IS THIS ADMINISTERING JUSTICE?
B:, Jesse F. Orton, A. M., Ll.
Is This Administering Justice? By JESSE F. ORTON, A. M., LL. B: PUBLIC SERVANTS in the executive and legislative branches of government have been criticised and disciplined by the people to such...
...But government by "divine right" must soon retire from this last stronghold...
...The court attempts to show that the company merely charged, as it were, the present worth of a service to be rendered in the future...
...and therefore, in order to make the court's assumption true for the entire number of ticket-using passengers, some individuals must make six tickets last much longer than eight years, to bring up the average for all passengers to that figure...
...but if they rode in street cars they would know that the average time that a strip of six tickets lasts a passenger, is much nearer eight days than eight years...
...Elm-hurst, N. Y...
...The court said: "Indeed, we think it so evident that the purpose of the company was to adhere to the 5-cent charge as a basis that we are unable to see how the complainant, in contracting with the company with respect to the matter of its fares, could have had any reason to suppose that the ticket system introduced any other...
...These considerations would indicate that in adopting this charge for tickets the company had no intention of departing from the 5-cent standard charge for a continuous ride...
...Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co...
...but that what was intended, and all that was intended, was an equitable adjustment on the basis of p. 5-cent fare for a continuous ride, which would advantage its patrons in the way of convenience without entailing loss upon the company...
...The conclusion that the company's promise to continue "the present rates of fare" did not mean a continued sale, of six tickets for twenty-five cents, is based on argument to the effect that there was really no reduction in price from the five-cent standard...
...The court admits that some strips of tickets are "used promptly...
...Undoubtedly many individuals buy, on the average, at least one strip of six tickets every day...
...Power coming from above, whether it be the "prerogative" of the Stuarts to make laws, or the modern judicial prerogative to interpret and apply the law, is coming to look very much the same to the people...
...But the first ticket out of the six is ordinarily used at the time of purchase, and the period of prepayment for that ride is zero...
...The company had voluntarily adopted the custom of selling these tickets and also gave free transfers, upon certain intersecting lines, to passengers either paying five cents or presenting a ticket...
...The court said: "The only reasonable explanation is that in adopting the ticket system the object was to afford an additional convenience for a consideration, in the way of advance payment, which would equal the amount of the abatement in the fare in dollars and cents...
...Whether enough more rides will be taken to actually increase total net revenue, is a question which different companies have answered in different ways...
...There is a price at which the maximum of revenue will be realized, and it is at least possible that for street car service in Philadelphia this price is less than five cents per ride...
...The advance payment on account of each ride actually paid for in advance, is four and one-sixth cents...
...tickets equivalent to five-cent cash fares, six for twenty-five cents...
...The Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, prior to July 1, 1907, had acquired control of all the street railways in Philadelphia...
...It seems reasonable to estimate that the average life of a strip of six tickets would not be much more than four days...
...If a company pays five-sixths of a cent for the use of four and one-sixth cents during two days, it will be paying interest at the rate of 3,600 per cent, per annum...
...A few moments rightly used with pencil and paper would have saved the court from making this absurd statement...
...In addition to the actual inducement of a lower price per ride, there are many persons who are not above the human weakness of using tickets already purchased and in the pocket when they would not spend the hard coin...
...The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied that proposition...
...The persons who ride every day, down in the morning and up at night, who probably make up the bulk of ticket-users, would make twenty-five cents' worth of tickets last three days if they did no extra riding and were solitary travelers...
...After presenting its explanation, the court adds: "If any other purpose controlled, it is not apparent what it was...
...How the Decision Was Given THIS case was decided in favor of the traction company by Judge William H. Staake in the Court of Common Pleas for Philadelphia County...
...The Court's Explanation AS if doubting the persuasive character of its "interest" explanation, the court is careful to exclude every other possible hypothesis...
...It is only by supposing that the understanding of the parties with respect to it was wholly different from what the transaction on its face imports as to its meaning and purpose that we can read this ticket system into the terms of the proviso, and there is nothing in the case as presented that would give us warrant for so doing...
...On that date the company made a contract with the city, by which it acquired privileges of great value and, as partial compensation, agreed that "the present rates of fare" should not be changed without the city's consent...
...B: PUBLIC SERVANTS in the executive and legislative branches of government have been criticised and disciplined by the people to such an extent that it has become quite the fashion for them to be circumspect...
...Company Refuses Free Transfers AFTER May 18, 1908, the company refused to issue any free transfer except on the payment of a five-cent fare...
...If anyone wonders at the rapidity of this probably inevitable democratic movement, let him read this account of a recent decision by the highest court of the State of Pennsylvania...
...The court did not give this decision cautiously or doubtfully, or with some show of respect for the opposing view, as courts sometimes do...
...The sale of tickets at a rate lower than the single cash fare, has been a common practice in many cities...
...One is also tempted to inquire: If the Philadelphia company was not really selling tickets at less than five cents each, as the court proves to its own satisfaction, what reason could there have been for its refusing to give a transfer on a ticket the same as on a five-cent fare...
