Star-Gazette from Elmira, New York • 11

1 i i i jwnw wfci THUKSDAT, MAY 8, 1958. -ELMIRA STAR-GAZETpE- -PAGE ELEVEN. State Okays Halt In Auburn Run by New York Central ALBANY MP) The Public Cp" Service Commission reversed it wanted to consolidate them to reduce costs. The commission yesterday also called a hearing on the Central's petition to abandon passenger service on it St. T.nwrpn ni.

self sharply today and authorized the New York Central Railroad to abandon passenger service on its Auburn branch. vision, in northern New York. The branch runs 102 miles -Sv I ine railroad says it is losing money there. In the reDort made nuhlic in- from Syracuse to Rochester, via Auburn, Geneva and Canandai-gua. The railroad may drop service on the line upon 10 days' notice, to the public.

day, Rothstein said there was ample bus service to Rochester and Syracuse from Auburn. He Commission Examiner Jacob I. concluded: Rothstein reported the railroad ran up a system-wide deficit of "Travel over the Auburn branch is so licht and rfpolinino more than 51 million dollars on passenger operations last year. and the cost of operation so en About $100,000 was lost on the Auburn branch because of steadily declining patronage. ormously greater than the revenues that continued operation of the Auburn branch cannot possibly now be justified." He said it would not be in the public interest "to continue to impose a needless expendi mm, MAJOR HONORED SEOUL, Korea tfl MaJ.

Frank A. Jawaorski of Auburn. N. v. ture" of this kind on the rail road.

has received a plaque for his Only five months ago, the PSC work with an orphange in Seoul, U. S. Army headquarters announced today. denied the Central permission to drop the four passenger trains it operates on the branch. At that time, the PSC angrily accused the Central of deliberately discouraging passenger travel on its trains in favor of the more lucrative freight ONCE THE BREESPORT STATION on the grapher's bay is indicated by arrow.

The old line, (later the Lehigh Valley) and now the home of the Max which extended between Elmira and Canastota by way Struble family. The house faces on Depot St. The rail- of Ithaca, was prosperous in the day when lumber road right-of-way is shown by the dotted line. The tele- was abundant and trains were the only swift means of communication. It was torn up in the early 1930's: FABULOUS Rayon The commission said then: "If a company sees fit deli Plight of the Railroads: 4 berately not to hold its service open to the public, it cannot be heard when it complains that the public does not patronize it." CS Taffeta Si Rothstein was quoted at the time as saying the Central "is doing nothing to promote its' passenger service and everything to discourage it." goods.

Elmira became a city of sizable hotels. Stores and Today action came a day after the PSC ordered the COLORS: White, black, navy, pink, reef, brown, green, otchld, beige, maize or Jighf Jbluc. Central to continue operating the Empire State Express and the! Dewitt Clinton on present sche-j dules. They are among the railroad's most heavily traveled passenger trains between New York I and Buffalo. The two trains have been SIZES 32 to 44 profitable, but the railroad HOW FANFLARE 6 gore skirt, bot.

SLIM CLIPPER straight sheath LHKlDllAN SCIENCE torn flounce. Adjustable shoulder straps. Grand under full summer skirts. Just pick your color we have them all. slip with side zipper, pleats at bottom for ease of walking.

Snip-it bottom. 32 to 40. White, red, black, navy or light blue. HEALS Station 1 5 WENY 1230ke ISZABD'S LXNOEBIB-Stret Tioor commercial establishments flourished and theaters drew patrons from a broad area. Activity concentrated along the once-welcome railroads.

It was to become a problem in later years when communities which planted so much of their life beside the railroads became dissatisfied with the growth. Four decades or more ago, this dissatisfaction generated relocations and elevated structures in many a city including Elmira. The Erie went on stilts through Elmira after a long and expensive season of construction a portion of which was up to the railroad to pay. The Erie last June made known that it still owed about $600,000 on the Elmira elevated job and it wasn't sure where the money was coming from. It is considerably less sure today.

THERE WERE other reasons why communities welcomed the railroads. One of the reasons was employment. The other was taxes. The railroads were a big employer of local people and they grew bigger through the years. They also owned property.

Property is taxable. And taxed it was as heavily as the traffic would' bear. Taxes piled on taxes were something the railroads could live with as long as they were making money. They didn't enjoy the squeeze and whenever they could they tried to ease it. But the tax squeeze is not easy to deal with.

There's one county railroad men talk about (not in New York State) where the annual tax bill on a double track railroad was about $9,000 a mile. It is not remarkable that the railroads sought ways to abate this heavy charge. -The business of seeking ways to do it took on accelerated pace when other costs began to bloat with inflation and when earning statements took on an increasingly anemic hue. SEVERAL YEARS ago.the Lackawanna and Erie began to study the possibilities of joining facilities at many points where their lines were close together. By so doing, they could pare something from -their tax bills.

Down came many buildings along the railroads old stations long unused or not needed, and facilities no longer worth the maintainings. The dieselization of the railroads brought further elimination of unneeded structures like water towers and coal facilities. Every one that came down became one less taxable item. In addition, the railroads have engaged in "cannibalism" and "deferred maintenance." As its name suggests, "cannibalism" is the business of living off oneself, selling securities in which railroad funds in better days had been invested, extensive salvage operations, etc. "DEFERRED is a euphemism sometimes for neglect.

