The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-10
CITY MIGHT BUY CAR LINES.
Municipal Control of Street Railway
Service Elsewhere.

service Elsewhere.
While the city council is considering
the erection of a city electric lighting
plant it might also take into consideration
the question of municipal ownership or
control of street railways. This is a SUBJ
ject which is being discussed with much
interest throughout the country at pres
ent, though as yet no direct experiments
in the way of municipal ownership of
street railways have been tried in this
country.
Detroit Is the only American city in
which direct municipal control has been
tried. Its experience is uniquely inter-
estlng. II cannot be quoted as an exam.
pie OF municipal ownership, for all that
Detroit did was to induce a rival com,
pany to build a sixty-mile electric railway
system in direct competition with the old
company The new company, organized
in 1894, in consideration of the franchises
granted, contracted with the city to charge
only 3-cent fares between certain hours
C5:45 a. m. to p. m) and to sell its en-
tire plant TO the city at the end of thirty
years on a valuation. The final result was
the practical consolidation of the two COM
panies, but the reduction of fares from
cents TO 3 cents between the hours men,
toned remains
Toronto Canada, furnishes the only 9TH
er American object-lesson in municipal
control of street railways. In 1889 that
city leased its street railway franchises
to a company for thirty years. The con-
ditions of the lease were that the COMPANY
should pay to the city per cent. on its
gross receipts up to $1,0O0O00 per year. and
an increasing percentage as the receipts in
creased. When they exceed 100000 a
year the city is to receive 20 per cent. The
company stipulated to sell twenty-five
tickets for 81, and during the hours when
working people are going to and from their
work to charge only three-cent fares II
also pledged itself to keep the roadway he
tween its tracks in repair For the wear
running from Sept. /, 1896, to Aug. Il 1897
the gross earnings of the COMPANY were
$1,000, 1880, and the city treasury received
$S2,V2lA as its percentage, while the people
OF Toronto gained the great advantage of
four-cent fares at all times and three-cent
fares during the working peoples hours
The company earns dividends of 3B per
cent. per annum, the whole service is adj
mittedly much better and the emploves
are receiving 20 per cent. higher wages
than under the old privately controlled
regime.
Municipal ownership and control ~
street railway service is very general in
the leading cities of Great Britain ana on
the continent, and will, doubtless, be ac-
complished in this country as the idea of
municipal government expands.
Some idea of the saving which wou1d
have resulted to the people of Savannah
had the city built and operated its own
street railways from the beginning. can
be gained from an estimate of the cost az
constructing the present system outright
In an probability the whole system could
be constructed new for an amount ranging
from one-fourth to one-third of the pres
ent bonded indebtedness of the street rail-
ways OF the city. With municipal owner
ship the street railways could be oner-
ated with Scent fares at a profit to the
city.