Proposal to Put Small-Time Jitney Drivers Out of Business, May 26, 1921

About Jitney Drivers

The jitney is a new institution for this country and one that can hardly be dispensed with now. No man is more needed in a modern community than the man who has a good car and is ever ready to come at your beck or call. He serves at all times of the day or night and no weather is too bad for him to respond. We suspect that he has a right to claim that he us under paid even if the general public does claim him to be in the same class as the plumber and electrician as to charges.

But along with this legitimate business of operating jitneys had developed, a business that we hesitate to mention. About a town the side of this will be found a few men who get credit for operating jitneys for hire when in fact they are not in the jitney business at all. They put in most of their time serving the criminal element of society in the various ways that if demands service.

If current reports are true the modern criminal could hardly get along without the fellow who has an automobile.

Just how society is to deal with this class is a live question among law abiding people. It is now currently reported that the officials of this town will require of jitney drivers a certificate of good character and a bond of $3,000 for the faithful performance of his duties as a public servant. A man who has long been in the jitney business in this city was discussing this report this week and gave it as his opinion that it would be one of the greatest means of protecting the general public that can be made. He said that a move of this kind would stop some men from operating cars for hire in this part of the country and no body would be the loser when they quit. He gave it as his opinion that only a small part of the jitney business about town like this is really legitimate and that the public badly needs protection.

All of which is food for thought for the new town officials.

From The Mount Airy News, Thursday, May 26, 1921. Adjusted for inflation, $3,000 in 1921 is equal to $40,279 in 2021, according to www.dollartimes.com.