Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1905-07-08
LARGEST
WEEKLY CIRCULATION
IN CHICAGO.
ALEXANDER n. NEWELL ON TRAC.
TON.

Inc New York Tribune mas been IN
vestigating the traction situation i'm
Chicago and fills two pages of re-.
cent issue with the results of its oh.
servatlons, including splendid ar.
gument for municipal ownership from
Mayor Dunno. with whose views The
Eagle readers are familiar.
In order to get at both sides of the
Chicago street railway situation. the
Tribune correspondent asked fifteen
representative citizens of that city to
name the leader of the opposition to
Mayor Dunno ana his ideas OF munici.
pal ownership and operation. Eleven
of them agreed that Alexander II. Re.
veil was the man. Accepting this yer.
dict. the correspondent sought out
Mr.. Revell. He is one of the big mer.
chants of q city Of famous merchants.
ana Is In no way interested In any of
the traction companies. Mr.. Revell
discussed the problem In this way:
Under private ownership and opera.
ton the city always has the alterna-
tive of performing the service through
the municipality direct. But II the
city starts out to own and operate and
fails In the experiment, then 10 altern.
ntive remains. The city must con-
tnue to give bad service or turn the
lines back to private corporations. AZ
ter the city's failure, these corpora.
tons would not feel any great Obllga-
ton to improve the character of the
service. and the turning over would
have to he done ut the private own
ers' own terms ana not nj the clty's
terms.
Here is another danger: The start
may be made under an honest admin.
istration and proceed for two or three
years satisfactorily. But there Is all
the time tendency-an increasing
tendency-for the service to run the
city instead of the city to run the
service. A bad administration coming
into power would corrupt the street
railway service under municipal own
ership and operation, and bring about
a condition where it would he next
to impossible for II reform administra-
ton TO be elected.
IF the city undertook to operate the
street railways there would be total
of about thirty-One thousand city EN-
ployes. Not only are most Of these
employees voters, but II Is safe to say
that each could control three or four
votes when any issue involving their
personal interest was concerned In the
election. Municipal ownership regard.
ing street railways carries with 1t the
conclusion that other public utilities
gas, electric light, telephone. etc
should be embraced in the municipal
ownership service. Every addition
that is made to the battaliOns of the
city hall increases the ability of an
incumbent mayor TO perpetuate IL bad
administration indefinitely This ten
dency has been increased by the re-
strlctlons thrown around primary and
general elections, which make il more
difficult for reforms In parties to he
even measurably successful.
The idea that the Civil Service law
could be effectively applied to secure
the proper persons to carry on munlc
ipal ownership may be justified in
some degree, but law upon the stat
ute book is not self-cnfOrclng, ana II
might be expected that IL would b,
enforced only To n degree which The
mayor required. II II mayor j. self
seeking or corrupt he can use th'
civil Service Commission effectively
10 get rid Of persons in the city scrv
Ice who may be unsatisfactory Il
him. II the city employees become
numerous enough tn dictate AZ tbs
primary and at the election who shall
he mayor, they also dictate, in effect
what sort of Civil Service Commission
ers shall be appointed and what sor
OF rules OF evidence shall be applied
i'm the retention OF their own set AM
the discharge Of those who are on
JcCtionable 10 them"
Mr. Reyell estimates that municipal
ownership Of the entire Chicago sys
TEN would represent an investment o
SG9,OOO,OOO. With an improved service
he declares that the city could no
hope 10 realize more than S5,OCJpU