The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-07-18

| q VETO MESSAGE made pup
| ~ lie Monday by Mayor Car
| 4 " nahan, of Rochester, y. Y,
is one of the most remark
| able documents in the history of
American municipal government.
| From the document itself and eX-
plantations in the Rochester news
papers it appears that the mayor and
| a local lighting company have differed
over the proper policy in relation to
street conduits for electric wires. The
mayor favored city ownership and
| control of the conduits; the lighting
company favored getting control of
| them itself. According to the mayor
the lighting company gained decisive
| influence in councils by putting on
its pay roll the political boss of
| Rochester, George w. Aldridge. AID
ridge is a Republican and so is the
mayor. At the. time of the mayors
| nomination and election is was gcner-
ally supposd he was Aldridge's man.
| But things are certainly different now
| for in the message the mayor directly
charges AldridGe with selling his poll
| tical influence and after citation of a
| lot Of circumstantial evidence intended
to sustain such an accusation, pro-
! ceeds
Operations of this character dis
credit city government. 1t is the gem
| tlemen representing the private cor
porations who have had things hither-
to all their own way in dealing with
municipalities; the gentlemen repre-
senting the city have frequently got
something out of the contract for
| themselves; the peoples interests
have been ignored. Municipal author
| ity and prestige are too often weak
and low: while the authority and pres
| tige of private corporations engaged
in public services are enormously ac-
tive and strong.
"All considerations favor municipal
| ownership of conduits. Conduits. be-
| ing of a permanent nature of Construc-
| ton, require no operating department
| for their maintenance, and are, there
| fore best adapted of all public utili-
| ties for municipal ownership. The
companies own, operate, install and
care for their own cables under city
| supervision, and as there is no divided
authority, danger of accidents is less
y municipal system will bury all
classes of wires at the same time and
| prevent repeated digging up of streets
a municipal system is cheaper to con-
struct than several private systems,
and will therefore allow of more gen.
eral use of Conduits than would be
possible under private ownership. Ow-
| ing to less cost Of municipal conduits,
underground service connection can
be made with each individual subscri-
| ber and so dispense with the erection
of so many distributing poles. Munich
| pal conduits being desirable. let the
| city dominate the situation with a per-
fectly firm hand. Let it say to all
corporations: You must put all your
wires into the city conduit, and you
shall pay rental sufficient to provide
for its maintenance, operation and re-
pair and for interest on bonds and for
a sinking fund to liquidate the princi-
pal
| AT a time not far distant, the pco-
pie of our cities will refuse to submit
| longer to existing conditions. They
| Will demand control over public SER
vice corporations in one of two ways.
| Either the Legislature must enforce
the most complete publicity in the ac-
| counts of all these companies; limit
| capitalization to the cost of the plant
and make stock watering a criminal
| offense; require every franchise to be
| submitted to popular vote, and create
a strong state board with ample pow
ers TO supervise the Operations of such
companies. If that relief be not forth
coming, the people will say that the
scandals and difficulties attendant
upon the making of bargains with pub
lie service corporations are so great
| that the only visible retreat from the
| intolerable state of Generalization is
municipal ownership and operation.
| They will cease to farm out their fran
chises and will take over the business
| themselves"
| There is truth in these opinions. quite
apart from any connection with the
Aldridge-Carnahan quarrel.