The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-08-28
CITIES SHOULD
OWN UTILITIES
Opening Session of League of
American municipalities.
DELEGATES MADE WELCOME
ADDRESS OF PRIEST. ASHLEY,
MAYOR OF NEW BEDFORD.
DELEGATES MADE WELCOME

GRAND RAPIDS. Mich, Aug. u
TWO hundred delegates were
present today at the opening
session in the furniture exposition
building Of the sixth annual conven-
ton NJ the League of American Mu-
inequalities. 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 dele
gates This was followed by an ad-
dress by President Charles S. Ashley,
mayor OF New Bedford. Mass. Mr..
Ashley said that much thought and
discussion had been given to the sub
iect Of municipal administration by
the members of the league and they
had been the cause of provoking con-
6entrated attention to the question of
municipal ownership. Continuing on
this topic. he said:
Home Rule For Cities.
Home rule for cities. No depend
encv Of the city upon the state. Each
municipality should he a law unto it
self upon matters purely local We
should have right to own and con-
trol the public utilities.
"I ask you 10 note that I say have
the right 10 own. for I do not un-
dertake 10 say that at this time in ev-
cry community II would be a feasible
hing to exercise that right. but in the
very nature of things IL is a 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 viii be far beyond the
fair capacity of the debtor to pay.
Regulated monopoly through the
instrumentality of the state is a farce
and practically amounts 10 legalized
bunco.
Municipal Ownership.
The right to- enter into the field
with municipal ownership provides a.
means of saying TO the oppressed. be
square and decent with us and we
viii pay proper price to you; If not,
We ourselves viii pay TO ourselves
buy OF ourselves. and the amount ex-
pended will be that which is of itself
right and not what YOU exact.
This would come pretty near be-
ing regulation that would regulate
and the regulator is the party nat
urally and rightfuily the one to do it.
An experience OF eight years in the
mayorality has brought me face to
face with the state and its servants.
as well as with the great companies
and their officers; I am referring to
the arbitrary acts Of great organiza-
IN
rates of charges: to higher prices and
poor services, TO everlasting greed.
profits and soft snaps. If IL is true
that an individual or a firm Is en-
titled to only what is fair as a return
on business investment. il is equal
ly true that great corporations which
exist 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
Learned in Triekery.
Great public utility monopolies are
fertile in resources and learned in
triCkery. The field being granted to
them ostensibly to protect the people
from the ultimate results Of COMPETE
tive warfare. the supply OF water
being enormous TO make a large divi-
deud shrink TO figures nominally re-
fiOated and all the machinery and de
vices for concealing assets having
been set in motion. the state in its
wisdom creates its boards and bureaus
20 restrict, regulate and control.
And the quality of this supervision
Is poor: the size and strength of the
states arm when raised in behalf Of
the city. of the people. is weak; in the
words of the song. You can hardly no.
tice Il all
Means of Solution.
Il do not urge municipal ownership
as a club 20 exterminate. but rather
as a means to a remedy and a solu-
ton. With II you can light your own
civic household and ride I'm your own
streets and ways and control electric
wires wherever electricity has a duty
10 perform
I 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 con-
troll 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 them
selves. and have come to regard the
peoples voice as too brazen and out
Of tune
Give Us home rude for cities, in
place az the state IN matters of pure
" local concern. freedom from
guardianship and the right to do as
We VIII with our own
At this afternoons session of the
convention. Major ]. VI. Head Of Nash
Vile. Tenn. was the first speaker, his
topic being Transportation and Taxa
lion He advocated public ownership
and control Of public utilities
There is scarcely a city in the Unit
ed States" said he, that is not tax
ms its citizens almost up TO the limit
az endurance, and many OF them are
trying new and doubtful methods of
raising the necessary revenues to, meet
city government"
The feature Of the evening session
vas the address OF Mayor Samuel Jones
or Toledo. His subject was What Is
Crime. end Who Are the Criminals -
He said society was the real criminal
and not the man or the individual In
condemninE the present criminal sys-
tenn. he said.
The preacher in the pulpit. the judge
on the bench. the working man on the
street. are a part Of this system. which
Is sick from head 10 foot. and must
share in the evil until we purge the
whole mass. The sending Of the poor
nan 70 the work house because he can
not pay his fine is but Imprisonment
Tor debt. Yet we boast that the debtor 5
prison has been abandoned II we be-
heved the prison did good. we would
OCCASIONALLY put our children there. bat
There is not a judge who would mol