Cry Babies

Last fortnight Yellow Taxi Corp., New York (Regent 1000), largest, oldest (1921) in New York City, went to court to defend its 1,250 cabs. Yellow complained that General Motors Corp, had coerced railroad and steamship lines into awarding concessions to G. M.'s subsidiary, Terminal Cab Corp. Yellow obtained from Supreme Court Justice Richard P. Lydon a temporary injunction to bar Terminal Cab from operating a concession recently obtained (at Yellow's expense) from the Furness-Bermuda Line, Pier 95, North River. Last week Counsel Henry B. Hogan for General Motors denied all charges, affirmed that the Yellow contract with the Furness-Bermuda Line had been merely verbal, chose the epithet "cry babies."

Terminal Cab, incorporated January 1930, buys from General Motors Truck Corp. Buyer and seller alike are subsidiaries of Yellow Coach & Truck Mfg. Corp., which is in turn controlled by General Motors. Taxi gossip has it that these 955 cabs, turquoise blue with a red stripe, will shortly displace the complaining Yellows as the largest fleet in the city. Their sudden prosperity is based upon the Pennsylvania and Grand Central terminal concessions, recently wrested from Yellow Taxi Corp., and calling for 800 to 900 cabs daily.

No longer does Yellow Taxi Corp. buy its cabs from General Motors Truck Corp., which once supplied all Yellows. It buys from Checker, gradually disposing of its old General Motors cabs to independents. There are some 9,000 Checker cabs on New York streets, but Checker does not operate its own cabs. Second largest non-operating producer is Paramount, with over 2,000 cabs. A new company called Parfour Corp., organized by William May, William Day and Harry Junker, has bought from Paramount 85 sleek cream-colored cabs with chocolate trim, calling itself Fresh Air Taxi, in honor of Amos 'n Andy. General Motors is also on the streets as a non-operator with about 600 green General cabs sold to independents.

Very confusing are the ways of the taxi industry in New York. Hack stands are divided into private concessions and public stands. The former on private property (railroad terminals, ferry terminals, shipping piers) are leased to low-bidding cab companies. Most of the large private concessions in the city are shared by Yellow and Terminal--not amicably. To the Furness-Bermuda Line dock, from which Terminal Cab has been temporarily ousted, Yellow sends 120 cabs, uses about 90, to discharge a passenger list of 240.

Public stands, on the other hand, frequented by independents and small operators, are confined by law to corners ''where they will be out of traffic and of greatest service to the public." To taxi men this law merely defines an unprofitable place to park. They yearn for stands in front of the Paramount and Lafayette theatres after the midnight show break, Small's and Connie's Inn (Harlem night clubs) after 2.30 a.m., and lower Fifth Ave., but at no such spots are public stands allowed. Enterprising independents instruct their drivers how to creep by the choicest spots in the city at the proper moment.

Most independents prefer to cruise entirely. It is the jest of the taxi industry that "buckers"20-c- & 10-c- cabs operated by old timers--are too worn out to cruise far. Buckers do a preferential business at stands theoretically open to all comers, in front of smart clubs and hotels. No one can prove that the buckers have deals with hotel starters. But rarely does a 15-c- & 5-c-? cab "chisel" into the starter's line at Ritz or Plaza, at Union or European clubs.

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