Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, May 9, 1909, Page 41

THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: MAY 9, 1900, Demands of the Fut Within the last ten years it has been necessary to double the carrying capacity of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company. There is no reasonable doubt that during the next ten-years it will be necessary to double the present capacify, and it is possible that even this rapid pace may be exceeded. » A public utility company which serves its territory ef- ficiently bears the future ever in mind. That the coming decade will bring heavy demands for investments in construction and equipment this company knows, not alone from its own ex- perience, but from study of street railway history in other grow- ing cities. While it is impossible to estimate the financial needs of the next ten years with accuracy, the company would not be surprised if the amount ran close to $10,000,000. Electric street railways are still in process of evolution. The advance that electric traction has made in the twenty years of its general existence has been remarkable, but the progress of \ the next twenty years may be more remarkable. It is an art of which it can be truly said that striving for better results accru- ing to the benefit of the public is part of the daily routine. As readers of these articles know, great quantities of equip- ment and material were removed long before worn out, and scrapped at great financial sacrifices and replaced by new and better substitutes. This has been a matter of necessity rather than choice on the part of the Company, largely because of popular demands. We do not criticize these demands and de- sire merely to point out how they have made the raising of large amounts of capital imperative from time to time. When any decided improvement in traction is made in any large city and proved successful it is only a question of time until companies in other cities are forced to adopt it, no mat- ter how great the expense. With these obvious conditions existing it must be appar- ent to everyone that a street railway company must so main- tain itself as to give confidence to investors and invite them to place their capital in the enterprise. To make an investment in- viting it is necessary to pay reasonable profifs. Many factors enter into the upbuilding of a municipality and its commercial supremacy. We think the street railway is one of these factors and by no means the least important. No middle or-outlying real estate is worth much unless it is easily accessible by the electric cars. No visitor comes to the city without forming an impression of the street railway and ~using it in passing judgment upon the town. No small-salaried worker can enjoy the pleasures of home-owning or the lower rents and healthier surroundings unless he can go to and from his work quickly and at small cost. In the foregoing paragraph we have tried to state merely a few of the many reasons why good street railway service is highly desirable. Street railway corporations have ambitions as well as in- dividuals and it is the ambition of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company to give this community at all times the best possible service. Towards maintaining this end its officers and engineers are constantly analyzing future needs and making provision to meet them. Inside the last year the Company bought a picce of ground 142x284 feet in size adjoining its Jackson Street Power Station on the south and extending to Jones Street. This land will enable the expansion of the present power station three times. Two years ago the Company purchased more than a block of ground lying north of its shop property between Ohio and Miami Streets and extending from Twenty-sixth to Twenty- seventh Streets, to insure the needs of the future with respect to shops and storage facilities. The immediate needs of the future include large additions to practically all branches of the property. Engineers are now calculating upon a considerable addition to the power-generating capacity of the Jackson Street Power Station. This station, representing more than twice the power capacity of five years ago, needs amplification to the extent of at least 20 per cent to care for the demands of the next two years. A second principal Substation will be needed soon, to be located at some point in the southern part of the city. Excavations have been started for a two-story car house covering half a blockof ground on Pierce Street and extending from Tenth to Eleventh Street. Construction will be of re-in- forced concrete faced with pressed brick. The house will ac- commodate about 100 cars. It is considered necessary to replace many of the present smaller cars with larger and more commodious cars, for which orders have been placed, both in our own shops and with manufacturers. The demands for new lines and extension of present lines are being pressed upon the company in greater volume and with stronger force than ever before. In endeavoring to com- ply with them the Company is willing to accept a certain per- centage of operating losses for a number of years, provided that within some reasonable period the lineswill bear expenses. No business concern would be deemed prudent, however, that did not use care in considering additions to the capital account. A number of new lines and extensions will be built soon. A large amount of work for this year was planned and announced by the board of directors last fall. A large amount of track put in new eight or .nine years ago will need replacement within the next few years with 100 pound rails on extra heavy foundations. The immediate demands of the future contain many other items besides those enumerated, but detailed recitation would hardly interest the public. The facts given enable the reader to form a general idea of what lies before the Company in the next two or three years, and some conception of what must be accomplished during the next ten years. The construction and equipment tasks of a street railway are never finished. G. W. WATTLES, President, Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company. (Next Sunday's Article will cover the Financial Condition (f the Property, Earnings, etc.) [ 2]