The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-10-13
A Right Start.

There has arisen a considerable dam +
ger that the question Of municipal or
private own ership Of utilities would get
into partizan politics. After the cleo
tion Of Judge Dunno to the mayoralty|
Of Chicago the democratic party showed
disposition to appropriate the ques;
tion as party tenet and to deny re-
publicans the use Of the same. The sill
illness of this attitude was shown in ad-
vance by the fact that the election in
Chicago was not a partizan affair, but
that Judge Dunno received a. great deal
Of republican support and lost good
deal Of democratic support among men
who believed or disbelieved in public
ownership. ~ 49, 80 Ia gseT. y, ss:ss-
The tendency to make the question a
partizan one was selfish and narrow,
and it has already met it's due reward
in the maze of confusion in which
Mayor Dunno finds himself. He has
been unable to do anything toward
municipalizing the streetcar lines for
the very good reason that the public is
about as much at sea now as it was be-
fore the election. The most that the
voting meant was that the people Of
Chicago, smarting under the wrongs
which had been inflicted upon them by
incompetent and traitorous corpora
lions, wanted to smite the existing
streetcar companies and voted for the
man they thought would do some smit-
/ ing. That they were mistaken in their
man is one Of the ordinary results of
voting. Judge Dunno does not appear
to be able to smite anything but the
circumambient air. a 4
But he did one thing for the clarif-
Ecation Of the problem. He brought a
very sensible, plain spoken and honest
!. Scotchman from Glasgow, who observed
the street railway problem in Chicago,
Cleveland and other cities. He made a
[report which the mayor has very un.
fairly suppressed, but whose tenor is
known. He said municipal ownership
was very much question Of method
and that in his opinion it would never
succeed under, the political methods OF
American cities. Inysaying this much
Mr.. Dalrymple reopened the whole cues
ton in America. He made itplain that
we do not yet know how to approach
public ownership, and that if we ap
preach it without knowing what il
means we will surely fail.
i Now comes the rational civic fed
Grafton with d practical plan to gather
information. It proposes to8send ar
efficient commission abroad equipped
|. with means to make a thoro~ study Of
j, conditions in Great Britain, and on thu
i continent, and report to the American
Ipeople. The commission proposes tx
Etake up limited number Of subjects
such as light, water and transport ation
land make such investigation Of each Al
J will count for something. This under
taking is a public service of no small
value to the public at this time whel
j, public ownership in the form Of half
L baked schemes is being thrust forWart
] every day, and the people are being co
! creed into saying whether they are TO
/ the people or the monopolies. I
J, stands to reason that the people ar
. not for the monopolies. The.
h are first for clean, efficient city govern
I ment. Next for adequate public serv
/, ice at the lowest rates compatible wit
| d fair return on the capital invested