The Providence News

COMMON COUNCIL

(Continued from page Eight.)

...ed to the truant officer as soon as va-
cated by the commission. The resolution
was passed.

AGAINST TRANSFER STATIONS

Mr. Sisson called from the table the fol-
lowing resolution introduced at the pre
vious meeting of the council: Resolution
instructing the city solicitor to apply to
the general assembly for the repeal of
chapter 373 of the Public Laws, entitled
"An Act to Provide for a System of Free
Transfers in the city of Providence and
for other purposes, and in addition to
an act entitled An Act concerning the
Union Railroad Company, passed at the
January session, 1892."

He moved that it be taken from the
table and it was so voted.

He then moved passage of the resolution
and said:

The act which this resolu-
tion refers to is a serious stumbling block
to any further negotiations with the
Union Railroad company. Four weeks
ago we voted to postpone a resolution
providing a system of transfer stations.
The act referred to provides for transfer
stations, and I think that the people of
Providence have demonstrated that they
do not desire transfer stations. There is
nothing in the act that we want, and it
is best to move that it should be out of the
way and then the field will be clear for
further progress.

I believe, Mr. Presi-
dent, that if we adopt this resolution we
shall be doing something for transfer
tickets and I hope that it will be adopt-
ed.

Mr. Rawson expressed his satisfaction
that the last speaker as a leading advo-
cate of the ticket plan appreciated the
handicap under which the railroad com-
mittee labored. As a member of the com-
mittee he had considered it his duty to
transmit whatever plan the railroad com-
pany offered to the people through the
council. Then the public could accept
or reject through their representatives.
The railroad committee had acted under
the state laws with the limitations there-
of. He said the people of the city as
a rule did not understand the position in
which the city council was placed under
the transfer station act. He thought the
contemplated action would explain the
conditions.

Mr. Peterson said:

"The people of the
city of Providence have again and again
expressed their disapproval of this plan
of transfer stations, and I feel that we
should set ourselves right with the peo-
ple. I am persuaded that this act can-
not be repealed by the legislature.

To the present time there has been no
disposition on the part of the city council
to clear itself before the people.

Mr. Parsons seconded the motion of Mr.
Sisson for the passage of the resolution.

Mr. Cooke said that without doubt the
assembly had the power to repeal the
act, but if a contract existed with the
Union Railroad company, then the legis-
lature may not have the power to impair
the contract.

"Now, we are confronted
with two difficulties,

One may be sur-
mounted, perhaps, by the legislature
changing its mind.

"Now let us see whether the act is a
dangerous one at all. The Union Rail-
road company could not be compelled by
any body but the general assembly to
grant transfers.

This was the first com-
mand placed upon the railroad company
to provide transfers and now the gentle-
man asks us to repeal that act. All the
city of Providence has to do to make in-
effective the legislation passed is to do
nothing. The council did not see fit to
adopt the resolution submitted by the
committee on railroads and until the city
of Providence and the Union Railroad
company can agree upon a plan nothing
can be done. There can be no reason
for repealing the act, because it is only
putting the matter back to a place where
it was when the city could not compel
the company to grant transfers. The
entire matter is in the hands of the city
council, and if no agreement can be
reached nothing can be done. It is not
necessary to ask the legislature to untie
the hands of the city council."

FOR TRANSFER TICKETS

Mr. Balch declared the present act was
a bar to legislation and through passage
of the resolution ought to be wiped
off
the statute books.

Mr. Sisson asked Mr. Cooke
if
the
Union Railroad Company could
provide
any transfers other than by stations un-
der the provision of the act, and the lat-
ter replied that without
the
act
the
Union Railroad company could
not
be
compelled to grant transfers at all.

Mr. Sisson said: "When the gentleman
from the 1st ward voted four weeks ago
for the indefinite postponement of the
transfer station plan, I thought that he
was sincere, but it seems that he was not
entirely so. I believe, Mr. President, that
every true friend of transfer tickets will
vote tonight for the passage of the reso-
lution."

