Who killed the motorettes?
This story is a little different from what I usually write about because it's not centered around a building, but a group of people—pioneering women who broke down barriers in the early 20th century. They were called motorettes, a name that probably doesn't mean a whole lot to most people today, but back in 1920s they were a familiar part of Albuquerque's urban landscape, as commonplace as paperboys or milkmen. The motorettes were the drivers of the city's streetcars, and for nine years they braved crime, accidents, and the elements to take people where they needed to go. And then they were rewarded for this hard work by being deliberately cast aside and forgotten about. Meanwhile, the man who was largely responsible for their demise continues to be remembered and honored to this day. I would like to set the record a bit straighter.
First, a little context. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, electric streetcars were the main mode of public transportation throughout the U.S. They weren't super common in New Mexico, which didn't have many large cities at the time, but the state did have two operating streetcar systems in Albuquerque and Las Vegas. The first electric streetcars in Albuquerque started running in 1904, replacing an earlier horse car line. By 1916, the system had five lines with about 7 miles of track serving Downtown, Old Town, Barelas, Huning Highlands, the university, and the Sawmill district.1 In an era before widespread car ownership, the streetcar was how most people got around, and it carried about 2,000 passengers a day at its peak.2
The motorettes came into the picture in 1918. The City Electric Company, which operated the streetcars, desperately needed more drivers, but the combined effect of World War I and the flu pandemic made it basically impossible to find any men for the job. Other cities were having the same problem, and the only solution they could find was to employ women instead. In fact, women were stepping into lots of jobs that had been exclusively for men. A 1918 ad for the Pictorial Review women's magazine proclaimed "Twelve million women earning money; women’s money in women's pockets... Women chauffeurs! Women police! Women farmers! At least two million of them. Women elevator boys! Everywhere! Women street car conductors—thousands of them! Women in war industries—Already a million and a half of them!"3 Albuquerque followed suit, with City Electric announcing on September 26 that the positions were now open to women.4
The day after City Electric's announcement, the Journal reported, "A small advertisement in the Morning Journal brought forth a bevy of women workers, asking for a chance to show the world that the American woman is willing and not afraid to grasp the wheels of industry, allowing her men to go forth and fight the battle of humanity and for the cause of freedom."5 Just two days after that, a "most enthusiastic class of young women in their teens and older women in their forties" were already hard at work learning how to drive the streetcars. The Journal wrote that "Albuquerque is becoming real citified by degrees. As it seems now we won't be surprised to see ladies in 'koveralls' with greasy hands and faces, in a short time. Neither will we be surprised to have our street cars run by ladies or conductorettes. The day is almost here when women will run things, and then they will not be considered the weak, clinging vine type of human."6 On October 20, the newly trained women drivers hit the street for the first time.7
Needless to say, the new situation took some getting used to for a lot of people. It hadn't been that long since it would have been surprising to see a woman on a streetcar at all, much less driving it. Just a few years earlier, in 1912, no less an institution than the Washington Post had ridiculed the idea: "What motormiss, on her way down the Avenue, could resist the temptation to stop her car and pass the time of day with Mamie, who, bound uptown, would stop and swap the latest news in parlor social circles, while passengers within could either bask in the smiles of the two trim little conductors, rail at fate, or get off and walk. Women are crowding men enough. Let them keep out of the railway business."8 But the Albuquerque motorettes were apparently able resist the overwhelming impulse to stop and gossip, and kept the cars on schedule just fine.
By July, 1919, the war had ended, and it started to be suggested in certain quarters that men should be placed back in charge of the streetcars. But the motorettes objected, pointing out that many of them were supporting families, and they wouldn’t be able to earn equivalent wages in the other jobs available to them.9 Apparently their lobbying was successful, because they kept their jobs, and City Electric continued to employ only women drivers for the rest of its existence. According to a later Associated Press article, "In retaining the women operators after the war the management announced that records of the company showed that the motorettes had operated the cars with fewer accidents and more efficiency than had the men who formerly were employed."10
On paper, the motorette's duties were simple: she had to drive the streetcar, collect fares from passengers, and when she reached the end of the line, prepare the car to reverse directions by lowering the trolley pole at one end of the roof and raising the other one. Of course, there was more to it than that. She also had to contend with everything from drunk and unruly passengers to frequent collisions—evidently Albuquerque drivers were just as reckless in the 1920s as they are today. An account of one accident, which would probably seem painfully familiar to any ART driver, read, "According to the charge of Policeman Renfro, who was directing traffic, Lee drove by a signal to stop, turned right in front of a street car and his auto was struck in the rear end in a collision which followed. The charge states that Lee was intoxicated, and talked abusively…"11 In another crash, "The truck was going east on Marquette avenue and the street car was going south on Second street. The motorette declared that Thurston attempted to beat the street car to the crossing despite her warning bell."12
