Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-09-27
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP.
The City of New York Is Leading the Way
In the Direction Of the Public Own
ership of Public Utilities.

In the Direction of the Public Own
ership of Public Utilities.
New York is advancing rapidly to-
ward municipal ownership of quasi
public utilities.
The Ramapo water steal, which has
been checked by the press, has made
the people look toward municipal own
ership of waterworks for relief.
The oppression, bad service, high
charges and general offensiveness of
the gas companies have proved to the
people of New York that the munich
pality should control this public utility.
And now they are discussing the ex-
pediency of making the underground
rapid transit system the property of
the city.
1t has been agreed by the rapid tran
sit commission of New York that the
tunnel contract should be so amended
that all conduit privileges should be
reserved to the city. This insures an
enormous revenue, which in time NAV
exceed that obtained from the primary
uses of the tunnel and which will be
almost all clear profit.
granted to the corporations as gift,
and the people have been left to pay
the cost.
In commenting on this new and
beneficent departure the New York
Journal says:
IF the comptroller's calculations are
correct, as there is every reason to be-
lieve they are, this income will pay off
the construction bonds in a few years
and leave the rapid transit system an
unincumbered possession of the city.
1t will be noble property-one that
will be unmatched in any other city in
the world. It will be a monument to
the authorities that secure it to the
community, and every official with a
spark of ambition or Imagination will
try to identify his name with that
achievement"
Chicago would do we'll to take hint
from this progressive movement in
New York.
Franchises should no longer be fritz
tered away to the taxing of citizens
and the enriching of traction compa-
MES and great trusts.
Municipal ownership may be long
way off, but the way to reach it is to
stop at once the practice of presenting
franchises to corporations.
The people are beginning to think
seriously upon this important question,
and politicians who derive all their
temporary powers from the people will
be wise if they see the trend of public
sentiment and govern their actions ac-
cordingly.
In all this movement toward munich
pal ownership the corporations have
only themselves to blame. Through
their rapacity, their corruption of Off
Gals, their insolence toward their pat
rons. their disinclination to give full
value in return for the peoples money,
they have sown the seeds of discomfort.
In discussing this question, the JEFF
fersonian Democrat, monthly maya
zine, says:
Whether the next democratic plat
form will include governmental and
municipal ownership plank is at this
time difficult to state; but that the
question is ripe for public interest no
one can deny.
THE people are beginning to see in
private ownership of all franchises,
which are in their nature monopolies,
one of the dragons that threaten our
free institutions and menace the liberty
that has SO long illumined our path Of
progress
This question has been well aired
in most of the large cities of Great
Britain, and where the principle Of
public ownership has been applied
there are no disappointments; at least,
the disappointment is not among the
masses, but rather among those who,
for selfish interest, opposed the applica-
tion."
Certainly the success which has
crowned the workings of municipal
ownership in Birmingham and Glasgow
ought to prove encouraging to those in
the United States who are urging the
necessity of this reform. Dis
patch.