USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 42
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By 1915, a public automobile competition had appeared in the jitney, which was a pri- vately owned car that received passengers on street and road and charged a nickel fare for a ride usually paralleling the tracks of a street railway. Jitney service was more flexible, more frequent and quicker than trolley service, and tended to become more popular. The number of jitneys in use, the street space occupied for parking while waiting for passengers, and the methods resorted to by some drivers to obtain patronage suggested regulatory legislation so early as 1915. Eventually the street railway companies complained of "unfair competition," and in 1922 the General Assembly required the bonding of jitneys, and placing their licensing and operation under the regulation of the Public Utilities Commission. The rules imposed by the commission were so stringent and drastic that jitney service was discontinued on July 3, 1922.
Private automobile competition continued and waxed stronger. The automobile was almost the only commodity that did not increase in price during the World War; on the con- trary, the price of automobiles tended to decrease, and the number of automobiles in use increased as workingmen, earning larger wages at war time scales, were able to become pur- chasers. So far as the street railways were concerned, the rising prices of commodities, includ- ing equipment, without a corresponding increase in the number and rate of fares, produced embarrassment.
The plight of the Rhode Island Company was described by the Supreme Court in 1920* thus :
The Rhode Island Company is the operating company of the greater part of the street railway system of this state. Its control of the different street railways was secured by long term leases or by purchase. In 1907, the Rhode Island Company was acquired for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Com- pany, and in 1914, in proceedings brought under the Sherman anti-trust law, federal trustees were appointed by the courts of the United States to control and manage the properties. In 1917 a special commission was appointed by the Legislature to investigate the finances, management, property and mode of operation of the Rhode Island Company, for the purpose of determining whether proper service was furnished by the company and whether the company was receiving a fair and equitable return upon the property. The commission was authorized and directed to determine upon such modification of rates of fares, transfers or systems of fares and transfers as they should find to be just and equitable, to certify its determination thereof to the Public Utilities Commission, and said commission was directed to make such modifications as were determined upon by the special commission. It was further provided as follows : "Such modifications shall be subject to change from time to time by the Public Utilities Commission whenever in its opinion the public interest shall so demand and the affairs of the Rhode Island Company shall warrant." March 7, 1918, the special commission made its report to the Legislature . . . that the Rhode Island Company did not receive a fair and equitable return upon its property ; that for several years the property had been operated at a heavy loss and that a modification of the system of fares and transfers then in effect was necessary in part for a fair return upon the property. The commission recommended that the primary regulation of the utility be by the Public Utili- ties Commission, that municipal franchises be abolished, that the company be relieved of certain obligations in regard to the paving of streets, that changes be made in the routing of the cars and that changes in equip- ment recommended by the commission's engineer be made as soon as practicable.
After consideration by a joint committee of the General Assembly, the report of the special commission was ratified and "the Public Utilities Commission was directed to order the Rhode Island Company to make such modifications in its system of fares and transfers as
*Public Utilities Commission vs. Rhode Island Company, 43 R. I. 135.