Attempted robberies were another hazard of the job. The unarmed motorettes with their change belts probably seemed like easy targets, but rarely gave in without a fight. In 1923, May Land defied three would-be robbers who held her at gunpoint, telling them "No, you can't get this money," and then shouting at them until they fled.13 Another streetcar driver, Pat McCaffrey, chased a thief who made off with her cash box but wasn't able to catch him.14 There was also the problem of near-constant derailments, which required a work crew to be brought in to lever the car back onto the tracks, sometimes with the help of impatient passengers. The motorettes' boss, John Merritt, blamed the problem on the women being too weak to properly operate the streetcar brakes,15 but in truth the streetcars derailed all the time when men were driving them too.16,17,18 And then there were the pranksters who liked to put railroad torpedoes on the tracks—small detonators that went off with a bang when the streetcar ran over them, alarming anyone in the vicinity. Except of course for the motorettes, who were used to it.19,20
Unfortunately for the motorettes, they, or at least City Electric in general, had enemies. All over the country, streetcar ridership was decreasing as more and more people started owning their own cars, and with revenues falling, streetcar operators weren't able to maintain the same level of service and maintenance as before. The result was that the streetcars were increasingly seen as decrepit, outdated, and backwards, and thanks in part to lobbying from the automotive industry, shiny new buses were often seen as a better alternative. This was certainly true in Albuquerque, where 200 people signed a petition in 1926 asking the City Commission for a bus line.21 The plea definitely fell on sympathetic ears, especially those of Clyde Tingley, who was Chairman of the Commission at the time. Tingley was a complicated figure who cast a long shadow during more than three decades in local politics. As Chairman, he wielded outsized power in the city government and was often referred to as the "mayor" in the press even though his role was meant to be equal in standing to the other four commissioners.22,23 His opponents called him a "czar" and accused him of turning the Commission into a machine for rubber-stamping his initiatives.24,25 Regardless of how justified these criticisms were, he was in a powerful position to influence the outcome of the bus debate.
Fortunately for the bus supporters, Tingley was firmly on their side. It wasn't so much that he loved buses; he just really hated the streetcar, as he made known on numerous occasions. He called City Electric "the most dilapidated public utility in the world"26 and said that its tracks were a "public menace". On an occasion when the streetcar was out of service, the Journal reported that "The only thing missed... was the noise, the mayor said."27 He even went so far as to call the potential bus system "the best chloroform for this street car company."28 Tingley wanted the streetcar dead, and he was used to getting what he wanted.
Not everyone thought the bus plan was a great idea. In 1925, the Journal wrote in an incredibly prescient editorial, "The question of public need or convenience has not been raised, for neither exists. There is not a demand for additional transportation facilities, because the street cars now run empty. It is merely a duplication of an existing public utility and the public in the end will have to foot the bill. ...It is impossible to divide an inadequate revenue between two companies and secure lower fares and better service for the passengers. There is no doubt that, as between riding in a bus or street car, most people would take the bus; just as between two coats of equal warmth, the one in the present mode would be chosen in preference to another of the vintage of ten years ago. But the issue of cheap transportation is not so simple as merely one of preference. The street car line may be destroyed and the investment in it made worthless. Then what would happen? Would bus lines be any more profitable at a 10 cent fare than the street cars are now? Very likely not."29
No one understood this last point better than City Electric, because they had already experimented with buses themselves, including a bus line on North Fourth Street that had been in operation since 1921.30,31 But they hadn't pursued bus transit very aggressively for the simple reason that it was not profitable. City Electric's president, George Roslington, stated in 1925, "We are willing to run busses if there were indications that they would pay… We stand no chance of getting the initial cost of the bus back before it is worn out." The streetcar cost less to operate on a per-mile basis, so City Electric saw it as a better option.32 Needless to say, Tingley and the other bus supporters did not agree. But they still faced an obstacle, which was that City Electric held a franchise to provide public transit in the city, and it wasn't clear if it would be legal to grant a second franchise to a competitor.28 For its part, City Electric made it clear that it would fight any attempt to do so in court.33 So if Tingley wanted to put new buses on the streets without a messy legal situation, he would have to get the streetcar out of the picture first. Fortunately for him, a convenient means of doing this had already presented itself through one of Tingley's other pet projects—street paving.
