Motorcab
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Topics.
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There is some talk of equipping Dublin's side-ears with taximeters.
Halifax Developments.
Messrs. .1 iihb, Booth and Helliwell are the solicitors, and Mr. F. S. Mitchell, of Ward Ends, is the secretary of a company which it is understood is shortly to run taxicabs in Halifax. We mentioned the intentions, in this direction, of Messrs. J. Marsh and Co., the Halifax cab proprietors, in our last issue.
A Confirmation.
In response to several inquiries, we have confirmed the particulars with regard to the registration of the West End Taxi Cab Co., Ltd., ,s hich we published as a new registration in last week's issue. The registered address, as we then stated, is 53, Victoria Street, S.W., but it is possible that official occupation of the premises has not yet been completed. Messrs. Lloyd, Richardson and Co., 15, Clifford's Inn, E.G., registered the company.
An Uninteresting Demonstration.
The "great " taxicab drivers' demonstration, which it. was hoped by the Trades Union officials would take place in Trafalgar Square last Sunday afternoon, resulted in something of a fiasco. The " Daily Mail " somewhat quaintly reports the meeting as follows:—" It could hardly be called a 'groat public mass meeting without exaggeration, for there were not many snore than 100 people round the Nelson Monument when the promoters and speakers hoisted themselves up between the lions and began work a quarter of an hour after the appointed time. But the eloquence of Mr. Sam Michaels, the general secretary of the Motor Cab-Drivers' Protection Association, who was speaking, under one pretext or another, most of the afternoon, soon drew a respectable crowd, who found plenty of entertainment for an idle afternoon.
" If his audience had been inclined to take him very seriously, they might have thought that Mr. Michaels did their cause some harm by telling the world that it was impossible to be a taxieabman without degenerating morally and physically, . that if he had a. daughter be would cut her throat before he allowed her to marry one, and other things all tending to show that the taxicab-driver is (lithe as black as he is sometimes painted. But they did not seem to mind that, They laughed at his stories and jokes."
New Registration.
Sireno Co., Ltd. (private company),
with a capital of 4:3,000 in shares, to carry on the business of manufacturers of and dealers in electric warning signals, motor horns, projectors, switches, taximeters, and all kinds of accessories used in connection with motor vehicles, boats, or aeroplanes. S. F. Tyler is permanent governing director. Registered office; 46, Brewer Street, W.
A Short-lived Struggle.
A strike, of no great importance, on the part of the drivers of the Waterloo Taxicab Co., took place last week. The drivers were eventually allowed to return to work on the condition that any grievances, which they might have in future, were to be submitted direct to the responsible officials. The drivers did not press their original claim to retain the " extras." The company has undertaken to consider the men's complaints after they have returned to work. The Trades Unions' officials are dissatisfied with the result, and it looks to us as though the marked secretarial rivalry had impeded what the men regard as their interests.
A Hirer's Views.
We reproduce below a letter, which was written hv Sir Philip BurneJones to " The Times" and published in our contemporary on the 16th inst. This communication appears to represent so fairly the attitude of a cabusing member of the public upon the present taxicab situation, that we consider it useful to bring it to the notice of many of our readers who may not have read that issue of " The Times."
To the Editor of " The Times."
Sir,—I notice that the Motor-Cab Drivers' Protection Association state that in view of the acute position of the cab trade they intend to hold a public demonstration in Trafalgar Square next Sunday afternoon 0 to protest against the inspired, insidious, and unfounded attacks appearing recently in the public Press against the bona-fides of taxicab drivers, which are evidently intended to break down the confidence and friendly relations between the cab-drivers and the cabriding public."
It is difficult to break down that which has never existed, and I should be glad, Sir, as one of the cab-riding public, if you will allow me to suggest to the association that they might seek the cause of their trouble a little nearer home than in the moderate complaints about taxicab drivers which have from time to time appeared in the Press. As one of the public, I am not con cerned with the bona-fides of the men in question, but I do happen to know something of their bad manners, which have all the appearance of being quite bona-fide, and I should like some more than usually discourteous driver to confess to me, on behalf of his comrades, the cause of his discontent. Why, for example, are the instructions of an intending " fare " usually received in gloomy silence, so that he is obliged to make sure that the driver is not deaf before starting? What is the cause of the frequent disinclination of the driver to start at all, and, when remonstrated with, why is he so often insolent and abusive? Finally, why does he so rarely condescend to make any acknowledgment, even by gesture, of the '' tip " to which he is not legally entitled P The driver plies his cab presumably for hire and the support of himself and his family, and not solely to gratify a selfish hobby. Why be so furious with me when I offer to hire it?
I will suggest a reason.
Is it, perhaps, that the men are dis
satisfied with the present tariff and wish to reform it on the shilling-amile scale? This might explain, though it would not excuse, gruff behaviour towards the Superintendent of Police or the Home Secretary, or whoever is responsible for the details of the cab tariff—but why vent illtemper on the poor innocent public ? We, at least have done no wrong. My rude friend the taxicab driver will forgive me if I remind him that civility costs nothing, and that horrid manners are not really a sign of independence—besides being bad policy when levelled against those from whom he hopes to get his bread and butter.
With a little more politeness and consideration for the feelings of others on the drivers' part, they will no longer find it necessary to appeal in Trafalgar Square to the public for the sympathy which they themselves have done so much to alienate, but will find it readily extended to them at. thousands of street corners in -the ordinary course of business—surely a more satisfactory arrangement. Meantime a cabman said " Thank you! " to me for his fare last night—but he drove a. hansom cab.—Yours obediently,
PHILIP BrRNE-JONES.
41, Egerton Terrace, S.W., 15th August.