The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-03-01
MAYORS COUNCIL
They Meet in Convention at
Peoria, ILL.,,
To Organize a State League of
municipalities.
MUNICIPAL CONTROL
OF Public Utilities Discussed at
Some Length
MUNICIPAL CONTROL
By the Chief Executive of the
City of Washington.

organize League of Illinois municipali-
ties met in this city this morning in the
assembly hall of the New City hall.
Col. John Warner, mayor Of Peoria,
called the convention to order and de-
livered the address of welcome.
Mr.. Allen Ripley Foote, of Washing
ton, d. c., read a paper entitled, How
Should the Franchise Question Be Set
tled?' He said in part:
But one answer can ring true to the
sense of right and justice in the reason
and heart of every citizen of this Re-
public who is worthy Of citizenship.
That answer is, 1T should be settled in
1t is so settled agitation must continue.
"All honest persons are in unQueStion-
ed agreement on the following PROPOSE
tons:
81 A laborer is entitled to own and
enjoy, unmolested, the products of his
labor, the wages he receives, the profit
he may save.
go A person who permits others to
use his property is entitled to the return
OF his property unimpaired and pay
ment for it's use.
80. Private property shall not be
taken for the benefit of public or private
users by authority of law, without fair
compensation paid to it's owner.
4. Public and private users of
service rendered by others have no right
to use such service without paying a
reasonable price therefor
This is justice. Any attack upon
these propositions, whether ignorantly
or intelligently made, is an attack upon
the right to own property. 1t is an at
tack upon the freedom of laborers. 1t
must be so recognized and dealt with by
all honest persons before the people can
obtain justice.
There is popular complaint
against the principles of justice here
declared. All discomfort has it's origin
in a belief that these principles are not
properly applied to the distribution of
property created by the joint use of the
labor and capital of many persons. A
proof of this charge, that satisfies the
reason of a majority, is found in the
enormous wealth of a few and the COM
parative poverty of the many.
The people. believe great wrong is
getting fair share of the property
their labors produce; that they are be-
ing robbed. While they believe this,
who can blame them for seeking a
means of putting a stop to the wrong,
for wanting to prevent further robbery?
While the term robbery is freely
used, it is charged that the robbing has
been done legally. The law publishes
robbers. Who enacted the law? This
question gives full force to a fundamen-
tai truth. "A government of the people,
by the people, is powerless to benefit
the people in any greater measure than
the honesty and intelligence with which
the people govern. Where Is the fault
"a just distribution of property is
demanded. If today we succeed in so
readjusting the conditions under which
collectively produced property shall be
individually distributed for the future
SO that every factor of production will
receive it's fair share, discomfort will
cease. The injustice of the past will
be forgotten. If this be not done the
agitation will continue. The sense of
wrong and injustice will grow more bit
ter, and the day will come when all
hope of securing justice through enact
ed laws will be lost. An enraged people
will then seek release from the servi-
tude of wealth by selling and distri-
buting property by force unguided by
reason, or by attempting to hold it col
lectively for the common good. In the
presence of such a calamity there is
but one safe course Every change
made in enacted law should be made
solely for the purpose of rendering its
operation more just. Every new law
enacted should be drawn in the inter
ests of all the people, and they should
be so executed that they will approve
of it as being right and just Those who
seek to perpetuate past abuses by
claiming the protection of laws sure a
short time hence to be pronounced I'M
just by verdict of the people should
have a care: Laws are the creation of
public opinion. Safety is not in the
law, but in a correctly educated public
conscience. Those who demand change
to overthrow the brutal power of wealth
a
they propose contain more poison then
the miasma of greed of which they
complain. They should not mistake
honesty for intelligence. They should
know that 1t is not necessary for a per-
son to be dishonest in order to be abso-
lutely wrong. More unjust laws have
been written by the cruel hands of in
nOcence and of ignorance than by all
other tyrantS from whose rule human
ity had suffered.
1.-The first blow to stop the unjust dis
tribution of property is apparently aim
ed at public service corporations. That
some of these corporations are guilty of
an abuse of power is true. That all are
guilty is false. The laws under which
these corporations are Incorporated and
are operating do not properly protect,
corporations. These corporations as
they now exist must be removed from
the pathway of progress. The guilty
and the innocent must alike give place
to the incoming of new order of things
in which no robber baron shall have
place that will permit him to prevent
the entire benefits of all mechanical inn
provements, all increments from growth
of population, all favoring changes in
general economic conditions from going
unimpaired directly to the people.
This demand is made in the name
of the people. Recognizing the require
ments of justice, that laborerS are en-
titled to the profits of their labor; that
those who use property belonging to
others should pay for its use; that prop
erty taken for the benefit of public and
private users should be fairly paid for,
and that public and private users of
services should pay a reasonable price
therefor, the advocates of the peoples
rights demand that all public service
industries shall be owned ard operated
by the people, for the people, to the end
that all benefits collectively produced
shall be individually distributed in ac-
cordance with the requirements of JUS
tice.
Those who advocate the municipal
ownership and operation of public ser
vice industries declare that all they