The push to pave city streets had been ongoing through most of the 1920s, and it had long been the city's position that on the streets with streetcar tracks, the cost of paving the area between the rails should fall to City Electric. This idea probably didn't originate as means of destroying the streetcar company, but intentionally or not, it ended up becoming exactly that. The cash-strapped company could not even begin to afford the paving bill, and Tingley knew it. After a nearly five-year-long legal battle, the case was ultimately decided in the city's favor by the New Mexico Supreme Court in May, 1927.34,35 City Electric was officially on the hook for more than $30,000 and was out of options. A week later, the company was placed in receivership.36 It was announced that the streetcar would cease operation at midnight on December 31, 1927, to be replaced by buses.37
Tingley was in such a hurry to kill the streetcar that the December 31 deadline was set before the city even had a replacement lined up. As a result, the Commission had to scramble to secure a bus contract in time, passing it as an emergency measure in order to circumvent the required three public readings.38 The newly formed Albuquerque Bus Company was then left with only a few days to scrape together a handful of buses and begin a bare-bones, abbreviated schedule on January 1.39 But despite the lack of public scrutiny and the obvious haste with which the operation was thrown together, there was only scattered opposition. The most organized effort came from a group called the Public Ownership League, which circulated a petition calling for the city to revoke the bus company franchise and take over the streetcar company as a public utility. In a statement, their spokesman J. Lewis Clark said, "We want to warn the city that Albuquerque will regret it if it stops its street car system, as Trinidad, Colorado, and other cities now regret that kind of action."40
The league believed they had enough signatures to force a referendum on the matter, but Tingley's city attorney unsurprisingly refused to allow it, citing various technicalities that would supposedly make such an election illegal.41,42 Talk of bringing back the streetcars mostly died out after this. According to a Journal editorial, "There is no great amount of sentiment in Albuquerque for restoration of street car service, especially under unprofitable operation by the city. The people are well satisfied with the bus service that has been in operation since the first of the year. With addition of new busses, the service will be better and take in a larger territory than was served by the street cars. The city is fortunate in escaping a useless election on the question."43
The innocent victims in all this, of course, were the 24 motorettes. When the news of the streetcar's demise broke, many of them hoped they could drive the new buses instead. In fact, some of them already had experience driving buses for City Electric, and according to one motorette, Nellie Pollard, the buses were "really a lot easier to drive" compared to the streetcars.44 The people who signed the bus petition back in 1926 also made it clear they wanted the motorettes to drive the buses.21 As the Journal wrote, "Women started to run street cars in Albuquerque when the war started. ...And they liked their jobs. They liked them so much, in fact, that a lot of them say they'd just as soon drive a bus as a street car. But will they?"45 The answer was no. When the Albuquerque Bus Company began operation on January 1, the newspaper headline said it all: "New Bus Line to Hire Local Men for Drivers".39 The public was reassured that the motorettes would be alright, though—Tingley himself had promised to help them find new jobs,46 and it was reported on January 1, their first day of unemployment, that "nearly half of them" already had.47 The only problem was that that wasn't true. In fact, only one motorette had found other work, though two of City Electric's male employees had new positions at the bus company.48
Sixteen years later, in 1944, the bus company had grown to employ 42 drivers, but all of them were still male and Anglo.49 This in spite of the fact that there was a war on again, making it seemingly the perfect time for women to get their proverbial foot back in the door. But the era of the motorette was well and truly over. In fact, it wouldn't be until 1974 that a woman would drive a city transit vehicle again.50 By that point, Clyde Tingley was dead and the Albuquerque Bus Company had been taken over by the city, because it turned out the Journal had been right in 1925: buses were no more profitable than streetcars.51 As for the motorettes, they were mostly just forgotten. Elsie Westerfeld Reiger, who was probably the last living motorette, died in 1997, and her obituary didn't even mention her trailblazing career.52,53 But you're reading about it here, and that's a start.
Sources
1. Myrick, David F. New Mexico's Railroads: A Historical Survey. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990, pp. 236-237.
2. "Traction Company Went in the Hole." Las Vegas Optic, September 12, 1914. Via Library of Congress.
3. "12,000,000 pay envelopes for women" (advertisement). Albuquerque Journal, August 21, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
4. "Women May Act as Carmen on Street Cars in Duke City." Albuquerque Journal, September 26, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
5. "Conductorettes to Pilot Street Cars in the Near Future." Albuquerque Journal, September 27, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
6. "Albuquerque Soon to Have Lady Motormen." Albuquerque Journal, September 29, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
7. "Women Are Piloting Trolley Cars Through Albuquerque Streets." Albuquerque Journal, October 21, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
8. "Lady Conductors." Washington Post, September 20, 1912. Via Newspapers.com.
9. "Motorettes Are Not Anxious To Give Up Street Car Positions." Albuquerque Journal, July 22, 1919. Via Newspapers.com.
10. "Motorettes Are Hunting Jobs In Albuquerque; Car Service Ended" (Associated Press). Asbury Park Press, December 15, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
11. "Defendant Asks 'Am I Drunk?' Reply Is 'Yes'." Albuquerque Journal, August 24, 1923. Via Newspapers.com.
12. "Truck Driver Faces Charge of Reckless Driving After Smash." Albuquerque Journal, October 23, 1920. Via Newspapers.com.
13. "Motorette Is Too Much for Three Bandits." Albuquerque Journal, November 17, 1923. Via Newspapers.com.
14. "Motorette Chases Thief Who Gets Car's Cash Box." Albuquerque Journal, January 23, 1925. Via Newspapers.com.
