps as how Is
the view of members of the Cook
County Real Estate Board Com
mittee on Subways, " officers of
the Chicago Federation of Labor and
officers of the Greater Chicago Fed
eration and the Northwest Side" Com
mercial Association.
They are against subways mainly
for two reasons. One is thk't Chicago
is not an island city like New York.
and while there are broad Illinois 1
prairies for this city to spread out
on it is1 foolish to haul people in dark,
bad-smeijing tunnels away from
fresh aijr. The other reason is. 'that
either or both, the subways how pro
posed would only pour more people
than ever into the" loop, and in the.
course of twenty years there would
have to be subways under subways
in order to carry the hundreds of
thousands of shoppera'"'do'wn to the
little narrow seven blocks of State
, street department stores which are
the dumping ground of all' urban
transportation lines now.,
Besides, these men wlyo are out and
out .against- subways of any kind
(their names are given belowj is an
other group of men who say that no
body, has any business to make a de
cision now as to whether they are for
or against the comprehensive oompa
oompa subway of the Hearst-Harrison
politicians or the. dinky toot-toot
subway of the Bion Arnold, Tfibune
ews" 'crowd.' Among t&ese men, ajid
they are a large group, is ?amuel
Dauchy, chairman of the passenger
traffic committee of .the City Club,,
and Alderman Charles Merriam.
Arend Van Vlissingen is one of the
.members of the. Cook County R6al
Estate Board who is against sub
ways of any kind. He was one of a"
committee of three ,appbinted,l)y that
board who worked four months in
getting ready a report on subways.
They read all other reports ever made
in Chicago on subways and they talk
ed with .Mayor Harrison and Harri
son's subway engineer, John Erick
son. They sat down with Bion X.
Arnold and all the other experts and
squeezed all the subway knowledge
they could out of everybody who wag
supposed to know anything about it
"We went into the subject ex
haustively," said Van Vlisslhgen to a
reporter for The Day Book, "and my
opinion and that of other members is,
the same now as then. Our commit
tee decided that subways, are an in-.
jury to . community located as Chi
cago is. Our report was. unanimous
ly adopted by the 68members present
at the meeting of the Cook County
Real Estate Board.
"Fresh airTtransportation and its
importance as a factor in city "wel
fare, was emphasized in 'ouj report.
To condemn millions of people to
pass an "hour or more each day in
cars that run underground is a, course
that should be taken only "when ab
solutely necessary and we could not
see where an absolute necessity' ex
ists! or such a course at this time.
"Chicago has room enough to haul
overground. I believe the problem'
is one that can be solved from this
viewpoint. Let us take the position
that subways are an injury, that new,
transportation lines must be built
above ground, and a solution can be
found. a
"The clamor for subways has
arisen partly" "because, jpeople liatei