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recommended." The effect was the introduction of a zone system. "Under the new system there was established about the Providence traffic centre a central five cent fare and transfer zone with an air line radius of two and one-half miles. About the centres of Pawtucket, Woonsocket and Riverpoint there were established zones with air line radii of two miles in length. Outside of these various traffic centres were suburban zones in which a fare of two cents was charged." "The company, in August, sought modification of the zone plan, and after hearings, the Public Utilities Commission ordered a new schedule." "The general result of the order was to cut down the radius of the central zone about the traffic centre of Provi- dence to a radius of two miles, to make the fare in all zones, suburban zones as well as central zones, five cents, and to fix a charge of one cent for each transfer issued." The new tariff was made effective until March 1, 1919. The Superior Court appointed a temporary receiver for the Rhode Island Company on January 30, 1919, and on March 5, 1919, Frank H. Swan, Theodore Francis Green and Zenas W. Bliss were appointed receivers. The tariffs in force were continued in effect by orders of the Public Utilities Commission. "From July 19 to August 6, 1919, there was a strike of the employes of the company to obtain increased wages. Later an agreement was reached whereby substantial increases were made in the pay of the employes of the company. On August 8, 1919, the receivers filed their petition with the Public Utilities Commission, in which they set out the financial condition of the property in their hands and prayed that an action might be ordered modifying the tariffs then in existence." After hearings a new order was entered. "The effect of the order was to maintain the zone limits existing at the time, to increase the fare from five cents to six cents in each zone, and the charge for the transfers from one cent to two cents. . . The Rhode Island Company was required to file a detailed financial statement each month with the commission, showing the monthly results of the new tariffs." Reviewing appeals filed by twelve municipalities against the formal order of the Public Utilities Commission, the court said: "It is a matter of public record and public knowledge that the company is still in the hands of receivers, and that it has been and is today being operated at a loss. It is in testimony that the receivers were unable to borrow on the security of the company sufficient money to insure the continued operation of the railroad. It was and is today a vital interest of the state and its inhabitants that there should be no stoppage of transportation by the street railway company. Transpor- tation is in the nature of a commodity. It is provided not by public funds but by private capital. It cannot for any length of time be furnished to a community for less than cost, which includes not only the expenditure for operation, etc., but also a fair return on the cap- ital actually required to furnish the transportation. Increased revenue was required in order to continue the operation of the cars."
The United Electric Railways Company was incorporated in 1919, with power to acquire by purchase the property and franchises of the Rhode Island Company and the properties operated by it and the Rhode Island Suburban. The United Electric Railways Company pur- chased from the receivers the property of the Rhode Island Company, et als., and continued operation, without, however, assuming outstanding indebtedness. Practically the purchase was a receivers' sale of a bankrupt estate. The United Electric Railways Company was relieved, in 1921, of the state tax of one per cent. on operating revenues, and of the street pav- ing obligations theretofore imposed, and eventually of practically all franchise and excise taxes, including the state tax on corporate excess and intangible property. Operation of cars by one man, serving as both conductor and motorman, was introduced in 1922 as an economy. From time to time modifications in fare tariffs have been made by the Public Utilities Commis- sion. The schedule in operation in 1930 included a single fare of eight cents for any zone ride, zones tending to conform to town area; or a fare of seven cents if token fare coins were purchased in lots of five; and a two-cent transfer charge. Thus a patron might ride across
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the centre of a town or city for ten cents, including the transfer charge, or for nine cents, including transfer, according as he paid a single fare or purchased fare tokens.
The company, following systematically a policy of retrenchment, has abandoned unprofit- able lines altogether, reduced service on other lines following careful studies of actual patron- age, and substituted gasoline omnibuses for electric cars in many instances. The experience of the Rhode Island Company parallels the vicissitudes that have attended street railway operation in other states. In Rhode Island centres other than those near Providence, electric tramway service has been abandoned. In Westerly and vicinity rails have been removed; in Newport local service has been practically discontinued and replaced by gasoline buses. Woon- socket saw its last trolley car in operation in July, 1930. The Narragansett Pier Steam Rail- road was authorized in 1920 to discontinue service; at the same session the towns of South Kingstown and Narragansett were authorized to subsidize the road or take other measures to maintain such transportation as the towns considered indispensable. Under agreement with the railroad company, which continues to haul freight, a gasoline omnibus for passengers operating on the rails and right of way of the railroad company meets all trains stopping at Kingston. Of the Narragansett Pier Railroad the story is still told that when President Mellen of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad once asked President Hazard of the Narragansett Pier, "What will you take for your railroad?" the answer was, "The Narragan- sett Pier is not for sale; what will you take for the New Haven?" The branch railroad from Wickford Junction to Wickford, connecting the main line of the New Haven with the docks at Wickford, and with the ferry between Wickford and Newport, affording a favorite line of travel, has been abandoned. Gasoline buses and taxicabs have replaced this service. The Sea View Railway, electric, connecting with the Rhode Island Suburban and Rhode Island Company lines and affording through passenger service between Narragansett Pier and Prov- idence, is no longer more than a memory. The interurban electric systems connecting Prov- idence with Warren, Bristol and Fall River, except the electrified division of the New Haven, have been abandoned, and replaced by omnibus service; so also have the electric lines con- necting Pawtucket with the Attleboros and Taunton, save for a street railway line to Attle- boro operating on minimum schedule. In both Pawtucket and Providence street railway lines are giving way to gasoline omnibuses operated by the United Electric Railways Company.