15. "Servant of People for Half Century Screeched to Halt and Died in 1928." Albuquerque Journal, July 15, 1962. Via Newspapers.com.
16. "Traction Car Derailed; Workmen Walk Home." Albuquerque Journal, January 18, 1907. Via Newspapers.com.
17. "Personal Paragraphs." Albuquerque Citizen, August 28, 1909. Via Newspapers.com.
18. "Derailed Street Car Pulled onto Track by Big Fire Engine." Albuquerque Journal, July 12, 1915. Via Newspapers.com.
19. "5 Torpedoes on Track Make Noise Like End of Election Argument." Albuquerque Journal, March 24, 1926. Via Newspapers.com.
20. "Torpedoes on Track of Street Car Make Town Appear Shot Up." Albuquerque Journal, November 15, 1926. Via Newspapers.com.
21. "Bus Franchise Asked by 200 Heights People of Commission." Albuquerque Journal, May 13, 1926. Via Newspapers.com.
22. "Albuquerque's Civic History Outlined by Walter M. Connell, Chairman of the Commission." Albuquerque Journal, June 27, 1921. Via Newspapers.com.
23. Rice, Bradley R. "Commission form of City Government." Texas State Historical Association.
24. "Tingley Pays No Tax; Not Even Listed Head of Family, Books Show." Albuquerque Journal, April 2, 1930. Via Newspapers.com.
25. "Do You Know Your City Government?" (advertisement). Albuquerque Journal, October 2, 1935. Via Newspapers.com.
26. "Tingley Wants City to Fight San Juan Road." Albuquerque Journal, February 24, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
27. "Mayor Declares Car Tracks Are a Public Menace." Albuquerque Journal, August 25, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
28. "City Commission Moves to Get Bus Lines Here." Albuquerque Journal, December 9, 1926. Via Newspapers.com.
29. "The Public Pays." Albuquerque Journal, May 16, 1925. Via Newspapers.com.
30. "Fourth Street Car Service to Start at Noon." Albuquerque Journal, June 25, 1921. Via Newspapers.com.
31. "City Electric" (advertisement). Albuquerque Journal, July 22, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
32. "Electric Line Traffic Shows Marked Fall." Albuquerque Journal, March 22, 1925. Via Newspapers.com.
33. "Commissioners Await Hearing on Injunction." Albuquerque Journal, October 14, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
34. "City Electric Contests Levy for Pavements." Albuquerque Journal, October 3, 1922. Via Newspapers.com.
35. "Streetcar Co. Has 20 Days to Ask Re-Hearing." Albuquerque Journal, May 6, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
36. "Street Car Company Put in Receivership." Albuquerque Journal, May 13, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
37. "Bus Franchise Here Soon Says Mayor Tingley." Albuquerque Journal, November 27, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
38. "Bus Franchise Ordinance Read Once, Adopted." Albuquerque Journal, December 11, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
39. "New Bus Line to Hire Local Men for Drivers." Albuquerque Journal, January 1, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
40. "City Can Run Cars Without Issuing Bonds." Albuquerque Journal, January 5, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
41. "People's Money Can't Be Spent on Bus Election." Albuquerque Journal, January 19, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
42. "Mandamus on Bus Franchise Is Not Sought." Albuquerque Journal, January 20, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
43. "City Escapes Useless Election." Albuquerque Journal, January 20, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
44. "Motorette Put In Charge of Trackless Car." Albuquerque Journal, June 26, 1921. Via Newspapers.com.
45. "1,200 People Will Look for Means to Ride." Albuquerque Journal, December 11, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
46. "City Plans Cut in Water Rates for Coming Year." Albuquerque Journal, December 22, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
47. "Doleful Clanging of Gong as George Roslington Drives Car on Last Trip—Into Oblivion." Albuquerque Journal, January 1, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
48. "Only One Motorette Obtains Employment After Cars Junked." Albuquerque Journal, January 2, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
49. "These Are the Men Who Get the Buses There On Time with Safety." Albuquerque Progress, Volume 11, Issue 3, June 1944, p. 9.
50. Bernabo, Marc. "Women Mini-Bus Drivers Have King-Sized Dreams." Albuquerque Journal, January 2, 1974. Via Newspapers.com.
51. Bernabo, Marc. "Action Given Nod by Slim 3-2 Margin." Albuquerque Journal, December 16, 1964. Via Newspapers.com.
52. "Reiger" (obituary). Albuquerque Journal, January 2, 1998. Via Newspapers.com.
