The evening world. Newspaper, January 14, 1903, Page 12

ied by the Preas Publi#hing Company, No. 6% to © Row, New York. Entered at the Poat-OMoe “at New York as Second-Class Mali Matter. WOLUME 48...........6600...NO, 18,121. . THE FRANCHISE TAX LAW. In return for a trifling compensation, fixed, in the se of the Third nvonue street railroad in the days of Coaches and for other surface roads at a time rh Street-traction franchises were granted more rough favor than on a commercial basis, the strect- ear lines of this city have grown enormously rich. ‘When the Third avenue road was chartered the rate ‘of payment agreed upon was $20 for each car every _ Yeor, This is less than a car now earns in a single day. 4 ‘When the Twenty-third street crosstown line was Branted ite franchise it paid $150,000 outright in cash. “The interest on this at 4 per cont. represents $6,000 as ‘the city’s income for the valuable grant to the company. ‘When the Broadway and Seventh avenue road was ‘Incorporated it agreed to pay into the city treasury not Tees than $150,000 a year. Other companies fared as well, some better. But so ‘far from repaying tho city's bounty by even the small Teturn agreed upon, they have always remained largely in arrears. Their assessed valuatioi is at present more than $200,000,000. Of this, if they patd proportionately with Other holders of real estate, they would pay the city $5,000,000. The amount actually paid is ridiculously “@inall by comparison, In the year 1901 the gross earnings of the street railways of Greater New York were $48,000,000, of which $20,000,000, as estimated by William N. Amory, was “clear profit. _Tn 1900 the net earnings of the Metropolitan Traction Company were $8,208,000. Out of that vast sum it paid the city $290,000! Has there ever been in municipal history a more _ ) prodigal barter of city utilities? It 1s easy to credit Mr. 'Vreeland’s boast that this road has spent $80,000,000 on Improvements, In all the records of railroading there has been no greater bonanza for promoters nor one out ‘f which more private fortunes and Fifth avenue man- “Bions have come. The passage of the Ford Franchise-Tax law during ‘Mr. Roosevelt's (erm as Governor gave the city an Oppertunity to get the semblance of an adequate return for its munificent gifts to tho street-railway companies. Goy. Odell’s proposal td repeal tho law and to substl- tute for it a State tax on the gross earnings of the cor- porations will defeat the law's purpose. It will give to the State what belongs to the city, taking away from the ‘tity even‘its former small revenue from these valuatle franchises, ed from the city and the result will be fiction of another burden upon {ndividual prop- | Stich a course would work an arbitrary injustice to the city. It is not excused by the specious pretext that and other municipal corporations derive thelr feo trom their incorporation under the State law. the city that has made them what they are; the hes merely registered the act. 3 THE OIL EXTORTION. ‘Dearer coal has meant dearer fuel of all kinds to the ‘congumer. 6 buyer living in an east-side tenement is now 2 and sometimes as high as 15 cents a gallon oll, where last summer {t cost him only 8 cents. “He is paying 214 cents a bundle for kindling wood Syhich until within a few weeks was sold at the rate of ree bundles for 5 cents. The grocer from whom he it'peys $2 per hundred bundles, an increase from L25 within a month. _ His coal costs him 40 cents a bushe! or from 12 to 18 Cents a pail. At the latter figure, for pails of 25 pounds, 4s at the rate of $14.40 a ton. Even worse than the coal extortion is the wholly un- warranted raise of the price of oil in a time of fuel famine, To increase its cost by one cent a gallon means F y profit of $23,000,000 a year to the Standard O11 Com- ’ Pany. An increase of four cents means a profit of $92,000,000 oxacted in a period of distress from the scanty ‘incomes of the poor. ~ There is the opportunity in these vast sums for an Unexampled amount of private charity. But it would ‘Pequire a large outlay to compensate for this act of monopoly. A MILLET, PRICE $23,600, A few years more than half a century ago, in a vil- "lage not remote from Paris, an artist was painting plc- tures of sheep and grain-fields and peasants tolling in fields. His quarters were in a rude farm-house, he was wretchedly poor. neighbors thought little of his paintings. In they thought less of them, Even when at last ‘one made its way by force of superior merit into the \ there was no call for the painter's work. What ‘@aivases he could sell at all he sold for a song and i d himself between sales by painting signs tor ‘illage merchants, A sign painted by Millet! It would possess value in art market now, for at the sale of the 8. D, Warren n the other evening a little painting fourteen by nine in size by this artist brought $23,600. tiny work was almost lost in the curtain which its background, and yet the bidding for it by thousands.” Nearly $200 a square inch! )per inch than the artist received for entire land- Ly this is no greater a work of art than it was gold for @ trifle to a Paris dealer, 1s not this por a in value an impeachment of the connois- ur's taste in art? Ie it mot an equally strong im- of the collector’s judgment that in London a ago ao Turner drawing, one of a series that as R. A., said “was used for lighting fires tn arly pert of the nineteenth century,” was sold tor it pereistence that leads the poor man of ul preferring his poverty to riches in on, to make light of hardship and atick inheritance. It is the source of all the rs having in art and literature and science scomeréte example of it, as in Millet, is worth The Woman |: from 3 Williamsburg. |* CBOSS She Does a Little Shopping in New York. (] T makes my husband so mad when ] things come home ©. O. D,,"' eaid “but I just you'll never be beggered by I spend. 1f 1 wasted the money you di you might talie,' I sald, ‘Goodnes: knows there's no woman makes a dol- lar go further than I do; and I'm a0 shabby that I'm ashamed to be seen. My & sight, and I've made over my jeu til I'm tired. If I had the money you spend in cigars, 1 could get ‘one of those Monte Carlo coats that ara all the atylo now. 1 saw one to-day on Fourteenth atreet for $21.93, marked down from $26.87, and women on every wide of me, whose husoands don't make half as much as you do, ordering them T mid to him. “A man can't understand the fner Sensibilities of woman, It's bad enough not to have the money to pay for the things when they come home C..0. D. without having a men swear- bout It, A man ought to be he has a good true wife atisfled with what little ts 3 Siven to her, and makes a perfect siave 2 : > rs 3 of herself for her husband, without say- Ing cruel words to her and wounding her In her tenderest feelings, “How doen a man expect a woman to Go Into a store without ordering things nent home? Does he expect his wife to be muapected of being a shop-lifter? i “Miss Minehan, who lved, across the street from us until she won her breach of promise malt from her employer—it 1| ® Waa a man I'd be careful about hiring | % A typewriter who bleached her hatr. and who moved to Harlem when she got her $1,000, she stood right beaide me, bat I wouldn't give hor a chance to cut me, and I never pretended to ace her. Hor| % eye was on some of that nearly-silk|& goody but when she saw me she thought he'd show off, and so ehe bought a dreos pattern for $80. But I wasn't going to lot her have the best of me, and when tho saleslady asked me if I wanted one of those dreas patterns 1 twld: ‘The fdea! Why, I wouldn't let my maid wear that shoddy stuff!’ And then 1 made that Minchan g! eyes open by buytng that #-a-; heavy | 3 ailk for a reception gown, 4 when the salestady said, ‘C. O. D.?' 1 emiled pityingly and sald, ‘No; dharge,’ and 1 “There was a special sale of wheel- barrows in ¢he basement. Actually, they were marked down to $2.48. I paid a de- posit on one, for there's no telling but we may move to one of the aristo- cratic suburbs this summer, you know, | “ and If we do I intend to have a flower garden, and just think how handy a wheelbarrow will be. q “Do you know, I was talking with one| 2 ot the managers of the store. Perhaps| @ ho way @ partner, because he was a very handsome young man with exquisite] | in neoktles, and his Prince Albert coat fitted him perfectly, and he told me that he had recommended the store to move up on Broadway, because the Thirty-fourth street cars brought them in touch with the better class of people from Williamsburg. I just happened to; mention I was from Williamsburg, too.) 3 and I consider that a compliment, don't yout a {JOKES OF THE DAY! “'The Last Rose of Bummer’ is the eimplest sort of an air, yet over a mill- Jon copies of the gong have bean sold.” “It's the mililon-alr of musical circles, or’ 4084: 364034632 26> “I suppose you pugilists atruggle hard to win the palm?" "Not half @o hard as we struggle to sidestep de oder pug’s palm whon hii knuckles 1s clinched around it.’ love of it in the bours when you are not at your office? The great and powerful organizer of trusts stood for @ moment ebashed by the simple candor of a young girl. Then ® ray of inspiration ewept over bis coun- tenance, and he answered: PRECOREOO ERS “Oh, yes. ington Star, I'm & coin ¢ollector.