New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-09-21

I - landau with a ponulation Of six millions,
carry annually more than thousand ihilhon
passengers while New-iork. with only nan ,i'c
population. carries even more passengers i0'
lively speaking. 1t is estimated that us CIV"
waited and surface railways alone. NOT co"n'"s
the millions that use the ferries and supurpah
railways. transport annually nearly nine nun
dred million passengers In other woros' ''ic
street railways Of London and NcW-lorK ALONE
carry annually :. number Of passengers exceed
irg the entire population Of the world Inc i''
est report for Paris shows that IFS trah"a!S
carry annually about four hundred million pas
scngcrs. and the city Is constantly increasihs
her tramway mileage. while Rerlins tramWa!s
carry about three hundred and sixty million
Messengers n year In some of the smaller Clues
of Great Britain the experiment or munclp'i
ownership has been tried with variable results
Glasgow shows profit of Sl3. 1913 from It's m'i-
nicipalized tramways and has IN equipment
valued Mt s4,O4G. 1913. while IIuddorsficld shows
n deficit of S3O6.613 Sheffield acquired the
street railway plant for song and Is operat-
ing 1t at profit. while Plymouth has lost
SD 900 I'm the experiment. The best that can
be said for municipal ownership thus FAR Is
that under favorable conditions ii can he made
TO pay financially, but the service to the pubic
under municipal ownership is on the whole. not
creatly superior TO that offered under private
ownership.
According to the census OF 1900. the street
railways Of the United States carried more than
four times as many passengers as the steam
railways What this means Will he understood
when II is remembered that the steam railway
system Of the United States is equivalent to
that Of all the rest of the world put together.
At present the street railway mileage of the
United States Is about sixteen thousand miles.
against ten thousand miles in the whole Of Eu-
ropr In other words there is one mile Of stree,
railway track for every 400 inhabitants. while
in Europe the proportion is one mile for every
40 900 inhabitants The United States thus
leads the world in this branch of industry. and
In regard TO charges American street railways
compare favorably with those Of Europe. In
recent years the development Of trolley lines in
suburban towns. small villages and even in the
country has been phenomenal. and is doing
much 10 transform the industrial and social life
of the people. Thus far municipal ownership
has been hardly tried and. though much may
be said In It's favor. the feeling is strong against
adopting II while tho municipal government Of
American cities is admittedly 50 much in need
of reform More Immediately important than
the question Of municipal ownership * that OF
charging an adequate price for valuable street
railway franchises. The way n which they
have been almost given AWAY in many cases
amounts practically 10 n municipal crime. There
is hardly a great city in the country which
could not almost entirely meet lis municipal OK
pcnscs out Of lis franchises II ordinary business
wisdom and sagacity had been exercised in
selling them.