AUTOMOBILE TRANSPORTATION-The twentieth century has witnessed the development of an automobile transportation system for passengers, express and freight that has affected not only electric street railways but also steam railroads. For passenger service public gas- oline-driven omnibuses are now operated almost universally between towns and cities on direct lines not usually exceeding fifty miles, with occasionally longer routes, and possibilities of transfer by connecting systems. Transcontinental touring by connecting omnibus lines is achieved, the equipment on some lines including sleeping and other overnight accommodations. Both steam railroads and electric railways have supplemented rail service with bus service, and both operate elaborate systems either directly or through separate corporations under control. The gasoline omnibus is operated usually over a public highway, and the company owning it incurs no expenditure for acquiring a right of way, building a roadbed and tracks, or for maintenance of road, all of which have been heavy charges on rail systems. The gas- oline omnibus rolls over a public highway, the cost of which to the taxpaying public may reach as high as $50,000 per mile. In a particular instance, Newport and Providence are nearer in the twentieth century from the point of view of intermunicipal travel than ever before in the history of Rhode Island, the connection being by rapid-transit gasoline omni- buses following almost a straight line from Washington Bridge across the Seekonk River, through East Providence, Barrington, Warren and Bristol to the Mount Hope Bridge, and
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thence, through Portsmouth and Middletown, all the way over splendid highways. Mount Hope Bridge reduced the time of riding to approximately one hour. Omnibus service is not so rapid as electric or steam service over direct private rights of way, but it affords the same convenience of using streets and roads, and of stopping to accommodate passen- gers which made the electric tramway in short-haul interurban service a stalwart competitor of the steam railroad. The answer of both the electric tramway and the steam railroad to this competition is entrance of the same field by operating gasoline omnibuses. The steam railroads have also undertaken a radical improvement of long-haul service by introducing finely equipped express trains operating on high-speed schedules, this development having a view also to the threat of airplane competition.
Along with accommodations for passengers, interburban electric tramways introduced freight and express service that quickly rivalled steam railroads, but only for a few brief years, as both steam and electric systems were challenged by gasoline trucks. The earliest types of gasoline truck consisted of chassis planned for a passenger car, with body modelled for commercial purposes, and the use was for light delivery service from retail stores. The possibilities of automobile truck service were quickly recognized, and new and sturdier types of engine, chassis and body were constructed. The result has been almost the disappearance of horsedrawn vehicles from public highways; instead, private and public automobiles, and trucks ranging from light delivery wagons to vehicles weighing tons and capable of carrying the heaviest type of load, throng streets and roads and suggest problems of congestion. The flexibility of automobile truck service revolutionized express and short-haul freight service. As an instance, a wholesaler or retailer in Rhode Island operating a fleet of trucks can deliver daily within a radius of 100 miles or more, or can patronize any of a large number of auto- mobile freight or express trucking companies operating on established interurban schedules. On short hauls, such as, for instance, between Providence and Newport, railroad freight service might require several days for transportation; a Newport plumber can order by tele- phone up to three or four in the afternoon of one day, and have delivered at his shop the fol- lowing morning early enough for work any type of plumbing supply carried by the jobber who maintains a warehouse in Providence or Boston. The steam railroads have lost short- haul freight and express business ; instead they have developed a better service on long hauls. In the expansion of interurban truck freight and express operations, night movement has assumed proportions little dreamed of by those who accept service but think not of the method by which it is accomplished; the long cement ribbons that connect cities and are thronged with private automobiles and passenger omnibuses in daylight hours, at night carry another type of traffic, as long trains of trucks seek open highways for rapid transportation of heavy loads.
