The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-03-26
GETTY THOROUGHFARES. ;"
The Theme of E. G. LittIe's Lecture in
Kansas City Last Might

Kansas City, March 26.-"City Thor
oughfares" was the subject talked
about by Edward Little, private secre-
tary to Governor J. W. Leedy of Kan
sas, at the Y. NJ. c. A rooms last night.
A good sized audience applauded him
vigorously throughout a discourse that
was as interesting as it was instructive.
Many home truths were told with little
varnish, and the subject was handled in
a way that carried conviction with it.
He said in part:
while American street cleaning for
ces are making frantic efforts to avoid
being swept into their own sewers or
lodged in the penitentiary, the applica-
ton of a little horse sense to the street
cleaning departments of Paris, Berlin,
Rome, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manches-
ter and other European cities has Sc
cured the maximum of efficiency and
the minimum of expense for the streets
of those great cities.
The public ownership and operation
of WaterWorks has become practically
universal. The results almost univer-
sally have been entirely satisfactory.
Paris Berlin, Birmingham, Glasgow,
New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and
Kansas City are instances of great cit
les that own and operate their own
works. London is furnished by private
companies, and water is measured and
paid for Every family bargains for the
necessary number of gallons daily and
the amount is placed in tanks. At noon
he supply from the water main is shut
off so we are told in Alfred COnkling's
book on City Government in the United
States
Some criticisms may occasionally be
offered of the method of public manage
ment of waterWOrlxs. If you will, how
ever, compare public waterworks and
their management with the manage
ment of the railroad corporations which
run into Kansas City, you can get an
idea of the relative merits of the two
systems of private and public manage
ment Nearly every railroad that runs
< nT- IA h1T nh
rupt within recent years, paying enor-
nous salaries and securing what is call
ed the best business talent of the coun-
try. IneSe roads nave secured results
in comparison with the results achieved
by public management of waterworks
which demonstrate to a mathematical
certainty that there is nothing in the
claim that good business principles nee
essarily require private management
for public works. During the five and
One-third months from April 10 to Sen
TENDER 30, inclusive 1897, your water
works department received from water
rates, $161, 566.36, and paid out for total
running expenses, sos, 335.53, leaving
balance of $50, S52.
Before there were street railways
mems families lived over their shops.
Since the appearance of the street car
the congestion in the center of the
great cities has been relieved. In re-
cent years interior London has actually
diminished in population by many thou
sands, falling from 100, 900 to 81 600 al
The street car, which gives to the fam
lilies pure air, play room, pleasant homes
and the opportunities to live like human
beings instead of in pens like animals
is the greatest missionary of modern
times. In cities it needs no close OBJ
server to reach the conclusion that the
maintenance of a decent civilization in
modern cities depends upon the ability
of the people to get from the crowded
quarters where they work and do bust
ness out into the countryside, where
they can live respectfully"
Mr.. Little then talked of the necessity
for cheaper street car fare, citing lic5-
ures from other cities and statements
of profits to show that street railways
could haul passengers for less than
cents a trip.