53. Family Tree: Elsie Reiger. Via Ancestry Library.
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| Motorette Elsie Westerfeld, c. 1927. Via Albuquerque Museum. |
First, a little context. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, electric streetcars were the main mode of public transportation throughout the U.S. They weren't super common in New Mexico, which didn't have many large cities at the time, but the state did have two operating streetcar systems in Albuquerque and Las Vegas. The first electric streetcars in Albuquerque started running in 1904, replacing an earlier horse car line. By 1916, the system had five lines with about 7 miles of track serving Downtown, Old Town, Barelas, Huning Highlands, the university, and the Sawmill district.1 In an era before widespread car ownership, the streetcar was how most people got around, and it carried about 2,000 passengers a day at its peak.2
The motorettes came into the picture in 1918. The City Electric Company, which operated the streetcars, desperately needed more drivers, but the combined effect of World War I and the flu pandemic made it basically impossible to find any men for the job. Other cities were having the same problem, and the only solution they could find was to employ women instead. In fact, women were stepping into lots of jobs that had been exclusively for men. A 1918 ad for the Pictorial Review women's magazine proclaimed "Twelve million women earning money; women’s money in women's pockets... Women chauffeurs! Women police! Women farmers! At least two million of them. Women elevator boys! Everywhere! Women street car conductors—thousands of them! Women in war industries—Already a million and a half of them!"3 Albuquerque followed suit, with City Electric announcing on September 26 that the positions were now open to women.4
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| Illustration from an advertisement for Pictorial Review women's magazine, 1918. Albuquerque Journal via Newspapers.com. |
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| City Electric advertisement seeking women streetcar drivers, 1918. Albuquerque Journal via Newspapers.com. |
The day after City Electric's announcement, the Journal reported, "A small advertisement in the Morning Journal brought forth a bevy of women workers, asking for a chance to show the world that the American woman is willing and not afraid to grasp the wheels of industry, allowing her men to go forth and fight the battle of humanity and for the cause of freedom."5 Just two days after that, a "most enthusiastic class of young women in their teens and older women in their forties" were already hard at work learning how to drive the streetcars. The Journal wrote that "Albuquerque is becoming real citified by degrees. As it seems now we won't be surprised to see ladies in 'koveralls' with greasy hands and faces, in a short time. Neither will we be surprised to have our street cars run by ladies or conductorettes. The day is almost here when women will run things, and then they will not be considered the weak, clinging vine type of human."6 On October 20, the newly trained women drivers hit the street for the first time.7
Needless to say, the new situation took some getting used to for a lot of people. It hadn't been that long since it would have been surprising to see a woman on a streetcar at all, much less driving it. Just a few years earlier, in 1912, no less an institution than the Washington Post had ridiculed the idea: "What motormiss, on her way down the Avenue, could resist the temptation to stop her car and pass the time of day with Mamie, who, bound uptown, would stop and swap the latest news in parlor social circles, while passengers within could either bask in the smiles of the two trim little conductors, rail at fate, or get off and walk. Women are crowding men enough. Let them keep out of the railway business."8 But the Albuquerque motorettes were apparently able resist the overwhelming impulse to stop and gossip, and kept the cars on schedule just fine.
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| A motorette switching the trolley poles on her car, c. 1918. Via Albuquerque Museum. |
By July, 1919, the war had ended, and it started to be suggested in certain quarters that men should be placed back in charge of the streetcars. But the motorettes objected, pointing out that many of them were supporting families, and they wouldn’t be able to earn equivalent wages in the other jobs available to them.9 Apparently their lobbying was successful, because they kept their jobs, and City Electric continued to employ only women drivers for the rest of its existence. According to a later Associated Press article, "In retaining the women operators after the war the management announced that records of the company showed that the motorettes had operated the cars with fewer accidents and more efficiency than had the men who formerly were employed."10
On paper, the motorette's duties were simple: she had to drive the streetcar, collect fares from passengers, and when she reached the end of the line, prepare the car to reverse directions by lowering the trolley pole at one end of the roof and raising the other one. Of course, there was more to it than that. She also had to contend with everything from drunk and unruly passengers to frequent collisions—evidently Albuquerque drivers were just as reckless in the 1920s as they are today. An account of one accident, which would probably seem painfully familiar to any ART driver, read, "According to the charge of Policeman Renfro, who was directing traffic, Lee drove by a signal to stop, turned right in front of a street car and his auto was struck in the rear end in a collision which followed. The charge states that Lee was intoxicated, and talked abusively…"11 In another crash, "The truck was going east on Marquette avenue and the street car was going south on Second street. The motorette declared that Thurston attempted to beat the street car to the crossing despite her warning bell."12
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| Elsie Westerfeld with her car, c. 1927. Via Albuquerque Museum. |
Attempted robberies were another hazard of the job. The unarmed motorettes with their change belts probably seemed like easy targets, but rarely gave in without a fight. In 1923, May Land defied three would-be robbers who held her at gunpoint, telling them "No, you can't get this money," and then shouting at them until they fled.13 Another streetcar driver, Pat McCaffrey, chased a thief who made off with her cash box but wasn't able to catch him.14 There was also the problem of near-constant derailments, which required a work crew to be brought in to lever the car back onto the tracks, sometimes with the help of impatient passengers. The motorettes' boss, John Merritt, blamed the problem on the women being too weak to properly operate the streetcar brakes,15 but in truth the streetcars derailed all the time when men were driving them too.16,17,18 And then there were the pranksters who liked to put railroad torpedoes on the tracks—small detonators that went off with a bang when the streetcar ran over them, alarming anyone in the vicinity. Except of course for the motorettes, who were used to it.19,20
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| Two motorettes posing on the South Edith route, c. 1927. Via Albuquerque Museum. |
Unfortunately for the motorettes, they, or at least City Electric in general, had enemies. All over the country, streetcar ridership was decreasing as more and more people started owning their own cars, and with revenues falling, streetcar operators weren't able to maintain the same level of service and maintenance as before. The result was that the streetcars were increasingly seen as decrepit, outdated, and backwards, and thanks in part to lobbying from the automotive industry, shiny new buses were often seen as a better alternative. This was certainly true in Albuquerque, where 200 people signed a petition in 1926 asking the City Commission for a bus line.21 The plea definitely fell on sympathetic ears, especially those of Clyde Tingley, who was Chairman of the Commission at the time. Tingley was a complicated figure who cast a long shadow during more than three decades in local politics. As Chairman, he wielded outsized power in the city government and was often referred to as the "mayor" in the press even though his role was meant to be equal in standing to the other four commissioners.22,23 His opponents called him a "czar" and accused him of turning the Commission into a machine for rubber-stamping his initiatives.24,25 Regardless of how justified these criticisms were, he was in a powerful position to influence the outcome of the bus debate.
