One Man a Car and Twenty-Five Miles an Hour: Labor Demands the Streetcars Keep Their Bargain
The Western Central Labor Union charges Seattle's trolley companies with running unsafe, understaffed cars — and the council gives them twenty days to comply or forfeit their franchises.
The Western Central Labor Union complained to the council that a number of the street railway companies of the city are violating the terms of their franchises. W. H. Middleton and Gordon A. Rice also filed a petition with the clerk asking that the street car companies be made to live up to their franchises.
Alderman Jordan explained that some of the companies are running cars with but one man in charge instead of two, and that some of the cars are run at a high rate of speed — sometimes twenty-five miles an hour within the city limits. He presented the following resolution, which was adopted:
"Whereas it is a matter of public record that most of the electric railway companies now operated in the city of Seattle are flagrantly disregarding their franchises, to-wit: in not lighting the streets along their respective routes, in not keeping two men employed to each car, and in running at break-neck speed; therefore all the electric and cable roads of the city of Seattle are hereby notified to comply with the provisions of their respective franchises as to speed, as to lighting the streets, and as to the employment of two men to each car within twenty days, or give sufficient reasons for such failure, or their franchises will be declared forfeited."
“All the electric and cable roads of the city of Seattle are hereby notified to comply with the provisions of their respective franchises as to speed, as to lighting the streets, and as to the employment of two men to each car within twenty days, or give sufficient reasons for such failure, or their franchises will be declared forfeited.”
A century before anyone argued about automated trains and single-operator light rail, Seattle workers were already making the case that cutting the crew to save money puts riders and the public at risk. The fight over who controls the street — the private franchise holder or the public that granted the franchise — is the same argument now waged over transit funding, privatization and street design.
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