Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-06-26
SATURDAY EVENING, JUNE 90, 1891
MUNICIPAL

istics O the present time Is the strong
movement for reform in the control
and management OF municipal fran.
chises All through the country the
people OF the cities are waking up TO
thu fact that these franchises should
primarily be used for their benefit. and
not for the benefit of private individu
ais who secure control Of them. L. is
not for the purpose that companies
may make money that we allow them
10 use our streets for street railways,
water and gas pipes, electric wires,
etc., but 10 order that the public may
be accommodated in securing these
necessaries and conveniences of life.
There is a growing realization that
practically there has been a perversion
of the true purpose, and that the pub
lie is not getting the service to which
1t is entitled, and not getting what 1t
does get at the terms 1t ought to have
There is a feeling that the existing
system is wrong and that 1t should be
changed. At the meeting OF the ma
tional municipal league, at Baltimore
recently, some strong and radical
thought has been offered on the sub
ject, and among other things we mote
the following from an address by
Charles Richardson:
The intelli gent and fair-minded person
can make a careful investigation of the
cost and earnIngs of street railways In
the larger cities OF the United States with
out perceiving that better service conld
be- given to the people NJ much lower
rates THAI those that are now customary.
1t can be safely assumed that most OF the
street railway companies ia the large
cities are making enormous and entirely
unreasonable profits at the public ex
pense.
Apart from this, however, the present
system Is vicious In that it fails to give
the public adequate and proper service;
it subjects employer to a cruel and I'M
reasonable treatment; 1t leads to dis
astroas strikes and riots, and it has been
a prominent factor 10 accustoming TIPS
people to regard the wholesale corrup-
tion of sta 9 and city governments as a
matter of course. 1t is also responsible
for the existence of large bodies of stock. |
holders whose interests are adverse TO |
those of their feilow-citizens. In Phila-
delphia aione. it has been estimated that
20, 600 persons are pecuniari y interested
in protecting the street railway COM
panies against municipal action which
diminish their profits.
In dealing with a system which leads to
such results, a resort t. SONS legal and
equitable process of total extinction may
become an unavoidable necessity.
the way of remedy. there is at present
strong and growing tendency TO resort
% municipal operation as a solution OF the
This statement as to the inauences
ffecting the crobiem 10 Pni aielphia is
em&rkaole. Western CITIES have had
ome experience in the demnrnliz,ng ef-
ects of private interest in public prob
ems. but presumably they have not felt
t to the extent that Is shown In Phila
where there are proportion
,tely more investors. the experience
q the west has been more 10 the line
uggested by Mayor Pingree. of De
roit, IN a paper read on the same &c
The present system OF regulating the
10 Mich gan Is preferable to the
Ia, under which toe city paid $50 per I
to aldermea and the corporations
urchased them in BLOCKS when they were :
Thus the city was practically :
by the corporations ope, atibg Z
as the state was, aud still is,
by The railroads 10 all that :
ertains to the coutrol Of those roeds, ana :
ie same as the G ingress is radically in 7
fenced by the combined railroad and q
asset interests. A franchise to 3 corpora
on resembles a device by means of which S
e governing power is taken out OF the =
lnds of the people and surrendered to a
ass, and / do not see why street car COM IA
mics, any more thar owners OF hacks. ",
upes, etc, should have a charter instead M
an annual license. nv
In the west, as q rule, The ownership in
such companies has been foreign in
!, general character, and the opera
ms conducted through employees. De
ley have achieved their control and tx,
DIVERSION of public interest by the fou
Ibery of pubic officials to betray 8,
cir trusts. That this might be reme- boz
ID by municipal ownership is true, u
d there is a constantly growing ssp- A'
,ent for that remedy. II should be {,
pembered, however, that municipal tbi
rer-.r @v9s u0s necessarily Imply mn
operation. Some Of the -.
st successful fforts At rel, Sm in this
., as for example, the street rail-
rs of Toronto, have been by munier
ownership coupled with Ieasiog for ~
Of years for operation. This
D removes the objection OF making
machine Of the street rail-
system, and that is the only mu
pal creation as to which there Is Il
ESPECIAL danger in that line v alter s.
1ts, gas plantas etc.. Z qaife 50 lev p