The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-05-06
.$1O7.15O,OOO

"LOndOn cannot be said to be leading
in these great experiments of municipal
ownership and direct control of public
services, but rather to be following the
lead Of other English and Scottish cities.
AS the result of a strike on the street
car lines of Glasgow, all the Glasgow
street cars are now emblazoned with the
cfty's coat Of arms. The fares to the
public have been lowered and made uni
form on the zone SYSTEM cent for one
mile; the employees have been given
shorter hours and higher wages, and
everybody in Glasgow is said to be salts
fed. The city of Leeds has also bought
out its street railways, and IS operating
them as part of the citys business. The
city of Manchester is supplying hydraulic
power to all it's citizens who have need
for it. Many English cities have gone
further, and are owning and operating
markets, lighthouses, libraries, picture
galleries and gymnasiums for the use of
both sexes The latest proposition is to
abolish the liquor traffic as a private
business, and run all the saloons and
public houses as municipal concerns, an
idea on which South Carolina has the
start of our English COUSINS
Such being the municipal system of the
English cities, which, even on the admis-
sion of our American authorities, are SUI
perior in government to American cities,
we are led to ask the following pertinent
questions:
Is the great and ancient city of Lon
don-the greatest metropolis on earth
impractical, theoretical and 'anarch-
istic?"
Is there anything obstructive to bus
mess or society" in the fact that the city
Of Glasgow, by owning and running it's
own street cars, reduces fares one-half
reduces the hours of labor for conductors
and motormen to eight hours day, and
yet makes per cent on it's investment?
Is there anything impractical or revo-
lutionary for Leeds and Glasgow and
Manchester to reduce the cost of trans
portation, lighting and power, to citizens
and business establishments, and at the
same time increase the wages of labor?
And if these measures are advocated in
the United States, the daily press, with
few exceptions, denounces them as "rev-
dictionary" crank theories" "paternal-
ism," and "Populistic vagaries'
The fact is, that in city government,
Europe is at this time more democratic
and popular than the United States. Eu-
ropean cities have in large measure un-
seated the corporate barons who were
crowned with unearned franchises, and
have returned the franchises to the right
full owners, the people.
In Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bir-
mingham, and Glasgow, nearly all of the
public franchises have been wrested from
the favored barons and restored to the
PEOPLE. In Paris and Berlin the city gov
ernments have retained the lighting,
transportation and other franchises, and
derive a large annual revenue from the
rental. In Paris, the city derived over
81 ,OOO, 900 from these franchise rentals
last year, and Berlin over $3,OO0.0O0. In
this country, these valuable franchises
are given away by Doodle aldermen to
their corporate propristors, and the pub
lie gets not a cent either for the fran
chise or its use. The franchises thus
donated, If put to the proper public use,
would, in large measure, support the
cities that are robbed of them. We call
it business administration" to thus rob
the people of the franchises, and we call
it "paternalism' and "crankism" to pro-
pose that the city shall not be thus
robbed.
This shows to what extent the hypnotic