The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-11-21
Municipal OWnersh
r. In a Great CIV. r

e. +<z2 49,. -
Graham Taylor in the Chicago Ev-*
ening News tells the story Of municipal
ownership in; Glasgow, Scotland, show:
ing what has been done for the, resi-.
dents OF that city in the way Of re-.
Heving 1T 'of~monopolies that fattened
on the distress of = its inhabitants.
Glasgow is, on the Clyde, and is fifteen
miles inland. Fifty years ago the
Clyde was scarcely 200 feet broad, and
in the dry season it was not more
than three feet deep. But the city
had ambitions, and so it began to dig
and dig, until finally a channel was
made to deep water $50 feet wide and
from rs to 80 feet deep. Now ship
ping from all parts of the globe tie
up at it's warves. Glasgow is now next
to London in the number of it's
citizens. and everybody knows that the
$20.00O,000 the canal cost the city has
been money well spent. In the hands
of "private enterprise" a few share
holders would have been enriched at
the expense of everybody else.
Like all old cities, Glasgow was all
too compactly built for modern in
dustrial purposes. The narrow streets
and high tenements surrounding the
dark, densely populated and insani-
tary CLOSES became as much of
menace to the seaport city as were the
forays of the wild clans from both
sides of the border, which, for per-
sonal and public safety. piled it's peo-
pie together within the walls of the
inland town. The city began to grap-
pie with the evils of crowded tene-
ments and insufficient water. Some
ninety acres were covered with houses
particularly bad. When in 1856 Parlia-
ment passed the "Glasgow corporation
city improvement department act' i'm
mediately the officials began the
demolition acquired by condemnation
purchase, and the construction of wild
er streets. The erection of tenement
and lodging houses was started only
upon the failure Of private enterprise
thus to improve. the city's lots abut-
ting upon the new streets. The
economy of utilizing this idle yet valu-
able property soon proved to be a most
profitable investment for the city,
both from a financial and social point
of view. Upon this original area ad-
there stands today forty six blocks Of
buildings containing 1000 shops and
4, $40 dwelling houses, of which 431
consist of one apartment, 929 of two,
148 Of three and only eleven of a larg-
err number of rooms. In these new
houses and the S42 suites of dwell
lfngs in reconstructed buildings the
city provides homes for 1885 of it's
population. The rentals charged are:
For one-room apartments, $3.50; for
two rooms, $2.72, and for three rooms,
$4.98 a month. Laborers and other I'M
skilled workers almost entirely fill
these houses. Only after such -app1i-
cations are provided for are applica-
tions from other classes of tenants en-
tertained.
In addition to these blocks of dwell
lings the city owns and manages seven
model, lodging: houses. Six Of them are
for men containing :, las single beds
he charge for which AS u rom ~ to ss1
eents 3 night. and one for VI omen with:
4248 beds at from to Z cents each
night. The. rental in all classes in
cludes the use of the common kitchen,
dining halls, washhouses and closets.
Of this total provision for single lodg
ers 97h per cent is occupied. Besides
these houses there is a family home
for respectable widowers with chill
dren of school age. Last year 10
adults with 217 motherless children
found a shelter of their own, the
wholesome plain board provided in the
dining hall and tho safe and comfort
able care of the common nursery. The
expense for a family room is $1.93 a
week; for each adults breakfast, from
5 to cents; for dinner, to IL cents );
for the lodging and board Of each
child, 80 cents a week. A thorough in
spection: of some of these lodging
houses showed them to be scrupuious-
ly clean and welt=managed.
Starting with the purchase and
operation of the plants of the old
water companies the city vastly ex-
! tended the watershed whence the sup
ply was derived by adding that of
Loeb Katrine, forty-two miles distant,
and other sources. While the water
rates have been reduced from "a cents
per 1000 gallons to a uniform charge
of cents, the consumption has In
creased to fifty-four and one-half gal
Ions per capita, of which thirty-four
gallons are used for domestic fund OF
es and twenty and one-half gallons in
| industry and trade, A singink fund Of
$5,375,00O has been set aside from rev.
enue since 1870
! lac gas works of two competing
| companies were acquired by the city
in 1869. To about 100000 consumers
gas is supplied at So cents per 1000
cubic feet with a credit of morte than
$1,9O0,000 to the sinking fund over and
above the expenditure of more than
$12,-S0,000. The municipal electrical
plant has increased IT'S supply of light
and power from the demand Of los
consumers in 1898 to 4,031 in 1901. The
investment in this plant, not includ-
ing the city's tramway power houses,
owned and constructed by the city
amounted in 1901 to $4,4S7,S2o.
The first tramway in Glasgow was
owned and constructed by the city
corporation in 1872, but until 1894 was