...That an agreement by a street railway company not to change its "present rates of fare," would bind it to continue such sale of tickets, seems to be a self-evident proposition which no normal and unbiased person would question...
...Courts are entitled to receive only that measure of respect which, in view of their judicial acts, they deserve...
...After observing that the passenger cannot get a single ride for four and one-sixth cents (a fact sufficiently *City of Philadelphia vs...
...Whatever the company gains in this way is at the cost of the party purchasing, of course...
...The city, claiming that the rates of fare had thus been changed without its consent, brought suit to compel the company to give transfers on tickets...
...it says that "the average individual" would not ride oftener because of that reduction in price...
...Assuming that the remaining five tickets are used at regular intervals, and remembering that they must be retained by the passenger four years on the average, it is evident that the entire strip of six tickets must last the passenger exactly eight years in order to make the court's assumption true in the case of any one sale of six tickets...
...It is evident that the estimated period of prepayment might be greatly lengthened without weakening the force of the argument...
...But the court does not content itself with saying that the increase in the number of fares received would not more than make up for the loss of five-sixths of a cent on each fare...
...Hitherto judges have considered it their right—their duty, even— to hold themselves above the "clamor" of the people whom they are chosen to serve...
...The company was all the while adhering to this 5-cent charge for the general public...
...The obvious motive is to encourage the use of the street cars, the five-cent charge being reserved for transient passengers and those who cannot or will not purchase tickets...
...but the validity of the court's explanation depends upon the truth of the hypothesis that this advantage "could be very fairly regarded as the full equivalent of the amount abated...
...After mentioning and rejecting some motives which no one would think of assigning as the cause of the company's sale of tickets, such as generosity and partiality to the well-to-do, the court .rays: "* * * No more can it be supposed that it was done with a view to increase the company's revenues through an enlarged traffic...
...The two remaining justices of the court, William P. Potter and J. Hay Brown, took no, part in the hearing of the case...
...It is elementary in economics, as well as in common experience, that a reduction in the price of an article or service often does increase revenue...
...but, as every one knows, all are not used promptly, and it is not mere speculation to say that the general average would show a very substantial benefit inuring to the company from this source, an advantage which could be very fairly regarded as the full equivalent of the amount abated...
...If by this it is meant that no one would ride oftener, the statement is contrary to economic principle and to all experience...
...Figure It Out THE "amount abated" on each ride is five-sixths of a cent...
...Possibly the members of the court ride in automobiles...
...accounted for by the difficulty of making change) and must therefore pay twenty-five cents before getting any service at all, the court says: "It results that the company gets the benefit of this advance payment without interest...
...In view of these figures, the reader will be allowed to judge whether the company sold tickets for the purpose of borrowing money or for the purpose of getting more passengers...
...It is mere matter of arithmetic to ascertain how long a ticket must be kept in the passenger's pocket before being used, in order to make the interest on four and one-sixth cents equal five-sixths of a cent...
...The court admitted that a refusal to give a transfer on a five-cent fare would have been a violation of the contract with the city...
...If the judges will recall their experience at the post office, they may remember that a single two-cent stamped envelope costs three cents, while a whole half-dozen may be bought for thirteen cents, five cents less than if sold at the rate of three cents each...
...But undoubtedly the average man does ride oftener when he gets six tickets for twenty-five cents...
...The case was decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court April 26, 1909.* The decisive question, as stated by the court, was whether the sale of six tickets for twenty-five cents was fairly included within the meaning of the phrase, "the present rates of fare...
...and no doubt the correct answer depends upon the particular circumstances of the case...
...Assuming that to be the correct period, the average time of pre, payment or each ticket would be two days...
...single cash fare with privilege of transfer to certain particular intersecting lines, eight cents...
...So the people of Philadelphia, with justice, facts and logic on their side, not only got nothing for their pains and paid the costs of the litigation, but were mildly lectured by the court for their presumption in supposing that they could make the city's traction monopoly observe the plain terms of its agreement...
...If it is meant that some persons would ride oftener but that the greater number would not, it is possible that the increase in riding would be sufficient to increase the company's revenue...
...St., 644, 73 Atl...
...The average individual would not be likely to take more rides during a month or year because of a reduction of five-sixths of a cent upon each ride...
...The fares then charged by the company were: Single cash fare, five cents...
...If they should do extra riding or should sometimes take their families or friends with them, their tickets would last less than three days...
...Reductions in the price of street railway service and other similar services do bring a greater demand for the service...
...Where all the six tickets are used promptly, the advantage derived by the company in this respect may be too slight to be considered...
...Undoubtedly their turn is coming...
...That the tendency of advance payment for any service is to increase the cash constantly found in the company's treasury, cannot be denied...
...224 pa...
...In the Supreme Court the opinion was written by Justice John Stewart and was concurred in by Chief Justice James T. Mitchell and Justices D. Newlin Fell, S. Leslie Mestrezat and John P. Elkin...
...At five per cent., a rate at which good companies of this class can borrow money, the ticket would have to be kept just four years...
...Judicial public servants have only begun to feel the force of popular criticism...
...This may benefit the company slightly in the way of interest on the money...
Vol. 2 • September 1910 • No. 36
