REPRESENTATIVES OF TRADE PAPERS.

The following representatives of the technical press were

at the meeting:

AMERICAN ELECTRICIAN.

James H. McGraw, E. L. Powers.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEER.

T. Commerford Martin, A. C. Shaw, W. P. Sullivan.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING.

Fred De Land.

ELECTRICAL REVIEW.

Stephen H. Goddard, Charles W. Price.

ELECTRICAL WORLD.

J. V. S. Church, W. J. Johnston, Charles T. Rittenhouse.

ELECTRICITY.

Charles D. Shain.

RAILROAD GAZETTE.

John N. Reynolds, Arthur J. Wood.

POWER.

S. W. Hume, H. M. Swetland.

STREET RAILWAY JOURNAL.

John B. Bennett, Reo. Bennett, Henry W. Blake, Edward E. Higgins, C. Kammeyer, James H. McGraw, W. H. Taylor.

STREET RAILWAY REVIEW.

G. J. M. Ashby, J. R. Cravath, F. S. Kenfield, H. J. Kenfield, Francis, W. Lane, H. H. Windsor.

WESTERN ELECTRICIAN.

W. Forman Collins, F. D. Hampson, Frank L. Perry.

OFFICIAL STENOGRAPHER.

T. E. Crossman.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF LAST REGULAR MEETING.

The President: The next order of business is the reading of the minutes of the last regular meeting.

Mr. Baumhoff, St. Louis Mr. President, I move you that the reading of the minutes of the last regular meeting of this Association be dispensed with. Carried.

Mr H. H. Littell, Buffalo: Does that motion include the approval of the minutes of the last meeting?

Mr. Baumhoff: I did not embody it in my motion, but think the motion would include it.

Mr. H. H. Littell: I make a motion that the minutes of the last meeting be approved. Carried.

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT.

The President read the following address:

Gentlemen of the Association:

I have to thank you for the honor you have done me in electing me your President.

For the second time, after eleven years of absence, the Convention meets in the City of St. Louis-the metropolis of the upper Mississippi --and it receives to-day the same cordial welcome, the same generous hospitality and the same courteous and marked consideration, that distinguished our meeting here in 1885; and our first duty is to thank the members of our Association in this city for their active and successful efforts in providing for the entertainment of their guests.

I desire, also, to thank the supply men, in the name of the Association, for their very liberal display of exhibits, more space having been taken for this purpose this year than at any Convention which has hitherto been held by the Association.

The Association is to be congratulated upon the fact that during the past year no deaths have occurred in the ranks of its members. We meet again this year the same in number as at our last gathering. Papers of great value and interest will be read upon the subjects of

TRACKS AND TRACK JOINTS-Construction, Maintenance and
Bonding.

TRUCKS.

HOW CAN THE REVENUE OF STREET RAILWAYS BE INCREASED? -taking into consideration the Collection of Fares, Method of Registry, Transfers, Use of Tickets or Cash Fares, and Attractions along the Line of the Road.

THE MODERN POWER HOUSE.

MODERN OVERHEAD ELECTRIC CONSTRUCTION.

THE SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES.

I will not dwell upon the statistics of street railways during the past year, for the reason that these are amply supplied by the street railway press. I have, however, thought it advantageous to lay before you some general considerations upon the present and future of street railway interests in the United States, the dangers and difficulties which beset them, the way in which these difficulties are to be met, and the prospect and hope of brighter conditions for the future.

Among the most serious difficulties with which we have to contend

to-day is the growing disposition of the government, whether state or municipal, to increase our burden of taxation. This disposition has increased of late years, and even within the last year, to a marked degree. The extraordinary prejudice against corporations, among people otherwise intelligent, causes them to be regarded as legitimate objects of attack and spoliation. Those who have once become affected with this prejudice seem to be unable to understand that a corporation is simply a collection of persons, by means of which individual resources, which would otherwise be frittered away in individual enterprises, are brought under one direction, making possible the success of large undertakings requiring an aggregation of capital. Of all corporations those which suffer most from this prejudice are those which exercise a public franchise, and the street railway franchise seems in particular to be a favorite object of restrictive legislation. With the arbitrary limitation of the rates of fare, and the obligation of conforming the roadbed to every change in the street through which it passes, on the one hand, and the imposition of direct burdens of taxation in the way of personal taxes, taxes on roadbed, license taxes, franchise taxes, taxes on gross earnings, and taxes on dividends, on the other hand, the financial limits within which the workings of a street railway are confined have become exceedingly narrow. Sometimes it almost seems as if the legislative agencies in our various states would not stop until they had brought the burden of taxation to a point where the roads could no longer run.

For such a state of things, it seems to me that the only remedy is to be found in that gradual enlightenment of the public, by which it will be induced to keep the imposition of financial burdens within reasonable bounds, and such a broadminded and conciliatory management of the roads as shall in time do away with the last vestige of popular prejudice. Any successful business corporation manages and controls forces far greater than those which are at the command of a single individual and its very power makes it an object of jealousy and attack. But I for one do not believe that the intelligence of the American people will in the long run go astray on this question any more than on any other. I believe that it is beginning to recognize, and will recognize still more clearly as time goes on, the necessity for combination and co-operation in all departments of business; and that if a proper spirit of moderation is shown-and this I consider of the first importance-by those in whose hands this extraordinary power is placed, the community at large will discover that the benefits which it derives from transportation corporations far exceed any subject of complaint which it may have against them, and will meet them upon the footing of a common interest without regard to the corporate character of the agency by which the power is excercised.