Fortunately for the bus supporters, Tingley was firmly on their side. It wasn't so much that he loved buses; he just really hated the streetcar, as he made known on numerous occasions. He called City Electric "the most dilapidated public utility in the world"26 and said that its tracks were a "public menace". On an occasion when the streetcar was out of service, the Journal reported that "The only thing missed... was the noise, the mayor said."27 He even went so far as to call the potential bus system "the best chloroform for this street car company."28 Tingley wanted the streetcar dead, and he was used to getting what he wanted.
Not everyone thought the bus plan was a great idea. In 1925, the Journal wrote in an incredibly prescient editorial, "The question of public need or convenience has not been raised, for neither exists. There is not a demand for additional transportation facilities, because the street cars now run empty. It is merely a duplication of an existing public utility and the public in the end will have to foot the bill. ...It is impossible to divide an inadequate revenue between two companies and secure lower fares and better service for the passengers. There is no doubt that, as between riding in a bus or street car, most people would take the bus; just as between two coats of equal warmth, the one in the present mode would be chosen in preference to another of the vintage of ten years ago. But the issue of cheap transportation is not so simple as merely one of preference. The street car line may be destroyed and the investment in it made worthless. Then what would happen? Would bus lines be any more profitable at a 10 cent fare than the street cars are now? Very likely not."29
No one understood this last point better than City Electric, because they had already experimented with buses themselves, including a bus line on North Fourth Street that had been in operation since 1921.30,31 But they hadn't pursued bus transit very aggressively for the simple reason that it was not profitable. City Electric's president, George Roslington, stated in 1925, "We are willing to run busses if there were indications that they would pay… We stand no chance of getting the initial cost of the bus back before it is worn out." The streetcar cost less to operate on a per-mile basis, so City Electric saw it as a better option.32 Needless to say, Tingley and the other bus supporters did not agree. But they still faced an obstacle, which was that City Electric held a franchise to provide public transit in the city, and it wasn't clear if it would be legal to grant a second franchise to a competitor.28 For its part, City Electric made it clear that it would fight any attempt to do so in court.33 So if Tingley wanted to put new buses on the streets without a messy legal situation, he would have to get the streetcar out of the picture first. Fortunately for him, a convenient means of doing this had already presented itself through one of Tingley's other pet projects—street paving.
