The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-08-27
President of the League Of
American municipalities
Has No Faith in Attempts to
Regulate Monopoly.
ADDRESS DELEGATES
At the Sixth Annual COnven.
ti0n Of the Body.
1t Opens at Grand Rapids With
200 in Attendance.

Grand Rapids, Mich, Aug. 27.-Two
hundred delegates were present today
at the opening session in the Furniture
Exposition building of the sixth annual
convention of the League of American
Municipalities. By tomorrow it is ex-
pected there will be 200 more delegates
present, making the convention one of
the largest ever held by the league.
Mayor Palmer welcomed the delegates.
This was followed by an address by
President Chas. A. 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 provoking concen-
trated attention to the question of mu-
nicipal ownership. Continuing on this
topic he said:
Home rule for cities. No depen-
dency of the city upon the state. Each
municipality should be a law unto
itself upon matters purely local We
should have a right to own and control
the public utilities.
Il ask you to note that I say have the
right to own' for 1 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 privilege which we
should not be longer denied.
Competition in the products of the
public service corporations, too often
means that consolidation will follow and
the consumer eventually pay all the
bills.
pure monopoly means that the price
demanded will be far beyond the fair
capacity of the debtor to pay.
Regulated monopoly through the in
strumentality of the state is farce and
practically amounts to legalzed bunco.
THE right to enter into the field with
municipal ownership provides a means
of saying to the oppressor, be square
and decent with US and we will pay
nj Tr1 fn o. NC
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 being
regulation that would regulate, and
| the regulator is the party naturally and
| rightfully the one to do it. An exper-
ience of eight years In the mayora1ty
| has brought me face to face with the
state and it's servants as well as with
| the great companies and their officers:
I am referring to the arbitrary acts of
great organizations; to unreasona BILE
schedules and rates of charges; to high
prices and poor service: to everlasting
greed, big profits and soft snaps. If 1t
is true that individual or a firm is
entitled to only what is fair as return
| on business investment, it is equally
| true that great corporations which ex-
| ist by the license of the state and are
! the creatures entirely of the law, have
no inherent right to receive more than
what Is right and just.
| Great public utility monopolies are
| fertile in resources and learned in trick
! cry. The field being granted to them
oStenSibly to protect the people from the
| ultimate results of competitive warfare;
| the supply of water being enormous
| to make large dividend shrink to fig
ures nominally respectable; the bond
| issues being fOated and all the ma
| chinery and devices for concealing as
| sets having been set in motion the state
| in its wisdom creates its boards and
bureaus to restrict, regulate and con-
| troll
| And the quality of this supervision
! is poor; the size and strength Of the
states arm when raised in behalf of
! the song, You can hardly notice 1t at
| ALL
| Il do not urge municipal ownership
| as a club to exterminate, but rather as
| a means to remedy and a solution
| While 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 perform.
| II charge no corruption upon the
agents of the state; the fault is in the
system; they are not by the tenor of
| their appointment subject to any control
| OF the city: they come in daily contact
/ with the companies and their represen-
/ tatives 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.
! 'sGive US home rule for cities. indie
pendence of the state in matters OF
| purely local concern. freedom from
guardianship and the right to do as we
will with our own,