Most railroads are putting money now in only the most vital of repairs. Equipment that used to be kept well painted is taking on a shoddy look. When a railroad spends a nickel today, it is because it should have spent a dime yesterday and will have to spend a quarter tomorrow if maintenance is further deferred. With every economy- that could be Instituted, American railroads last year paid an aggregate of $1,069,000,000 in taxes. When they plead for tax relief, they do so as a goose that has laid golden eggs in America for more than a centurya goose that can keep right on laying them unless it is allowed to die.

NEXT Financial Contribution of the Railroads. Flown Direct from Holland Via KLM Dutch Airlines BY W. CHARLES BARBER The saga of the Iron Horse is one to fire the imagination of any American. Along the steel pathway over which it charged sprang up cities and towns. It was a means by which the products of the hinterland were made available to rich markets the means by which the hinterland itself became a rich market.

The railroads can be thanked for industries which help in such large measure to sustain the economies of thousands of cities and towns. Over the rails the industries could get their raw materials and over the same rails went the products from mills that whirred in what without railroads would be a pastoral scene. The cities and towns along the Erie and Lackawanna railroads using Elmira as the hub have prospered because of the availability and excellence of transportation. A THUMBNAIL HISTORY of the Elmira area typifies the story. Ours was an agricultural economy until the canal-building days of the 1820s.

When the Erie Canal, and a few years later the Chemung, the Feeder and the Junction Canals came along to tie this region into the Finger Lakes to the north and the Pennsylvania canal system to the south, Elmira was quick to feel the impact. Goods came into the region in return for the lumber, grain, coal and lime that went slowly to market on barges and arks. It was a commerce in which men made money which they risked to build plants to produce goods for mar-kets. Moreover, the canals were communication routes and newspapers from Wilkes-Barre, Baltimore and Philadelphia came into the region. So did men and women, lured by the prospect of gain in a new and lush country.

TAKING ELMIRA AS the hub, cities and towns in the region have prospered because of the availability and ex-; cellence of transportation. First in the picture was the east-west Erie connecting Piermont on the Hudson with Dunkirk on Lake Erie. Next were the north-south Elmira Williamsport and the Che- mung Railroad north to Seneca Lake these lines later to be merged into the Northern Central and eventually to become part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. In later years came the State Line Railroad, the Utica, Ithaca Elmira and to the east, the Lehigh Valley, with the Delaware, Lackawanna St Western adding the transportation capstone hereabouts. It is interesting to note that some of the Lackawanna's line into Elmira was built on the towpath of the Junction Canal.

THE GREAT AGE cf rail transportation began to dawn In the 1830s. The lately-abandoned Lackawanna branch between Owego and Ithaca was built in almost frantic haste to compete with the Chemung Canal linking Elmira and the region to the south with Seneca Lake and the canal system across Central New York. It was the dream of Ithaca promoters to establish even faster transportation Into Ithaca and Cayuga. THERE ALSO WAS a dream of an early railroad to connect Ithaca and Elmira and considerable work was done on the right-of-way. A few fragments of it still may be, seen from Rt.

13 near Newfield. It came to the same fate as the Pittsburgh, Binghamton Eastern which projected a line through Canton, toward Monroeton. Its monument is an occasional piece of tree-grown grading and the cuts through which the Canton-Towanda highway passes. 1 Railroads were greeted as boons to the communities into which they laid their rails and towns jostled and competed and engaged in all sorts of dickering and hoopla not all of it of the highest ethical order to win the gleaming rails. BECAUSE OF ITS location, Elmira was richly favored In the railroad-building era and It gained quick impetus as the trains rolled through with their cargoes of humans and HszzanrdTs Timber's Latgest Dept.

Store For Fine Pastries Shop At Select Your QBulbs RJdDW from ver MHI Full HSlooms in Over 40 Varieties! FOR EARLY FALL PLANTING made to order DOZEN BULBS It's tulip time at Iszard'sl Last week the very blooms which you can see In our windows and throughout the main floor were blooming In Holland. KLM Dutch Airlines brought them dew-fresh from the fields in Holland to Iszard's in Elmira. Old favorites plus new and unusual varieties, here for you to see and select; the bulbs you choose will be sent to you next fall in time for planting. See this magnificent display todayl ISZARD'S NOTIONS Street Floor Bakery Department Come in and register for FREE BIRTHDAY CAKE 50 LUCKY WINNERS Register your name and birth date at our' new bakery counter, featuring fine pastries at their very best. pies DOUGHNUTS CAKES SPECIALTY BREADS COOKIES PARTY COOKIES SWEET BUNS PARTY CAKES -FOR ALL OCCASIONS- "Remcinber if it't from ten's it's made of the finest" 134-142 West Yater Street A custom-made fashion in this modern dayl Made-to-Order Face Powder by Charles of the Ritz created for your skintones alone hand-blended before your very eyes.

Have it boxed loose, $1.50, $2.50 and also pressed into an elegant compact, $2.00. All plus tax. MINIMUM ORDER Vi Dz. of one VARIETY i ss a ElMIRA'S LARGEST DEPT. STORE 150 N.

MAIN ST. PHONE 7171 10 MONTHS TO PAY THE I.B.A. WAY HUSO'S COSMETICS BtrMt floor.