The push to pave city streets had been ongoing through most of the 1920s, and it had long been the city's position that on the streets with streetcar tracks, the cost of paving the area between the rails should fall to City Electric. This idea probably didn't originate as means of destroying the streetcar company, but intentionally or not, it ended up becoming exactly that. The cash-strapped company could not even begin to afford the paving bill, and Tingley knew it. After a nearly five-year-long legal battle, the case was ultimately decided in the city's favor by the New Mexico Supreme Court in May, 1927.34,35 City Electric was officially on the hook for more than $30,000 and was out of options. A week later, the company was placed in receivership.36 It was announced that the streetcar would cease operation at midnight on December 31, 1927, to be replaced by buses.37
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| Tingley's campaign ad from 1939 listing "elimination of old street car system" as one of his accomplishments. Albuquerque Journal via Newspapers.com. |
Tingley was in such a hurry to kill the streetcar that the December 31 deadline was set before the city even had a replacement lined up. As a result, the Commission had to scramble to secure a bus contract in time, passing it as an emergency measure in order to circumvent the required three public readings.38 The newly formed Albuquerque Bus Company was then left with only a few days to scrape together a handful of buses and begin a bare-bones, abbreviated schedule on January 1.39 But despite the lack of public scrutiny and the obvious haste with which the operation was thrown together, there was only scattered opposition. The most organized effort came from a group called the Public Ownership League, which circulated a petition calling for the city to revoke the bus company franchise and take over the streetcar company as a public utility. In a statement, their spokesman J. Lewis Clark said, "We want to warn the city that Albuquerque will regret it if it stops its street car system, as Trinidad, Colorado, and other cities now regret that kind of action."40
The league believed they had enough signatures to force a referendum on the matter, but Tingley's city attorney unsurprisingly refused to allow it, citing various technicalities that would supposedly make such an election illegal.41,42 Talk of bringing back the streetcars mostly died out after this. According to a Journal editorial, "There is no great amount of sentiment in Albuquerque for restoration of street car service, especially under unprofitable operation by the city. The people are well satisfied with the bus service that has been in operation since the first of the year. With addition of new busses, the service will be better and take in a larger territory than was served by the street cars. The city is fortunate in escaping a useless election on the question."43
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| Associated Press story about the motorettes from 1927. The woman in the bottom photo was identified as Matilda Karrick. Jackson Clarion-Ledger via Newspapers.com. |
The innocent victims in all this, of course, were the 24 motorettes. When the news of the streetcar's demise broke, many of them hoped they could drive the new buses instead. In fact, some of them already had experience driving buses for City Electric, and according to one motorette, Nellie Pollard, the buses were "really a lot easier to drive" compared to the streetcars.44 The people who signed the bus petition back in 1926 also made it clear they wanted the motorettes to drive the buses.21 As the Journal wrote, "Women started to run street cars in Albuquerque when the war started. ...And they liked their jobs. They liked them so much, in fact, that a lot of them say they'd just as soon drive a bus as a street car. But will they?"45 The answer was no. When the Albuquerque Bus Company began operation on January 1, the newspaper headline said it all: "New Bus Line to Hire Local Men for Drivers".39 The public was reassured that the motorettes would be alright, though—Tingley himself had promised to help them find new jobs,46 and it was reported on January 1, their first day of unemployment, that "nearly half of them" already had.47 The only problem was that that wasn't true. In fact, only one motorette had found other work, though two of City Electric's male employees had new positions at the bus company.48
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| Albuquerque Bus Company's fleet and all-male drivers in 1930. Via New Mexico Digital Collections. |
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| An ad for the Albuquerque Bus Company boldly promising "adequate transportation", 1928. Albuquerque Journal via Newspapers.com. |
Sixteen years later, in 1944, the bus company had grown to employ 42 drivers, but all of them were still male and Anglo.49 This in spite of the fact that there was a war on again, making it seemingly the perfect time for women to get their proverbial foot back in the door. But the era of the motorette was well and truly over. In fact, it wouldn't be until 1974 that a woman would drive a city transit vehicle again.50 By that point, Clyde Tingley was dead and the Albuquerque Bus Company had been taken over by the city, because it turned out the Journal had been right in 1925: buses were no more profitable than streetcars.51 As for the motorettes, they were mostly just forgotten. Elsie Westerfeld Reiger, who was probably the last living motorette, died in 1997, and her obituary didn't even mention her trailblazing career.52,53 But you're reading about it here, and that's a start.
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| The bus driver corps in 1944, including former streetcar superintendent John A. Merritt (top row, fifth from right). Albuquerque Progress via Albuquerque Bernalillo County Library. |
Sources
1. Myrick, David F. New Mexico's Railroads: A Historical Survey. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990, pp. 236-237.
2. "Traction Company Went in the Hole." Las Vegas Optic, September 12, 1914. Via Library of Congress.
3. "12,000,000 pay envelopes for women" (advertisement). Albuquerque Journal, August 21, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
4. "Women May Act as Carmen on Street Cars in Duke City." Albuquerque Journal, September 26, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
5. "Conductorettes to Pilot Street Cars in the Near Future." Albuquerque Journal, September 27, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
6. "Albuquerque Soon to Have Lady Motormen." Albuquerque Journal, September 29, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
7. "Women Are Piloting Trolley Cars Through Albuquerque Streets." Albuquerque Journal, October 21, 1918. Via Newspapers.com.
8. "Lady Conductors." Washington Post, September 20, 1912. Via Newspapers.com.
9. "Motorettes Are Not Anxious To Give Up Street Car Positions." Albuquerque Journal, July 22, 1919. Via Newspapers.com.
10. "Motorettes Are Hunting Jobs In Albuquerque; Car Service Ended" (Associated Press). Asbury Park Press, December 15, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
11. "Defendant Asks 'Am I Drunk?' Reply Is 'Yes'." Albuquerque Journal, August 24, 1923. Via Newspapers.com.
12. "Truck Driver Faces Charge of Reckless Driving After Smash." Albuquerque Journal, October 23, 1920. Via Newspapers.com.
