The City-Wide System

Creation of Cleveland Railway, discussed last week, gave the city a comprehensive transportation network. Whereas, in the past, traveling about the city might require transferring form one company to another – and, of course, paying an additional fare – it was now possible to move quickly and easily all over town.

But there were disputes over how the system was to be run, and by whom. Much of this dispute centered on two of Cleveland’s major “movers and shakers” of the period, Cleveland Mayor and former Congressman Tom L. Johnson and US Senator Marcus Hanna. Johnson, although a formerly very hard-hitting businessman, had become a committed advocate of the public interest whereas Hanna was a strong defender of the business interest. Johnson believed that Cleveland’s transit system could run successfully with a fare of only three cents, as opposed to the five-cent fare charged by Cleveland Railway Co.

Johnson’s hope was for eventual municipal ownership, although this would require a change in Ohio law. A major political war developed, with financial disputes, legal battles going all the way to the US Supreme Court and franchise battles at City Hall. Also, service suffered badly, costing Johnson much of the public support he had previously enjoyed. Eventually, the federal courts were forced to step in, and in 1910 a plan known as the Tayler Grant, for the federal judge who devised it, was approved by the railway company, by City Hall and by the voters. The company was granted a 25-year franchise, and provisions were made to protect the public’s interest. And the three-cent fare was adopted.

Pictures 1 & 2 show Johnson & Hanna. 3 & 4, Columbus Metropolitan Library, show #564, a car of Hanna’s Cleveland Railway & #943, One of Johnson’s cars. Both are typical wooden deck-roof cars of the transition period