The news & observer., 1898-03-12
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP
CITIES SHOULD OWN AND CONTROL ALL
THEIR PUBLIC FRANCHISES.
So Says Judge Clark in Supreme Court De
ciSion--The General Movement Of the
Age is in This Direction.

rye Is III tIl,S UHCIuUHa
In recent opinion on n case i'll the
Supreme court, Justice Walter Clark has
the following to say touching munici-
pa ownership of lighting, water works
and street railways:
There is am unmistakablc trend the
world over towards municipal ownership
of lighting, water works, and even Ito
some extent) street railways. Judge
Dillon refers to this and intimates that
It is commended by wisdom and sound
policy. = Dillon, Mum. Corp. sec. 69l,
note /. In Germany, twO-thirds of the
cities own their electric lighting and car
plants and the proportion is increasing.
The same is true of the other countries
of continental Europe, there being n
great increase i'll municipal ownership
since Judge Dillon wrote. In Great
Britain and Ireland, 203 cities and
towns, being in fact every city OF any
| Importance, save five, own their lighting
plants not only for their own corporate
uses but for furnishing light to citizens,
and the average price of gas. furnished
10 the citizen, with a profit too to the
municipalities, is "a cents per thOus-
and.
"In this country too, large number
of cities own their gas plants. Our
neighboring capital, Richmond, Va,
which is one of them, has owned, its
gas plant since 1852 and furnishes gas
at 81 per thousand and shows a large
annual profit. A large and increasing
number of cities and towns (already
over 200 in the United States own their
electric lighting plants with the result
that the cost to the municipalities, from
official reports, is less than one-thirI
of the average cost i'll cities buying their
lights from private companies.
THE number of cities i'll this country
owning their water works is 1,690 (Ovel
one-half) out of a total of 3,196 haying
water supply. and municipal ownership
is steadily increasing. In the fifty larg-
est cities in the Union, nineteen have re-
Gently changed from private ownership
TO municipal ownership, leaving only
nine of the fifty which are still depend
ent for their waiter supply upon private
.ompanies. At the beginning of this
century only seventeen towns in the
United States were supplied by water
works and Only one of them owned its
water works plant. In Great Britain
one-thrd of the railways (two-thirds
excluding London) are owned by the
cities themselves, with the result of
lower rates and better accommodation
as we'll as n profit to the municipalities,
which have then been enabled to lower
taxation. On the continent of Europe,
wherever a city does not own ITS street
railways, they are under city control,
which fixes their rates, especially re-
ruiring IL minimum rate (ususlly l cent
Or 2 cents at most to be charged the
working CLASSES going TO and from
work. and u division of profits with the
city.
New York is among the cities which
own the ferries, though at present 1t
eases them ont. Thus the concept of Il
municipality is scarcely governmental at
ALL except incidentally for the enforce
ment of it's ordinances, but it is, i'll
truth, Il great business agency to- supply
its people with the prime necessities Of
Il crowded population, light, water, SAM
tation, clean and well paved streets. and
protection against fire.
"Indced one of the most fruitful
causes of inequality of condition ana the
creation of Il few enormously wealthy
men at the expense Of the SenrdI pubilc,
has been the great profits maze bE
private ownership of the public fran.
chises OF furnishing light, water ana
transportation to large bodies OF men
incorpora ted into cities and towns. Judge
Dillon cites other countries in which
Fights and water are furnished, elther al
together, or, i'll Il ajOrIty Of cases, Dy
the municipalities.
'IIhe general movement OF the age
I l., Z s1.sN r.
ship and operation of these franchises
by the people of towns aud cities for
themselves through the agency Of their
municipal corporations, as one "f lle
recognized and chief purposes of town
and 1.itv nhD rtnrS j.