WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 25, 2021 27
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
beset by one transit problem aft er
another.
An editorial on the front page of Jan.
4, 1918 Ridgewood Times put it bluntly
with the headline: PRESENT TRANSIT
IS AN UNSPEAKABLE DISGRACE. A
subheadline below noted that, “Instead
of getting better, conditions are
growing worse, and no improvement
in sight.”
The editorial goes on to address
grievances that some commuters in
Queens might be able to relate to in
the present day. In some respects, it’s
the ultimate proof that the more things
change, the more they indeed stay the
same:
“Suff ering live cattle transported from
Western plains to the slaughtering pens
of Chicago are herded together far more
comfortably than are the human beings
who are suff ered to be jammed, rammed,
crushed, crowded, dragged and pushed
into the cattle cars of Brooklyn’s Ragged
Transit system. No on knows whether
they will come out with whole cloths
or only a button, with limbs or without
limbs.
The conditions are at the breaking
point! No one can realize the horror of
sitting back and forth at the rush hour
except those who are compelled to subject
themselves to the conditions that
exist….
We say nothing for the moment as to
the befuddled new rearrangement of this
disgraceful transit system — its lack of
accommodations, its miserable transfer
arrangements from elevated to surface,
its delays in working connections.
During the desperately cold days that
we have had, it has been inhumane to
say the least to compel people to wait at
the diff erent transfer points in Ridgewood
for cars that seem to make their
appearances less and less as each day
goes by.
Here, too, is an issue that needs to be
taken up and fought out to the fi nish by
our local people until more surface cars
are supplied.
But the vital thing at the moment
that our people should fi ght against is
the shortage of trains during the rush
hours, and the disgraceful herding and
packing of the young men and women
who are compelled to travel back and
forth daily in this manner….
DIVIDENDS MAY BE THE REAL
EXCUSE but dividends can never be
above human beings! Making money
to the detriment, danger and possible
death of the traveling public is a crime.
WE ARE NOT GOING TO DIE YET IN
ORDER THAT DIVIDENDS MAY LIVE!
THIS MUST BE CHANGED! MORE
CARS MUST BE SUPPLIED! And Ridgewood
should arise in such a powerful
demonstration of protest as has never
before been witnessed anywhere.
We are either cattle or worse than
cattle, or we are human beings entitled
to at least the simplest considerations
of protection that a human being has
reason to expect from the community
in which he lives.”
The editorial mentioned dividends
because the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
— unlike today’s MTA, which has operated
the M line and all other NYC subway
lines since 1968 — was a for-profi t
company. The company was created in
1896 to consolidate rail line operations
in Brooklyn and Queens. For a time, it
was a publicly traded company on the
New York Stock Exchange.
While the BRT proved infl uential
in building the city’s subway system,
the company began to tank during
the 1910s due to inflation and the
start of World War I. The company
began cutting back on services, and it
caused much of the system to fall into
disrepair.
The company took a further economic
hit — and a severe public relations
blow — following the derailment
and crash of a train at the Malbone
Street (later Empire Boulevard) station
in Brooklyn on Nov. 1, 1918. It
was one of the worst train crashes in
American history, claiming 93 lives.
BRT soon fell into insolvency, but
was restructured out of bankruptcy
in 1923, becoming the Brooklyn Manhattan
Transit Corporation (BMT). The
BMT would later be sold to New York
City in 1940, and the subway system
was no longer a for-profi t venture, but
rather a public utility.
Additional information about the
BRT can be found on NYCSubway.com.
***
If you have any remembrances or
old photographs of “Our Neighborhood:
The Way It Was” that you would
like to share with our readers, please
write to the Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood
Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY
11361, or send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. Any print photographs
mailed to us will be carefully
returned to you upon request.
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