::GOULD AND THE MANHATTAN.

To the Editor of The New York Times:

You published on Sunday an expression of sympathy for Mr. George Gould for the thorny path he has to travel before he arranges his plans for improvements on the Manhattan Railway. Some one said, ‘I feel very sorry for George Gould,” but while there is justice in this, there are many intelligent men in this city who will say, “I do not feel at all sorry for George Gould, because it lies largely in his own power to handle the matter in such a way as to eradicate the thorns altogether from his path.”
I have been told that the Drexels have $100,000 or more invested in the Keely motor, and they get no sympathy, for, by employing an engineer at the proper time, the capitalists of the country could be saved from such fakes at very little cost. Though it is suggested that Mr. Gould intends avoiding such mistakes, and will consult competent men, I will not say experts, for that word, though unjustly, has acquired a bad odor, to advise him, the selection of these men may prove a more serious question than the one they are expected to decide on. The late Col. Hain was requested to meet an inventor of a system of electric traction, but said, “Do not bring’ any one to me unless he is prepared to meet every view of the case. I have had General Electric and other electric men to see me, and, while they appear to have perfected their mechanical contrivances, they have entirely overlooked the exigencies of railroad management, from the manager's point of view, and those questions must be answered before we can consider any system.”
I have put the above in quotation, as being the nearest I can give at this time of Col. Hain’s words, as told me by the gentleman who requested the interview.
The losses have been great, due to the failure properly to appreciate the relative importance of the various questions. There has been a strong and mistaken feeling that, because electricity entered into the factors of construction of so-called electric roads, a man calling himself an electric engineer was, regardless of other necessary experiences, the one to be employed. It would be about as reasonable to say we must employ a horse fancier to design and construct a street railroad.
In the case of the Manhattan, the main questions are: Steam engines? The engine builders can produce them. Dynamos and motors? The electric manufacturing companies can make them. The method of taking up and handling the current from the circuits? This question is more intimately connected with the managerial or operating question than any other. Shalt it be by locomotives or by motors on occasional cars with trailers or by motors on each car? The facilities of operation will largely influence the decision, for the details accompanying these various methods must accommodate themselves to the many conditions that must be met, and can only be appreciated by a man of considerable experience in railroad operation.
An electric man is necessary to approve all circuits and electrical contrivances, a mechanical man to pass on mechanical features, and, above all, a man who must be a reasonable judge of such features, and especially of experience in railroad operation, who can say that, no matter how well the system may work when everything is
new and in good shape, yet it shall be so devised that in emergencies or accident everything shall not become demoralized.
As, for instance, a car becomes derailed and thrown across the track, short circuiting between the conductors, when, if an are should be formed and fire follow, (a terrible supposition in the case of the elevated) the system must be such as to permit a local cut out, without disturbing operations on the rest of the line. This is only one case of many that may occur to the mind of a railroad man.

CHARLES J. BATES
New York, Jan. 25, 1898.

Published: January 28, 1898
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