The age-herald., 1901-10-27
LETTERS FROM
 THE PEOPLE.
W NoTE.-contrIbutors.to this column
 must sign their names.
Mr. Ward on FrancI1Ises.

tWfs Ntaf0 OU FF0HCIH06Ws
 To the Editor of the Age-Herald. 2 Another determined effort is being made to have the Board of Aldermen give the Birmingham Railway. Light and Power Company a franchise that our new constitution declares Is unreasona- bie.
 But if the people hold things just as they are for fifteen days more. Birming- ham will be free from franchise troubles for ever.
 Ostensibly the movement is set on foot by progressive citizens to keep develop ment from being retarded. In reality 1t is the secret marshalling of the com pany's resources and notice on all under It's influence to step forward and work.
 A great land company: speculators with suburban acres to unload, together with individuals whose property is touched tall of whom two weeks ago were clap ping their hands and shouting "give 'em
 helrD. are now trying to trade away their .neighbors and their chiIdren's in- alienable rights for paltry private bene- fits. It is noticeable that not one of these citizens live near the land they are try ing to sell.
 
 railway company Is going to this proper ty in due time, on any terms 1t can. for the territory is indispensable to It's system. However, if 1t can pick up In the next fifteen days for nothing a quit. claim worth millions. 1t is well worth its wi,iie to make the fight slsa. -ss ! All statements that 1t does not psy to go through undeveloped territory should call to mind that part of the system that is over paying enough to enable s11. 600 000 of securities to be foated on a $4, 900 900
 investment Any way, pioneer work and | great risk in the matter of electric rail ways in oity and county are things of the past. It is no longer an experiment to build railways drawing tribute from a certain population. for it's Income is as- | sured and fixed by law as trus as gravi- | tation, with an additional elasticity that
 always responds to good management and | good times.
 Now everybody comedies that pioneers of progress. who take large risks in the
 service of the public are entitled to largo | profits. f And as B, ,75o.0 900 is today the cash mar ket calue of the Fl, ,oo0. 900 Light and Pow | CT securities 1t would seem that profits were enough to satisfy ordinary people
 and make them willing to go a way back and sit down awhile. Yet nothing short of absolute, exclusive and perpetual con
 
 ferson County will keep 1t quiet. That's ! plain.
 Incidently there is more or less curiosi- | ty on the publics part as to where these profits went and how they were distribu- | ted, though what the public has to do with 1t except furnish the streets, foot the bills and look pleasant Is hard to tell. | However. 1t is good natured curiosity and such 'advanced fnanciers'' are the heroes of this commercial age. But this is neither here nor there. The | people of Birmingham are much in the position of a fellow. who surviving one stif operation. Is kicking hard when
 threatened with another in the same place. It is our business to see that they | don't do 1t again, and to show why they must not, let me quote Comptroller Coler | of New York City:
 ''No matter what the matter of exact ing compensation may be. 1t is practically | impossible for municipal authorities to | make any bargain with a private com pany that will not appear inadequate to l the next succeeding generation. When I the most valuable service railway fran l chises in New York were being disposed | of there might have existed some extra ordinary far-sishted man who could have foreseen the immense growth of the city
 and prophesied what their value would be in the future. But if such man had
 
 l to demand what he deemed to be an ade- | ouate compensation, the promoters of the | railway enterprises would have stood | aghast at his figures. The railroads I would never have been built. And if the railroads had not been built the growth l of the city would have been stunted and 1 the prophet would have stood discredited. | Here lies the solution of the problem 1 then, On the one hand not to discourage | enterprising capital, and on the other hand to place some limitation on its prof | It's, Nov, if the city makes . poor bar gain, but that bargain has only. say, | twenty-five years to run. there is no great harm done; for twenty-five years is as nothing in the life of q great city.
 Hut h franchise be granted in perpet- uity or for very long period-no mat ter how advantageous the bargain may scep eoday-it ts likely to appear quite ridiculous a hundred years from now. Short times for franchfses are, therefore. the most. important thing and if that principle be adhered to more than half | the 1ght Is won"
 The Boston Elevated Railroad nome time ago had biil parsed ailowinw it to build subway fer $so00Ooo, use it fortv years and then give 1t back to the oitv. Governor Crane of Masuachusettn =. gently vetoed the hili because the ftSne granted was too long saying: ssPubIlc 1 rights should not be surrendered for 'as, ! unusual term of yeare Each xenerattor should bs left free to choose it's own coufse. Public property nhcsaId not be surrendered to private iutarssts without .pgoper cQnpeHsatlQq-e
 yudee Wllliam l. 0aynor of t1s Gr,-