A horsedrawn vehicle is so much a rarity in Rhode Island as almost to be a curious relic of an era that has passed. This is true in city and country. In the latter, trucks and tractors have replaced farm wagons and horse or ox-drawn ploughs or other farm equipment; in the former, cars and trucks have replaced carriages and wagons. Even the hansom cab and hack- ney carriage have gone the way of the stagecoach and horsecar. A funeral is no longer an impressive parade of "hacks" drawn by horses; instead a motorized hearse leads an "auto- mobile cortege." The substitute for public hansom or hackney carriage is the modern "taxi- cab," so called because of the taximeter, used to record distance in terms of the fare earned. The early principle of taxicab service fixed fares with relation to length of ride, and the taxi- meter was a device for preventing the type of discussion common in hackney carriage days accompanying disputes as to the amount of fares. A modern deviation in taxicab service eliminates the meter and establishes a flat rate for all rides from a centre to a zone limit, usually a town or city line. In this the flat-rate taxicab resembles the street railway practice
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of uniform fares. Mass production of automobiles has made possible the maintenance of large fleets of taxicabs, and reduction of rates, which in the period immediately preceding 1930, had reached figures so low as to make the convenient low-priced taxicab service an actual competitor of the street railway company. Assuming for the latter a fare of eight cents per passenger, a taxicab fare of twenty-five cents, at any moment without reference to the set time table of the trolley company and directly to the doorstep of destination, had attractions outweighing the extra cost. As the taxicab carried extra passengers without extra fare, the service was even more attractive for couples and large parties. Regulation of taxi- cab service in Rhode Island, stipulating glass partitions between driver and passengers, licens- ing, etc., had little effect in reducing the number in service; indeed, in 1930, a competitive war between taxicab companies tended to increase the number, as each company tried to make its own service more convenient and popular. Entirely aside from the question of the possi- bility of maintaining taxicab service with reasonable profit at the low rate, the street railway company had measured a decrease in its own revenues because of the large numbers of pas- sengers diverted from electric cars to taxicabs, and in 1930, while asking legislation that would restrict further by regulation the activity of taxicabs, was considering entering the taxicab field with a fleet of its own. The General Assembly enacted regulatory legislation in 1930. A new corporation, allied with the United Electric Railway, almost immediately acquired control of ninety per cent. of taxis in service, and the fares of passengers were raised slightly. The current rate in 1930 makes the taxicab a favorite vehicle for the convenient service rendered.
FLYING-Rhode Island aeronauts, James K. Allen, and Ezra Allen, his son, used balloons during the Civil War to examine positions occupied by the enemy. James K. Allen made his first ascension in Rhode Island in 1856, and it is related of Count Zeppelin, the German inventor of the modern dirigible balloon, that he made his first balloon flight with one of the Allens, while the Count was a member of the German Embassy and the latter was engaged in military observations somewhere in Virginia. Because of the popularity of the Allens in Rhode Island a balloon ascension was for many years a time-honored tradition of the celebra- tion of July 4. James K. Allen made an ascension as part of the program for the observance in 1886 of the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Rhode Island. Fifty years after his first flight ( 1856-1906) James K. Allen ascended in Providence on July 4, and dis- appeared in the clouds during a rainstorm; when hope for his safety had been abandoned almost, because of fear that he had been carried out to sea, he returned home for another ascension.
Brave Rhode Island youth played their part as aviators in the World War. One of the earliest airplane passenger lines established in the United States linked Newport and New York, June 29, 1923. Several flying fields owned by corporations are maintained in Rhode Island, additional to the airplane and seaplane facilities at and near Newport, established by the United States Navy Department. The people of Rhode Island in 1928 approved a bond issue to finance the acquisition and development of a state airport, and in 1929 a state commis- sion, appointed to carry the project into effect, purchased a tract of land at Hillsgrove in War- wick. The airport is in process of being cleared and graded in 1930.