Another, and one of the severest strains to which street railway corporations are subjected, consists in the penalties imposed by courts, for the negligence of their employes. Recent years, and especially the

last two years, have seen a great increase in the number of negligence suits and in the size of verdicts. There is a marked tendency at the present time, on the part of juries, to fix a higher scale in estimating damages for personal injuries. Cases where formerly verdicts of $2,500 were rendered, now often result in a judgment for $5,000, and others in like proportion. The State of New York has recently removed the limit of $5,000 in cases of death, so that now a verdict of $20,000 in a case of death is by no means unusual. The doctrine of contributory negligence, which in theory, and as duly expounded by the courts in charges to juries, would preclude any recovery in cases where it is shown, seems only to be considered by juries-if considered at all—as a slight makeweight against the plaintiff in determining the amount of damages, Probably no class of cases exist in which it is so difficult to meet false testimony as in these, even when its falsity is perfectly apparent.

I do not mean to suggest for a moment that street railway companies are without fault in the matter of accidental injuries, but I do say that, profoundly as we must sympathize with the suffering and the unfortunate, we ought not to be compelled to pay the penalties of negligence where the negligence was due to the sufferer himself, nor should a case be sent to a jury where this fact is disclosed by the plaintiff's own statement. As was well said some time ago by the General Term of the Supreme Court of New York:

"To leave it to a jury to say that such acts under such circumstances do not constitute negligence, would be to throw away the best understood legal standing, and substitute in its place any whim which might chance to flit through the minds or run in the emotions of uninstructed and unbridled jurors."

Whatever may be the ultimate result of existing tendencies in courts and juries, we may still hope for improvement in the matter of accidents, as people become more accustomed to the high rate of speed in the streets, which they now exact from street railways. No community which has had the benefit of rapid street railway transportation would ever be willing to go back to the old five or six mile an hour rate of horse cars. It must learn, and it will learn, that it cannot have this benefit without a certain element of danger, and whether it runs the risk of this danger in traveling as passengers on the cars or in walking or driving in the roadway, it will come in time to take those precautions by which the great majority of accidents could readily be avoided.

For those accidents which no ordinary precaution on the part of the sufferer could avert, I believe there is one remedy, and only one, and that lies in the hands of the management of street railways. That remedy is to be found in THE DISCIPLINE OF THE FORCE. If discipline is slack, accidents will be frequent. If discipline is high and well maintained, accidents will be reduced to a minimum. As in every

other great organization, the spirit which controls at the top penetrates through all the branches of the system, and the means by which it penetrates is the discipline maintained over the force by its head. In this one element of discipline, I believe, lies the secret of preventing the ruinous losses which follow from damage suits.

The last two years have seen the introduction of an unlooked-for competitor in city, and especially in suburban transportation, and that is the bicycle. In some places where its use is peculiarly advantageous, it has undoubtedly cut down earnings very heavily. I do not believe, however, that in the long run the street railway business is going to suffer on that account. Anything, to my mind, that promotes in our American people the habit of locomotion, particularly of rapid locomotion, is beneficial to street railways. No doubt the bicycle has come to stay, and no doubt upon some suburban routes its competition has been serious, but it is still, to a great extent, a novelty, and when the effects of novelty have worn off, and the use of the bicycle is limited to those who will habitually make use of it all their lives, I think there will still be found quite enough people who prefer street cars as a means of locomotion, even in places where the bicycle can be used.

In spite of the disadvantages of which I have spoken, under which street railways suffer, and in spite of the financial difficulties which have prevailed for the past three years, and which have told as heavily upon street railways as upon any other interest, I believe they have before them a bright and prosperous future. In their prosperity every man, woman and child in our city communities, and in many rural districts, is directly interested. They have been of enormous benefit in spreading out populations over a larger area, in relieving densely congested districts in cities, and in making possible suburban homes, where the man who pursues his business in the heart of the city can live with his family at a distance from his office, and with them enjoy the benefits of space, of sunlight, of fresh air, of trees and gardens, and of rural surroundings. This is especially true of the more modern forms of rapid transportation, by which the time of transit is reduced. The luxury of such a home as I have described, to those of moderate means, who hitherto have been crowded into small and unwholesome flats or tenements, is one of the many blessings which the modern street railway has bestowed upon the community, and those who have reaped the benefits of it are not likely to forget it.

In conclusion, I desire to congratulate the Association upon the large number of its members who are present here to-day, and to express the hope, in which I am sure all of you will join me, that this meeting will be the most harmonious, as well as the most interesting, that we have ever held. (Applause.)

Mr. Green, St. Louis: I move that the address of the President be spread upon the minutes. I congratulate the