13. "Motorette Is Too Much for Three Bandits." Albuquerque Journal, November 17, 1923. Via Newspapers.com.
14. "Motorette Chases Thief Who Gets Car's Cash Box." Albuquerque Journal, January 23, 1925. Via Newspapers.com.
15. "Servant of People for Half Century Screeched to Halt and Died in 1928." Albuquerque Journal, July 15, 1962. Via Newspapers.com.
16. "Traction Car Derailed; Workmen Walk Home." Albuquerque Journal, January 18, 1907. Via Newspapers.com.
17. "Personal Paragraphs." Albuquerque Citizen, August 28, 1909. Via Newspapers.com.
18. "Derailed Street Car Pulled onto Track by Big Fire Engine." Albuquerque Journal, July 12, 1915. Via Newspapers.com.
19. "5 Torpedoes on Track Make Noise Like End of Election Argument." Albuquerque Journal, March 24, 1926. Via Newspapers.com.
20. "Torpedoes on Track of Street Car Make Town Appear Shot Up." Albuquerque Journal, November 15, 1926. Via Newspapers.com.
21. "Bus Franchise Asked by 200 Heights People of Commission." Albuquerque Journal, May 13, 1926. Via Newspapers.com.
22. "Albuquerque's Civic History Outlined by Walter M. Connell, Chairman of the Commission." Albuquerque Journal, June 27, 1921. Via Newspapers.com.
23. Rice, Bradley R. "Commission form of City Government." Texas State Historical Association.
24. "Tingley Pays No Tax; Not Even Listed Head of Family, Books Show." Albuquerque Journal, April 2, 1930. Via Newspapers.com.
25. "Do You Know Your City Government?" (advertisement). Albuquerque Journal, October 2, 1935. Via Newspapers.com.
26. "Tingley Wants City to Fight San Juan Road." Albuquerque Journal, February 24, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
27. "Mayor Declares Car Tracks Are a Public Menace." Albuquerque Journal, August 25, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
28. "City Commission Moves to Get Bus Lines Here." Albuquerque Journal, December 9, 1926. Via Newspapers.com.
29. "The Public Pays." Albuquerque Journal, May 16, 1925. Via Newspapers.com.
30. "Fourth Street Car Service to Start at Noon." Albuquerque Journal, June 25, 1921. Via Newspapers.com.
31. "City Electric" (advertisement). Albuquerque Journal, July 22, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
32. "Electric Line Traffic Shows Marked Fall." Albuquerque Journal, March 22, 1925. Via Newspapers.com.
33. "Commissioners Await Hearing on Injunction." Albuquerque Journal, October 14, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
34. "City Electric Contests Levy for Pavements." Albuquerque Journal, October 3, 1922. Via Newspapers.com.
35. "Streetcar Co. Has 20 Days to Ask Re-Hearing." Albuquerque Journal, May 6, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
36. "Street Car Company Put in Receivership." Albuquerque Journal, May 13, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
37. "Bus Franchise Here Soon Says Mayor Tingley." Albuquerque Journal, November 27, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
38. "Bus Franchise Ordinance Read Once, Adopted." Albuquerque Journal, December 11, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
39. "New Bus Line to Hire Local Men for Drivers." Albuquerque Journal, January 1, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
40. "City Can Run Cars Without Issuing Bonds." Albuquerque Journal, January 5, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
41. "People's Money Can't Be Spent on Bus Election." Albuquerque Journal, January 19, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
42. "Mandamus on Bus Franchise Is Not Sought." Albuquerque Journal, January 20, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
43. "City Escapes Useless Election." Albuquerque Journal, January 20, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
44. "Motorette Put In Charge of Trackless Car." Albuquerque Journal, June 26, 1921. Via Newspapers.com.
45. "1,200 People Will Look for Means to Ride." Albuquerque Journal, December 11, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
46. "City Plans Cut in Water Rates for Coming Year." Albuquerque Journal, December 22, 1927. Via Newspapers.com.
47. "Doleful Clanging of Gong as George Roslington Drives Car on Last Trip—Into Oblivion." Albuquerque Journal, January 1, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
48. "Only One Motorette Obtains Employment After Cars Junked." Albuquerque Journal, January 2, 1928. Via Newspapers.com.
49. "These Are the Men Who Get the Buses There On Time with Safety." Albuquerque Progress, Volume 11, Issue 3, June 1944, p. 9.
50. Bernabo, Marc. "Women Mini-Bus Drivers Have King-Sized Dreams." Albuquerque Journal, January 2, 1974. Via Newspapers.com.
51. Bernabo, Marc. "Action Given Nod by Slim 3-2 Margin." Albuquerque Journal, December 16, 1964. Via Newspapers.com.
52. "Reiger" (obituary). Albuquerque Journal, January 2, 1998. Via Newspapers.com.
53. Family Tree: Elsie Reiger. Via Ancestry Library.
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