PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 243 
road, and at a later date, when he was all-powerful in that 
corporation, he issued a formal invitation to the employees 
to a reception at his house. To a large number the initials 
‘R. S. V. P.’ on the lower corner of the invitation were a great 
mystery, and, as the story goes, the invited compared notes 
and sought an explanation of them. At last one bright young 
man announced that he had discovered what they meant, and 
he explained to the others that ‘R. S. V. P.’ stood for ‘Reduced 
salaries very probable.’ ” 
Obviously, Field did much for the development of New 
York’s transportation system, at a critical time when the 
city’s irregular growth needed just the impetus and unifying 
influence that well-managed elevated railways could supply. 
He worked for the benefit of the people of the city; in fact, 
he aroused resentment among financiers who had selfish aims 
to accomplish. For example, as soon as he deemed the con- 
dition of the operating company warranted it, he advocated 
reducing the fare from ten to five cents for all hours of the 
day, so that a poor man using the line would not be charged 
more than he could afford. At that time twenty cents a day 
for transportation was a laborer’s income for an hour’s work. 
There were other complications to engage Field’s atten- 
tion. In addition to the Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue 
lines, elevated lines were also built on Second Avenue and 
Sixth Avenue by other promoters. All these lines, including 
Field’s were leased by a third corporation, the Manhattan 
Company. This operating company had been promoted 
partly by Samuel J. Tilden, a resident of Gramercy Park, 
whom Field had interested in his original plans to give New 
York an adequate transit system and who had acquired stock 
at a very low price per share. Tilden, a former governor of 
the state, had really been elected President by the voters of 
the nation in 1876, but had been defeated by Hayes in the 
electoral college—a contest in which David Dudley Field 
acted in a legal capacity for his neighbor. Cyrus Field had en- 
