The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-11-16


charged an average rent Of 81 per week.
French cities provide dinners, clothing
and shoes for school children, whose
parents cannot properly provide 1or
them. Vacations and trips in the coun-
try are also arranged for city children
by the school authorities.
Municipal toilet rooms are also to be
found in many European cities, and they
are quite different from the hideous
cast iron affairs that disgrace our city
streets.
They are generally underground, with
near iron ratings at the top of the stair
way. They contain mirrors, towels,
washrOOms, flowers, and every necessary
convenience, and are finished with fancy
colored tiles. A courteous attendant
is always in charge, and small fee of
cents is made for the use of the wash
room.
There are over so of these toilet rooms
in London alone.
During the past year Boston has un-
dertaken an interesting experiment in
municipal ownership, and has proved
that every city should do it's own print
ing.
About 18 months ago Mayor Quincy
startled Boston citizens with the an
nouncement that the city intended to
purchase and operate a press of it's
own.
The idea was ridiculed by the wise old
tories of the hub. 1t was called a
dangerous move in the direction OF So
cialism. 1t was obstructed by pOiiti-
clans and by printers who failed to get
job, and publishers who lost their con-
tracts. It met with no especial SYM
pathy from the people, or even from the
social reformers of Boston.
When the printing outfit was bought
a great outcry was made about the ex-
pense, and it was claimed that Mayor
Quincy had paid an immense sum for
a heap of old junk.
The printing office was called the
junk shop, and the Boston Traveller
nearly tickled itself to death with funny
cartoons of the mayor and his printing
scheme.
But the balance sheet for the first IL
months showed that the Junk shop
saved the city of Boston no less than
sS,OOO
At present everybody in Boston be-
lieves in municipal printing plant. In
fact, they have discovered now that they
always did.
They only opposed it, you know, to
let people see that they had minds of
would work, and wondered why the city
had not done it's own printing long be-
fore.
This same Mayor Quincy has his face
toward the sunrise, whatever certain
fanatics may say. He has this summer
had park made in the North End
slums, and a large bath house has also
been built Children receive bathing
suits free, and adults pay cents for
suit and towel.
He has also arranged for q series of
excursions down the harbor for poor
children.
In an article in the Arena, Mayor
Quincy declares emphatically in favor of
municipal ownership of public fran
1>o
no reason why an American city should
not take up any service of this charac-
ter which may be recommended by bus
mess and financial considerations. The
sentiment of municipal solidarity is
constantly growing and the conception
of the true functions of the city govern
ment is constantly widening. Steps in
the direction of what may fairly be call
ed municipal socialism are undertaken
with the full support of strong oppon-
ents of state Socialism in it's broad as
poets. The question where to draw the
line has become one of expediency, or of
financial limitation, scarcely one of prin-
ciple. A large degree of paternalism
is already an accepted fact in every
great and progressive American city, and
irresistible forces are constantly tend
ing to widen still further the field of
public action.
A frequent objection to municipal
ownership is that it will necessitate the
borrowing of large sums of money, and
will thus plunge us into a bog of in
debtedness.
To this objection we reply that prf-
vate ownership has already got us into
that bog, and municipal ownership is