The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1905-06-02
Prsgrsss Of Publlc 0wsershlp.

editorial writers of the trust
owned daily press who have to
earn their daily bread by writing
larticles on the public ownership
lof public utilities. As intelligent
men they know that their pro-
lductions are fool stuff or-worse.
I'VE do not make the charge that
these haye been deliberately
false. We say merely that if
lthey have not been Intentionally
false. they have been remarkably
Ignorant
Because it is entirely within
1.-THE range of possibility for the
editorial writers TO know that
1.-THE arguments which they have
made use of in predicting munic-
Iipal disaster if the subways of
New York should be built and
owned by the city, if the street
railways Of Chicago should be
purchased by that municipality,
4 if the gas works of Philadelphia
and of Boston should become
public properties, are not based
upon experience. The American
correspondent of the London Mail
writes thus to his English readers:
\ Mayor Dunno has declared
that Chicago can obtain the
money with which to buy out the
companies and reorganize the
whole vast system without the
necessity for levying taxes; but
it is believed that he is absurdly
optimistic, and it is prophesied
/ that Chicago before long may be
groaning under such weight of
taxation that the citizens will
curse the day when they decided
upon municipal ownership"
To such misleading argument
the London Municipal Journal
makes this pertinent and telling
reply:
This is exactly the kind of
thing written and talked in our
own country ten and twelve years
ago. Now our opponents have
for the most part switched on to
the unfair competition with pri-
vate enterprise argument, which
influences nobody except COM
lpany directors and shareholders.
Municipal trading here. so far
from adding to the burden of the
rates, relieves them"
The New York press, however,
as yet is by no means so unscru-
Ipulous in its dealings with this
question as are the newspapers
of some of our smaller cities. In
Boston, for example, an organ
lization of citizens, including some
OF, the most substatial business
fmen Of the town, has been un-
able to get the results of its in-
vestigation Of the public service
corporations published in the
Ilocal newspapers and would have
been unable to reach the public
at all through ordinary channels
had not the corrupt situation
been fearlessly exposed by the
lSpringfield Republican with q
thoroughness that has spread
consternation and panic through
lout the ranks of the thieves and
their newspaper hirelings.
There are, however, multiply
ling indications of an awakening
lpublic conscience For the first
time in many years the decent
lcitizens of Philadelphia have
found the courage to say and do
something in opposition to the
shameless corruption that has
Ireigned insolently in that city.
THE vote of the Councils to give
over the gas supply to a private
monopoly for seventy-five years
very nearly caused q riot, and
There is reason to hope that when
Mayor Weaver vetoes the measure
liz may be possible to prevent the
lconsummation of the deal over
his opposition.
Meanwhile, elsewhere than in
the United States, the transfer
Iof great public utilities to public
ownership goes steadily forward.
THE Italian railways are being
taken over by the state. and the
municipal railways Of London by
the municipality. So thoroughly
successful has municipal owner
Iship proven in England that it
lean without reservation be said
that the experimental stage there,
as in Australia and in New Zea-
Hand, has been passed. That the
lEngiish-speaking people Of the
.Iworld are able to manage great
business interests through col
Elective action, as they are able
Ito maintain the institutions OF