The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1902-08-30
THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE.
Sixth Annual Convention of the
League of American Municipal
tiles at Grand Rapids.
AN ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ASHLEY.
He Advocates Home Rule for Cities
With No interference by the
State, and the Right of Each Mu-
nicipnIity to Control the Public
Utilities.

Grand Rapids, Mich, Aug. 27.-Two
hundred delegates were present at
the opening session of the sixth an
nual convention of the League of
American Municipalities. in the fur
niture exposition building. BY Tues
day, it is expected, there will be 200
more delegates present, making the
convention one of the largest ever
held by the league. An address of
welcome by Mayor Palmer of Grand
Rapids opened the morning session.
This was followed by an address by
President Charles 5. Ashley, mayor
of New Bedford. Mass.
Mr.. Ashley said that much thought
and discussion had been given to the
subject of municipal administration
by the members of the league, and
they had been the cause of pro.
voking concentrated attention to the
question of municipal ownership.
Continuing on this topic, he said:
Home rule for cities. No dependency
of the city upon the state. Each munich
pality should be a law unto itself upon
the matters purely local. We should have
n flSnt 10 W anu CoHtIol the puuliC uth-
tiles,
II ask you to note that I say have the
right to own for | do not undertake to
say that at this time in every communi-
ty it would be a feasible thing to exer-
else that right, but in the very nature of
things it is a privilege which we should
not be longer denied. Competition in the
products of the public service corpora
lions. too often means that consolidation
will follow and the consumer eventually
pay all the bills.
''Pure monopoly means thai the price
demanded will be far beyond the fair ca
pacity of the debtor to pay.
Regulated monopoly through the in
strumentality of the state is a farce and
practically amounts to legaliZed bunco.
The right to enter into the field with
municipal ownership provides a means of
saying to the oppressor, be square and
decent with lis and We will pay a proper
price to you; if not, we ourselves will pay
to ourselves, buy of ourselves and the
amount expended will be that which is of
itself right and not what you extort.
This would come pretty near regulation
that would regulate, and the regulator is
the party naturally and r%ightfully the one
to do 1t. An experience OF eight years in
the mayoralty has brought me face to
face with the state and its servants as
well as with the great companies and
their officers: | am referring to the arbi-
trary acts OF great organizations; to un-
reasonable schedules and rates of charges:
to high prices and poor service; to ever
lasting greed, big profits and soft snaps.
II 1t is true that an individual or a firm
is entitled to only what is fair as "A re-
turn on II business investment. IL is equal
~ true that great corporations which ex-
list by the license of the state and are the
creatures entirely of the law, have no in
herent right to receive more than what is
right and just
Great public utility m%onopolies are fer
tile in resources and learned in trickery.
The field being granted TO them ostensibly
to protect the people from the ultimate
results of competitive warfare; the sup
ply of water being enormous TO make a
large dividend shrink to figures nominal
ly respectable; the pond issues being
foated and all the machinery and devices
motion, the state In its wisdom creates it's
boards and bureaus to restrict, regulate
and control.
And the quality of this supervision is
arm when raised in behalf of the city's
people is weak: in the words of the song
You can hardly notice it, at ALL
Il do not urge municipal ownership as
a club to exterminate, but rather as a
means to a remedy and a solution. With
1t you can light and heat your own civic
household, and ride in your own streets
and ways and lead your electric wires
wherever electricity has a duty to per-
form.
II charge no corruption upon the agents
OF the state; the fault is in the system;
they are not, by the tenor of their APP
pointment. subject TO any control of the
city; they come in daily contact with the
companies and their representatives and
they learn to think as their visitors
think; they lose their identity as citizens
themselves and have come to regard the
peoples voice as too brazen and out of
tune.
Give us home rule for cities. independ-
ence of the state in matters of purely To-
cal concern, freedom from guardianship
and the right TO do as we will with our
own