People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1897-03-05
REFORMS In DETROIT.
MAYOR PlNGREE TELLS HOW THE
PEOPLE HAVE BACKED HIS PLANS.
Street Car Company Fought Long and
Hard, BribiDg and Bu1Idozing Alter
nately but it is Brought to the Feed Rack
at Last by Competition.

Detroit, Mich, city of an estimated
population of about 10000 own
water-worls, owns and oper ates al
electric plant fixes the price of illumi
mating gas at 81 and fuel gas at so cent
per thousand feet, and has secured :
three-cent street car fare during work
ing hours. Governor and Mayor Pin
gree (his present term as mayor o
Detroit does not expire until next Jan
uarY) became a national figure in hi
fight for some of these reforms, and hi.
successes in opposing corporations are
considered responsible for his recen-
elevation to the governorship by {
striking majority.
Mr.. Pingree tells in the Outlook
February 6, an exceedingly interesting
story of his fight for reforms. He says
that Detroit is, "a city of home-owners
with foreign population in the mair
English-speaking. THE anti-monop
he says, have been supported by al
classes, except what are called the best
citizens. The small property owners
have supported them as zealously as
the wage-earners. A great many
among what are called the better elias
ses have voted tor me, but they are
generally careful not to let it be
known. If we had to depend upon
these classes for reforms, they could
never be brought about"
TIE STREET. CAR FIGHT.
The chief fight, and one not vet
ended, has been between the city and
the street-car companies. This began
during street-car strike several years
ago. Mr. Pingree says that the com,
panies were giving poor service and
working their men from ten to four
teen hours day. He refused to call
out the militia at the demand of Off
GERS of the company, and public sym
pathy supported his request for arbi-
tration, which finally settled the dis
pute in day and half. In my opin-
ion," says he, mo company ought to
get franchise unless it stipulates its
readiness to submit to arbitration it's
disputes with its men. Both men and
companies owe it to the public to keep
the oeace." He continues:
The public feeling against the COM
pany which this strike brought to a
head made it possible TO keep up a
fight for q better street-car service.
At first most of the aldermen seemed
to be bound hand and foot to the street.
car companies; but half of them are
elected every year, and we tried to
select'men who would stand by the
people, and get them, if possible, to
=pledg4. themselves. When once pledged
1T Wasfpretty hard for them to go back
on their word, but-of course some had
their price. Not until the second year
was the Board of Aldermen really out
of the grip of the street-car company.
All this time we were fighting the com
pany in The courts in regard to it's fran
chise. 1t was long, bitter fight, the
case being taken from court to court,
and finally costing the city from $780,
600 to $4,000. While this struggle
was going on, with decisions some
times in our favor and some times in
theirs. they were trying to get new
franchise, but l kept vetoing their
measures, and it was pretty hard 10
pass anything over my veto. used to
stir up the public by sending out
notices, and the people would pack the
Council chamber and fairly terrify the
aldermen who wished to go back on
their campaign promises. We even
told them that we had plenty of rope
there and would hang them"
THE PRESS FOUGHT HIM.
With one exception, German paper,
the newspapers were on the side of the
street-car companies. Mr.. Pingree says
they misrepresented him, anc he had
to resort to posting notices on chained
bulletin boards, to get hearing. The
fight in the courts was almost as diff
cult to carry forward, he writes:
''When got a resolution passed in
the Council giving me the power to
retain two lawy ers outside of those
already paid by the city, 1 picked out
one prominent Democrat and one prom
inent Republican. These men accept
ed the case, but the first thing l knew
the company began to bring pressure
to bear upon them The prominent
Democrat, who has held a Cabinet DO
sition, took smooth way to get out of
the fight. He said that he was in ma
tional politics, and that this local
struggle complicated his position. The
prominent Republican did rot drop out
so quickly, but found we were having
hard time to get the matter before
the court. Finally l insisted that he
must bring it to head. A few morn
ings later 1 was surprised to have him
come in to see me and state that he
had been retained by the company and
could no longer serve as our attorney.
He said that he was poor and that they.
had offered him such an amount that
he could not afford to let it go by. Of
course l gave this to the papers, and
you can imagine the feeling it stirred
up.
LAWYERS IN THE STRUGGLE,
"Then l started around to look for
other attorneys, and found that every
able lawyer in town had been retained
except Professor Kent, who was not
jury lawyer but good counsel. I re-
tanned him, and also a strong lawyer
from up the state. We carried the case
through the lower court, and it went
then from court to court until it came
to the supreme court. Then in some
way they managed to transfer it to the
Federal court 1t was to have been
tried before judge who owed his APP
pointment to the largest stakeholder in
the street car company. l took the po-