Evening star., 1902-03-01
Municipal Ownership.

The story Of the Toledo natural gas plant
is interesting, and it is likewise history. Our
readers will remember the vigorous political
campaign waged by Golden Rule Jones'
and the amount Of interest it excited at
the time by reason of the municipal own
ership plank in his platform. He was not
responsible for the city owning natural
gas plant. for that was put In twelve.years
ago and four years before he became resi-
dent Of the city Of Toledo, but he was
proud to become the mayor of city pro-
Niding it's own gas supply and-Well, the
natural gas supply of Northern Ohio gave
out the city could not extend it's mains to
the southern field the private company
did, by reason of legal restrictions, and
the mains were leased to the Toledo Gas
Light and Coke Company, which manu-
factures gas and distributes through them.
That is how Mayor Samuel l.. Jones came
to write for the Toledo Bee October ID an
explanation of how it all happened. He
disclaims having had anything to do with
it. He found that as mayor he had even
less to say than as citizen, and does not
want people to think that his theories are
in any manner involved in the failure of
the city natural gas plant, asserting tha:
the only failure that can be proven by
the history Of the plant Is that, not mu-
nicipal ownership but municipal government
is failure" In other words, city can
conduct any business for itself if 1t is per-
mtted to bond itself indefinitely and tax
it's citizens without limit. He has no fault
to find with the private corporation, saying
that natural gas is now supplied at thirty
cents, to the perfect satisfaction of citi-
zens. After his experience as mayor he
has evidently been thinking hard if one
might judge from the following conclusions
arrived at:
The Toledo natural gas plant then has
failed a municipal enterprise for the fol-
lowing reasons:
First-Because it was an immoral as we'll
unbusinesslike proposition for the city
to enter into this business after it had
granted two franchises to two private cor
pGrations to carry 1t on.
Second-It failed because the supply OF
natural gas in the Northern Ohio field gave
out. Had the supply Of natural gas been
like the supply Of manufactured gas or like
the supply Of water which we are drawing
from the river, our natural gas plant would
have been as complete a success as 7Lr
water works plant. property Of which the
people are Justly proud and one they would
rot, under any circumstances think of
turning over to a private corporation to be
run for private profit, because 1t renders a
more satisfactory service at less price than
any private corporation could render.
Third-The city natural gas plant failed
because Of the hindrances and limitations
that city officials subjected to in the
name of law" which place those who are.
charged with the management of city prop.
erty at a disadvantage with managers of
private corporation. This is not because the
plans have been laid by the corporations to
get the advantage of the people; 1t is be-
cause Of the fact that the people haveovol-.
unfairly hampered themselves; because We.
are yet lacking IN an ideal that involves
social success.-PrOgressive Age.