Airplane or seaplane is suggested as a regular means of travel between Block Island and the mainland, always a problem. The town of New Shoreham, in 1901, put into regular serv- ice a large steamship, the "New Shoreham," which made daily trips with a new harbor con- structed on Great Pond as the island base. The state loaned New Shoreham $25,000 on the town's note to assist in carrying forward the project of cutting a breachway from the pond to the ocean, and dredging a channel to a land-locked dock. Within the pond a fleet of fishing
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vessels may ride safely, however wild the tempest on the stormy Atlantic Ocean or Block Island Sound. In 1908 the General Assembly after listening to an appeal by "Tal" Dodge,* fisherman and pilot, declaring that the town was too poor to pay even the interest on its debt, cancelled the indebtedness. After a quarter of a century of service the steamer "New Shore- ham" was sold. Winter service between the island and mainland is maintained by a small steamboat, which carries United States mail, but occasionally Block Islanders who must reach the mainland make the winter voyage by small fishing boats landing in the Point Judith Pond, to avoid a longer exposure by sailing to Newport. Announcement of airplane service between Block Island and the mainland has been made by a Rhode Island transportation corporation.
Thus 1930 finds Rhode Island's transportation needs served by (I) a steam railroad com- pany operating 200 miles of main and supplementary lines within the state, with established con- nections with main trunk lines outside Rhode Island affording fourteen different contacts outside New England, north, east, south and west; (2) by a large fleet of passenger and cargo-carrying steamships engaged in coastwise and foreign commerce; (3) by a street rail- way service principally in the northern part of the state, where the population is most con- gested; (4) by gasoline omnibuses in passenger service and trucks in freight and express service operating on established lines and reaching all parts of Rhode Island and neighboring states ; (5) within cities and compact towns by taxicabs ; (6) and last, but not by any means the least important, by over 120,000 private automobiles operating on a statewide system of splendid highways and bridges; with (7) airplane service in prospect and partly realized. Rhode Island is looking forward to the future of the airplane, whatever that may be.
WATER COMPANIES-The General Assembly granted charters of incorporation in 1772 to three water companies-the Field Fountain Society, the Rawson Fountain Society, and the Cook Fountain Society, all of Providence. Each company supplied a section of the town lying west of the river with water, thus relieving apprentices and other boys of the work of carry- ing water from clear wells, springs and brooks to supply houses and shops in low-lying spots, particularly immediately west of the bridge, where well water was brackish. John Howland, in his "autobiography," recalled this duty of apprentices. Remnants of the wooden pipes used in carrying water underground were found occasionally thirty years ago when excava- tions were made.
The General Assembly, in 1864, chartered the Providence Water Company, with author- ized capital of $1,000,000 and power to draw water from the Ten Mile River and to establish conduits under the Seekonk. This project was made feasible by the acquisition of East Prov- idence in the adjustment of the eastern boundary line, 1862, but was abandoned, even before the city of Providence was authorized, in 1866, to obtain a municipal water supply from the Pawtuxet, Blackstone, Ten Mile or Woonasquatucket River. The Pawtuxet was chosen, and the work of building dams and reservoirs, and acquiring title to land and protecting water- sheds, and constructing a main trunk supply line three feet in diameter to the centre of the city proceeded for nearly five years. The venture involved an expenditure of $5,000,000. The first water was discharged through an exhibition jet in Exchange Place on Thanksgiving Day, 1871; the stream was described by a contemporary as shot under pressure higher than adjacent buildings, and as falling, because of intensely cold weather, below zero, in the form of ice before reaching the ground. A similar tale is told of the Aldrich House fire, February 15, 1888, when water thrown from fire hose, the temperature being twelve above zero, reached the blaze in the form of sleet. Of the demonstration of the new water system in 1871, it is related that "parties attempting to cross this treacherous mass (of ice) were caught in its embrace, and came near freezing to death in the presence of thousands of spectators." The
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