Mr. Davis, Williamsport-I ask if there are any roads which keep their statistics concerning their amusement business, separate and apart from their general business, showing exactly the amount of their travel which is due as near as they can tell to the amusement feature of their business. The experience in Pennsylvania among the small parks, is that the profits derived from the amusement business is not in proportion to the risk and the money spent, and in quite a majority of places the rule is that it is almost impossible for the manager to separate the hot weather travel on amusement lines from the travel due to the entertainment or park itself. Mr. Holmes, Kansas City-I will say that as far as Kansas City is concerned, where we have the out-of-town parks, we have kept careful records of the business, because we sell tickets to the park; and I would be glad to talk that over with anybody or send him information. I recently received a letter from Mr. Goodrich, of Minneapolis, who has a great deal of experience in the railroad business, and especially in the matter of parks. At Lake Harriett they have a nice pavilion, and they are entirely relieved of the expense of maintaining the park, and Mr. Goodrich is firmly of the opinion that it does not pay their company to employ a band of music or any other attraction for that park. I can easily understand why it would not, because in our northern cities, and Kansas City is almost one, as compared with New Orleans, our summer season only lasts probably two and a half months, and we are compelled to depend upon the weather for our business. If the nights are cool travel is very light. Speaking for Kansas City, I am convinced that we had better let the city furnish the parks and we contribute towards the music and attractions in the park. The real difficulty in 'establishing public parks in Kansas City was due to the fact that the street railroad companies had been quite liberal in providing parks. The people expected the companies to do it, and it is hard to overcome that feeling. The people would say, "What is the use of our being taxed with a lot of parks and their maintenance, when the street railroad people will do it?" But these conditions are changed. We now have a beautiful system of parks laid out for our city by the local authorities, and the company looks forward to great pleasure travel, contributing something to their support in the way of amusement. REMARKS OF MR. JOHN I. BEGGS ON "TO WHAT Mr. Beggs, Milwaukee-I quite agree with the general trend of Mr. Holmes' paper. For some years we have given in the public parks of the city band concerts for which the street railroad company paid the entire expenses, the city having no fund, as is the case in many cities. I thoroughly agree with that form of entertainment, and in behalf of our company we have a standing offer to duplicate any amount of money expended by the city, or raised by public spirited citizens for the purpose of giving music in the parks. Our experience, however, for two years was that where we paid the entire expense, as we did, taking the daily receipts of the particular lines leading to the resorts in which these entertainments were provided at the sole expense of the company, that we never got back at the outside more than seventy-five cents for each dollar spent. While we seem to have an increase of gross receipts, which increased our gross receipts tax likewise, and made us seem to be doing an abnormal business, so far as dollars and cents left in our treasury went, we were the losers. I am glad to hear this question discussed at this time, because we are having urged upon us now, by individuals, a scheme by which we would be called upon to put up a large amount of money for maintaining special amusements of this kind. From my experience and observation in various cities, I do not believe that it pays a street railway company to go into the amusement business. I think there is a great deal of misapprehension many times as to the manner in which this money is spent, by concentrating all the energies in this direction in one particular point of the city, and giving amusements at that place. They fail to recognize that much of the money spent there might have been spent in other sections, and with better effect; not to give so much special prominence to one point. I think our experience this year, where we have spent no money whatever on public entertainment, has convinced us pretty thoroughly that we are very greatly the winners by a refusal to contribute the entire amount necessary. I do believe in promoting the public parks of a city, as maintained either by the municipality or by public-spirited citizens, but I seriously doubt whether any of these expensively maintained entertainment resorts pay the companies that promote them. I think it is because they have not carefully analyzed the total cost nor the effect upon the general system, and if the same enterprise had been expended in improving the facilities for travel, in making their cars more cheerful and comfortable, and improving the roadbed, it would bring much larger returns than in spending it for a couple of hours of diversion in the afternoon or evening. [Applause.] Mr. Harrington, Camden-We have a park, and we have had considerable trouble due to the fact that the people would come and take the best seats, and would not ride on our cars. The park is very near the city, and in order to guard against the above, we furnished a ticket on the car to each passenger desiring to go to the park, and charged an entrance fee of ten cents to others. This method effectually shut out the objectionable element, and by the use of the ticket we determined the number of people going to the park. We find that our travel is increased. We receive, however, only about seventy per cent income from the park of what the park costs to operate. The travel on the road, of course, is increased, and we can tell from the tickets just the amount. We think we are making some money, but whether we would make the installation and furnish the park if we had to do it over again is a question. REMARKS OF MR. JOHN FARSON ON "TO WHAT EXTENT SHOULD STREET-RAILWAY COM PANIES ENGAGE IN THE AMUSE MENT BUSINESS." Mr. Farson, Chicago-The coming railroad manager who will be highly esteemed will be the man who not only gives his attention to reduced cost of operation, to the question of the very best electrical equipment, to the manner of the very best handling of his cars, to seeing that his track is kept in the very best condition, but he will also devote a large part of his thought to the question of the stimulation of travel. As has been well stated, the matter of riding on the cars is largely a question of habit, and in many cases to-day where roads are operated at a loss, or just about even, or at a small profit, a little attention on this line would mean dividends to the stockholders. From the standpoint of a stockholder I am very much interested in this question. It seems to me that the practical operators of roads could take this question up and study it from all its points of view, with great interest to the people who own the stock. Conditions, of course, vary. In many small towns of from ten to thirty thousand people, a little attention paid to the operation of a park, either directly by the company or by inducing someone to operate it for the company, would mean to-day a dividend to the stockholders. The street railway, like other institutions, needs leaders. and not followers. At the head of these institutions should be broad-minded, wide-awake, up-to-date men, who will study carefully the conditions which surround them and use every effort and energy for the purpose of bringing money into the treasury of the company. [Applause.] Mr. Claflin, Boston-We of the Norumbega Park, to which park you gentlemen are invited, have had a very different experience from some of the gentlemen who have spoken. We have adopted a different system from most of the street railway parks in Massachusetts, and it has certainly been a great success for the park and the railway. We have adopted the practice of charging an admission fee for the park and dis criminate in favor of our railway patrons. Our railway carries its patrons a distance of five and one-half miles for five cents. We sell on our cars for fifteen cents a round trip ticket, which includes admission to the park. We charge people going on foot or bicycle ten cents admission. The result is that the railway patrons get admission for five cents and the other people pay ten cents. That has a tendency to bring passengers to the railway company, and it has been a great success with us. The result has been that the park has maintained itself and costs the railway company nothing whatever for its maintenance. The revenue derived from the road has been net. Our line is a small one, but the patrons there have been worth nearly six hundred thousand fares to us, at five cents each, as the result of the park's entertainments. The admission to the park is through a registering turnstile, and we know where the patrons come from. This statement may be of interest as showing circumstances where a park can be made to maintain itself as an enterprise, and the railway not be put to any expense. The admission fee is small. We furnish theatrical entertainments, have a zoological garden, band concerts and other things, and manage to make the admission fee pay the entire expense, and also the interest on the money invested in the park, and the railway company gets its revenue net. REMARKS OF MR. ALBION E. LANG ON "TO WHAT PANIES ENGAGE IN THE AMUSE- Mr. Lang, Toledo—I want to offer a few suggestions that may be of value. Our city has about one hundred and forty thousand inhabitants. The Toledo Casino Company conducts a place of amusement on the lake shore about five and one-half miles from the center of the city. The company is controlled by some of the stockholders who are interested in our street railway company. It was not built by its present owners, but by parties who owned a competing street railroad, which has since come into our possession. Personally |