Evening star., 1900-04-21

REFORMS IN LONDON
Matters in Which the Staid Old City
Leads the World.
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP SPREADING
Street Car Lines and Telephones
Operated by the Government.
BEN EFITS THE PEOPLE
BEN EFITS THE PEOPLE
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star
LONDON, April TO- 1900.
London Is so big, and SO old, and SO
naughty that 1t rarely condescends to call
the attention Of the rest of the world to
any important improvements that 1t is
about to make, SO it often gets credit for
being slower than 1t really is.
Yet in some directions it has taken steps
toward public ownership that would make
the most progressive Of American cities
gasp. And today it is in various stages Of
improvements, municipal and national, that
will cost more, all told, than the entire
Boer war.
In the course of a few weeks the first
electric street car to run in London will
make the journey from Westminster bridge
to footing, and from that time electricity
will supersede the horse on the line be-
tween those classic localities This is only
preliminary to project on the part Of the
city of London-which owns this Mne-to
make the same change on all the sixty
eight miles of tram lines" as they are
called which the city not only owns, but
manages, a change which it is estimated
will cost in the neighborhood of $l5, 900 900.
Parliaments consent to this transaction
will be asked by the London county council
in the course of the present session. and as
soon as 1t Is obtained-for there is no doubt
that 1t will be-the work will be undertaken
at once.
New Telephone System.
1t seems rather surprising that such a
really remarkable change should have re-
ceived as yet so httle attention but the war
is partly responsible for this Moreover it
is only natural that the public should have
lost sight Of other municipal enterprises in
the excitement which has been stirred up
by the sudden determination of the, post
Office to tear UP over four hundred miles of
London streets and lay therein an under
ground system of telephone communication
that will be the property of the city and
entirely under its management. This sys-
tenn will cost 10000, 600 and its completion
will mean a revolution of telephone charges
and rentals in London, and Incidentally the
smashing of a big and rather insolent trust.
Within the last few months deputations
from America have visited the London par
ish that has not only invented and installed
plant that makes common house garbage
light its streets and shops, heat its public
baths and libraries and supply hot water
for its wash houses, but has also taken a
long stride toward solving the housing prob
lem.
It may be pointed out, furthermore. that
electric trains Will be running underground
in London before New York has much more
than made a beginning on her proposed
rapid-transit tunnel. In many WAYS this
old town is now coming rapidly to the front.
Tramways Are City Property,
The function of the street car in London
is mainly as means Of transportation for
the workingman whose business is in the
city, but who lives in the suburbs. Most of
| the cars run from the factory centers to the
railway stations. There are three separate