—Wash- ‘MWhenover I've taken @ single drink| ¢ i'm tromettately struck with the joy of living.”” “Tit len't 90 much @ ‘strike’ as ‘ony ban!" “This imitation #eal,”’ the fur clerk said, “Wil epoll if any rain should chance to spatter it." Ite sheen will then be gone, its lustre dead. "Twill look a if with olubs you'd tried to batter ¢t.”” “Oh!” sighed the girl, ‘what awful grtet must constantly be paining The living imitation seals the whole time It ta raintn, “My poor man,” prattied the benevo- lent millionaire, "I am going 40 give you Work, ‘Then you wilt no longer be a common limfer, but @ member of the splendid army of labor, “Ah, g'wan!" courteously retorted Pa- tigued Frelinghuysen; ‘wot's de matter wit’ givin' me 4 million instead? Den BP PRQOOOOEE DROOL EPEC EL DEE FevAt @t, Audrow's Convalescent Hos- 0 it 49 possible for & woman | #Y of capital.” i be @ charter member of de splendid Ag ry head wit the pavement ao | J swept out Ike as tf I were careige SHAME YEAR teade, Of course I ‘have no account LET uS GET there, But that Minehan girl wi think |QY some mA Io I have, and that's ono mattsfaction. WARM PA UP et SS ye ON Ce ee GEE! YD LIKE To THE MERRY MAC TWINS ADOPT “WILLIE JEROME,” Artist Powers Shows How They Warm “Pop” Up Without Coal. NEARLY FROZE THIS MUST BE THE CoL.DesT DAY OF THE OHE-Two- Tikes Four- AN ALIBI. First Guide—-Look at that fine speclepan comin’ out here to hunt are ! 00900000041 ' A JAY BIRD FROM THE WEST GETS HIS I vorir Know WHAT, I Wovo Do WITHOUT THOSE TwINd WILLIE JEROME I$ Goop AS A TON OF Con do you call them ‘F; customer le?" nuked the a Jimmie—Hey, Mickey, whatcher & rench { worryin' in bo a yDDO9SHE$OOOHHH9OO HOO09660-50060969505696-500005000O0O00HOO FIRST NEW YORK SURPRISE. The Funny Little Bird Harry Martin Made Famous Makes His Bow to Evening World Readers. 9900059900000 O0O 9, ON PUTTING COAL ON THE FREE SEE Congress has put coal om) the free list,” re- marked the Cigar-Store Man. ~ “They might as well put kippeved herringorunset diamonds on the free list for all the good it will de the people who have a rave for coal,” sid the Man Higher Up. “There is a whole lot of satisfaction for @ man who has to put on his slates when te gets out of bed in the morning in erder to get to the bathroom to read that Congress has put coal on the: free list. What he wants {s to read that Mr, Baer ang} the other coal bulla ‘have put coal on the $6.50 a ton lel, “These politicians ere wise guys. They have been throwing sawdust into the eyee df the people so long {that the people are getting diva lamys. By the time’ 2 peer: unwind the red-tape and get the Cree-coal business in operation you and I will be lyimg on the sand et Man- *|hattan Beach hollering for ice. Even if they get coal ® {on the free list to-morrow, wherd-are they going to get’ ‘the free coal? ( “Some people are talking about getting it from Oan- : | ada. The entire output of Canada for a year, of ell kinds of coal, is less than 5,000,000 tons, and if they can keep. warm in Canada through a hard winter on much less than 6,900,000 tons I want to forget memories of cold days in Winnipeg and Montreal. If Canada would begin I" ship coal down here there would be a roar all the way >| pneumonia that the Canuck would get a whole lot eloser to $15 than to $14 for It. Y “As far as English and Scotch coal is concerned we Z}are up atree. There is plenty of it over there, but when » HI you come to figure the cost of it and the cost of shipping >| here the duty don’t cut much ice, They tried bringing "| Mnglish and Scotch coal in here just: beforo the strike was declared off. When the speculators who made the try got their coal here they found a bottomless marker put up an amount equal to it in order to get chance, 3 “This grand-stand play of Congress won't put dowa the price of coal and it won't warm the flats of New York,, It will furnish campaign ammunition for parties in 1804, when the people will have put all 5 erie coal strike and the subsequent | ti will we get cheaper coal?” asked ‘the Cigar — S-9OH999H79HSH Goopnes: sur Im DPEODOOO LYS SOO 9O® “Even jf there should be wise men in Cangda with a reserve supply on hand that they could ship to the: United States, do you get it through the gateway of your intellect that they are going to give it away to us? Nob on your ofled brick. “The Canadian can't butt in here and sell his coat like you might be able to go out and gell a few bokes off! cigars. He hes got to get {t here; he ‘has got to stone ity! he has got to get trucks and horses and drivers to Baul) it. Supposing 10,000 tons of Canadian coal should light) in New York next week-—which it won't—and supposing | local dealers were getting $15 a ton for the local prod-_ uct, what do you suppose the Oanuck would get for it? “As soon as this coal was out of the way the gentle robbers of the anthracite regions put up the price, anf) they haye been putting it up ever since, Maybe thoaw who were stung before are willing to take. another chance, but I doubt it. They are just as wise ad the coal operators, after having the kibosh put on them | once, “Another way to look at it is the chance it gives the operators. What is to prohibit them from going into Canada, England, Scotland, Russia, China and countries, buying big cargoes of coal, bringing it over here and competing with themselves? The consymer, in that case, would be like the come-on who gets Dadls Well, you can bet your diamond stud against a cage of his original investment, but has to leave it up aad anather PFDSDOOESEG O46 $-94-HEE-HSEOHST HOE from Quebec to Vancouver. and had to sel) out at a loss, a tne Man, Flats Jost |