The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-18
Glasgow's Many Enterprises.

Baltimore Sun.
Glasgow. Scotland, has "municipalized''
more industries perhaps than any other
| city In the world. 1t has overdone a good
| thing. with the result of greatly increas-
ing the dead weight of debt and taxes
upon its citizens, while few or none of
the municipal industries pay. If profit be
| calculated In the manner customary with
private firms. 1.-The corporation of Glas-
gov supplies its citizens" says a CORES
Iondent Of The London Times. in an ar
water. gas, electric light. tramways and
telephones; 1t controls II public parks
and galleries, Is baths and washhouses.
a fruit and vegetable market, foreign
and dog market and an old clothes mar
ket, slaughter houses and Offices, 4 hos
pitfalls and burying ground; 1t Is the own
er Of Ass municipal houses, IS lodging
houses (of which it manages ITSELF, a
family home (also managed by the cor
porationl, 372 shops. 40 stores. % ware
houses Is workshops, u halls, 2 churches,
hotels. l theatre, 1 studio. ! pawn Office
| rama (site), laundry, bakehouse. golf
course and l gospel tent; 1t farms over
1000 acres of land. where large crops are
grown. including all the hay used in the
stables of the Cleansing Department. as
well as large crops of oats wheat, tur"
nips, etc.; 1t converts the city sewage into
solid matter, which 1t sells to the farm
ers for manure; it carries on business as
market gardener; 1t possesses stone quar-
ries and has 800 railway wagons: II builds
tramcars. reclaims bogs. conducts a civic
granary: raises 1000 pounds a year on
the clinker from the refuse-cremating
furnaces collects and sells waste paper
and is not above melting and disposing
of the solder from the old tin cans 1t
finds in the dust heaps-all these things
being done or supervised, in their leisure
time. by the miscellaneous group of per-
sons who constitute the Glasgow Corpo-
ration"
The tax payers supply the capital for
these various enterprises. but they begin
to grumbie and affirm that their affairs
are wastefully managed; that the man
ayers are incompetent financiers and that
they are making losses right straight
along. Capital expenditure has grown
from 1850 in 1887 1888 to s. $50, 900 in 1900
1901. though annual revenue has little
more than doubled in that time, The as
sessable rental has increased from $l6
So. $40 to $24, 764S20. but debt has increased
from s2&oO0OO0 to $64,0000oo. The invest
ments in various kinds of industrial
taxes. but they do not have this effect.
Taxes have gone up from 20 per 800 to
N.62. and are still rising. The credit of
the city is in consequence declining, Its
1-2 per cents now selling at 11s. against
1879 10 few years ago. Profits are
shown in the Official reports on various
municipal enterprises, but these profits
are changed into deficits when proper al
ton. reserve, salaries, etc. as would be
done in a private business The Glasgow
street railway system. for example, claim
ed a gross balance" of $1,046.560 for last
year, but on examina ton 1t is found that
on strictly business basis there was a
loss of 100000. This, too, when no proper
allowance Is made for depreciation. On
the strength of the supposed fine showing
car fares were reduced, lin order that
users should benefit from profits" the
increased deficit thus produced being sad
died on the tax payers. The municipal
telephone business, in which 81. 900, 00o is
invested, reports a yearly profit of s.. 900,
but this without allowing anything for
depreciation and with but $4,000 allowed
for sinking fund The reported profit was.
therefore, paper profit" and covered
a real deficit. On $3.50, 900 invested in an
electric lighting plant. to serve 5,374 sub
scfibers an annual surplus this year of
$4,000 is reported but this surplus, the
report confesses. is obtained by emitting
to provide for depreciation. So of house
building and other enterprises. They are
Improbable. however much they serve to
give employment TO petty politicians and
their retainers. Stun districts have been
cleared and expensive municipal houses
erected, but the rents are too high for
the slum population. which, to the num-
Der of $1,000 has had to find new slums
for itself in the suburbs, and some thou
sands of the new houses are unoccupi Id
Some few businesses. which are natural
munopolies, may very well be undertaken
by cities, according to their exigencies
but it is obvious that Glasgow, carried
away by a theory, has gone too far.