The Cable Company Wanted More Time. Yesler Avenue Wanted Its Double Track.

Arguments for and against the proposed extension of one year’s time in which the Seattle City Railway Company should comply with its franchise by double-tracking the Yesler Avenue cable line were heard by the railroad committee of the board of aldermen at the city hall yesterday afternoon. An adjournment was taken until Friday afternoon, when other speakers for and against the extension will be heard.

The committee convened at 4 o’clock, Chairman Sweeney presiding. Besides Aldermen Daulton and Lovejoy, there were present Delegates James, Hurd and Gleeson, and Aldermen A. Compton, Miller and Crane. A. D. Warner appeared for those opposed to the extension. Andrew F. Burleigh represented the company and Harold Preston the trust company which holds a mortgage on the line.

Mr. Burleigh said the company had from the first been required to lay a single track, and when the earnings of the road warranted there should be a double track. In 1890 a second franchise was granted. The second franchise provided that the road should be double-tracked as soon as the earnings warranted, but within five years. That time, Mr. Burleigh said, was now approaching. He thought the council, before compelling the company to make the heavy outlay of money, should look carefully into the financial condition of the road.

Burleigh presented figures to show that the road had barely paid operating expenses. He said that for the year ending June 30, 1894, the receipts were about $75,000, while the expenses, including interest on bonds, were $77,173.81—a loss for the year. Since going into the hands of a receiver, from October 1894 to March 1895, the road had taken in $14,348.12 and spent $15,858.23, leaving a balance of $69.59; no interest whatever was paid during that term, and all of the money except for the cable was expended in the city of Seattle, largely for labor. At present, Mr. Burleigh said, the road was barely paying operating expenses.

In reply to Mr. Sander’s opposition to the extension, Burleigh read letters which Mr. Sander had written to a Wall Street broker in 1890, shortly after he had got the road back, complaining that it was in bad financial shape. In another letter Sander stated that he had “cut the men’s wages from 5 cents to 4 cents an hour.” “I will state here,” said Mr. Burleigh, “that Mr. Sander is the only owner or manager that ever cut wages on the Yesler Avenue line.”

There was no complaint, Mr. Burleigh said, as to the present service of the Yesler Avenue line. He had heard prominent people say that its service was as good, if not better, than that of any other street line in the city. To put in a modern double track would cost in the neighborhood of $100,000. It was not true that the bondholders were all alien capitalists. Mr. Underwood’s cousin lived in Seattle and owned a small block of the bonds. The remainder were in the hands of Eastern people, mostly poor people who had been induced to invest.

Harold Preston explained that the Central Trust Company, of New York, which he represented, was trustee for the bondholders so much referred to. The bonds, he said, were far below par because interest had not been paid for two years. The road today only paid a little more than expenses, and no money was paid out for interest. The bonds outstanding footed up $300,000, and foreclosure proceedings were now pending in the Federal court. The remainder of the bonds could not be sold because the old ones were not paying interest. If the franchise were forfeited, the bondholders would have nothing except the cars and lands at Lake Washington.

A. D. Warner, for the patrons, insisted that the people who live along the route of the Seattle City Railway Company have certain vested rights. They have purchased property with the representation that the road would be double-tracked within five years. At present many of them must walk five blocks in order to reach a car. The double track could be constructed now much cheaper than at any other time, Warner argued.

“If you propose to raise the money in order to build this double track, Mr. Warner, how will you do it?” asked Mr. Burleigh.

“Sell your bonds,” answered Warner.

“What if you can’t sell them?”

“I insist, sir, that this city council compel the company to comply with the franchise and protect the poor people living along this railway line,” replied Warner.