Seattle's Streetcar Franchise Fight: A City Council Asked to Extend a Struggling Railway's Lease

The city council will be called upon tonight to act like a body of intelligent business men. They will have submitted to them a proposition to so readjust the relations between the city and the Seattle Consolidated Street Railway Company that an important local enterprise may be judiciously encouraged while the interests of the city are fully protected.

When the Lake Union and North Seattle street car lines were projected the indications were that the population of Seattle would be at least 100,000 within five years, and the enormous growth immediately following seemed to justify those expectations. They have not been realized, and while the population has remained steady at very nearly its maximum growth, the dull times and unexpected competition have seriously impaired the value of the franchises. It has been found impossible to keep up the interest, and the value of the investment has necessarily depreciated. At the very worst time for the company the city has ordered that a portion of the road shall be paved. This is a work of great improvement and the wisdom of the council is not questioned, but it has resulted in very gravely imperiling the solvency of the road, because it is without sufficient money to defray the cost, and any attempt at enforcement will result in the foreclosure of the mortgage securing the first issue of bonds. Not only must the street be paved, but the roadbed will have to be torn up and rebuilt or the paving will prove substantial. The cost will be something short of $25,000, and most of the work will employ local labor, so that the money will be spent among our own people.

The value of the road consists chiefly of its franchise, and the short life of the present one precludes becoming such an investment as will admit of money being raised. The company ask that the franchise be extended to fifty years and makes a very fair offer of a percentage on the gross returns to the city, graduated so that as population increases the city will derive a corresponding benefit.

The city council should not overlook the fact that the street car system has been the pride of the city and also recognize the fact that, as in some other respects, enterprise has run a little too far ahead of the times. There is no reason why the request of the company, coupled as it is with a guarantee of profit to the city, should not be granted if we have confidence in the size and success of the city and the council can do business consideration.