Mr. Cooke waxed warm in reply and
said: I have never charged the gentleman
from the 2d ward with insincerity since he
has been a member of this council. He is
the only man who ever charged me with
insincerity. I don't think that he knows
just what he implies. If he does, I pity
him, for it is the first time that any mem-
ber of this common council has been
charged upon the floor by a fellow-mem-
ber with insincerity. It is not an honora-
bie thing to challenge the sincerity of any
member of this body. Now, let us see if
I have been insincere. When the matter
first came up I did not believe, and do not
believe now, that the people want a cen-
tral transfer station. Accordingly, I voted
for the indefinite postponement. Was that
insincere?

Because I have seen fit
to call attention to the provisions of the
law in this matter, I am charged with in-
sincerity.

Mr. Cooke said the legislature, because
it had passed an act with limitations, is
not debarred from passing an act with-
out limitations. "I am as earnestly in fa-
vor of free transfers as anyone, notwith-
standing the fact that I am considered in-
sincere.

Mr. Sisson said he did not mean by the
term 'insincere' in an offensive
sense, but merely to speak of the incon-
sistent position of the last speaker.

Mr. Cushing said he would vote for the
passage of the resolution, although he
saw in the repeal of the act that the chief
council would be put back in the position
that it was before the act was passed, of
having no strings on the Union Railroad
company. He considered that there was a
nice point of law involved in this matter,
a point that was not quite understood
even by members of the legal fraternity.

Mr. Grady said: "I believe that the
Union Railroad company will give trans-
fer tickets and I think that this body
can get them without going back to the
legislature. However, I shall vote for the
passage of the resolution.

Mr. Peterson said: "As
a matter of
fact, the United Traction company
en-
deavored to make a contract with
the
city council before it ever went to
the
legislature, but the council would have
none of it. The very things which
were
objected to here on the floor of the coun-
cil chamber and which were repudiated by
the citizens of Providence were passed by
the legislature. I don't think that this
act is dead, for if they thought that they
had votes enough in the city council they
would jump at the chance to make the
act binding."

Mr. Cooke moved to amend the resolu-
tion by adding the words "and that, in
place of said act the general assembly be
request to pass an act providing for free
transfer tickets in the city of Providence
without stations."

The amendment was adopted and the
resolution was passed by a unanimous
vote, the entire council voting in
the affirmative. The five members absent
or not voting were Messrs. Birmingham,
Blanchard, Gardiner, Rawson and Winn.

PAYING POLICE COMMISSION.

Mr. Smith from the committee
on
police, presented a resolution providing
for the payment of salaries of the police
commission, and the transfer of the un-
expended balance of the appropriation
for the license commissioner. The reso-
lution was passed. Mr. Peterson asked
to be excused from voting, but the coun-
cil would not permit it, and he voted in
the negative.

From the board of aldermen came reso-
Leave Fox Point Wharf every week
day at 7:30 p. m.; returning, leave Pier 18,
N. R., foot of Murray St., New York, at
p. m.

Staterooms at regular rates. Tickets,
rooms, etc., obtainable at ticket office,
Fox Point.

Prov., Fall River & Newport Steamboat Co.

ON AND AFTER SEPT. 16.

FOR NEWPORT

Week days only 4
m.

Return 8 a. m. week days. Stop
Prudence Mondays and Saturdays. Stop
Connecticut Mondays,

FOR FALL RIVER—Bristol
and
Bristol
Ferry 3 p. m.

Return 8 a. m. week days
only.

B.

BUREAU
Supt.
Transportation.

Daily
Service
-TO.
New York
VIA
JOY LINE

(SUNDAYS EXCEPTED)

Two large,
palatial steamers will per-
form a daily service between Providence
and New York, leaving Providence at 5:30
p. m., from South Water street, near
Point street bridge.

Returning, leave
New York at 5:00 p. m., from Pier No. 35,
East river.

Round Trip $1.50 One Way $1.00

Tickets and staterooms can be secured
IN ADVANCE at GIBSON'S, N. 5 Wey.
bosset street.

A. S. PITTS, Agent.

MERCHANTS
MINERS
Transportation
Company's