The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-08
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP
JUDGE DUNNE TELLS OF HIS PLANS
 FOR CHICAGO.
Windy City's Mayor-Elecf Discusses That Clty's Control of Public Util- ities and Makes Optimistic
 PrAdfctiona.


 New York, April 7--Fresh from his triumph in the recent municipal eiec- tion, Mayor-elect Edward F. Dunne of Chicago came to New York today and tonight addressed a large meeting in Cooper Union under the auspices of the Municipal Ownership League of this city. He told how he expected to carry out his pledges made in his recent campaign in Chicago to attain munich pal ownership, of the benefits, as he conceived them, of the city's control Of public utilities.
 James c. Graham Stokes Phelps, vice president of the league. presided and introduced Chicago's mayor-elect said in part:
 Men of the East, we bring you tid- ings of great joy of the men of the West. The exploitation of public prop erty by private capital with its att tendant greed, extortion and corrup- tion has had it's day in American cities, but that day Is about to end. Next Monday Chicago starts upon her mis- sion of dislodging private capital from the control of our street car system. She has succeeded in the operation of her waterworks system in paying some S8s, 100000 for its equipment, has loaned s5,o00,000 from that department to the sewer system, is today giving the cheapest water of probably any city in America and has cash surplus of nearly $1,000,000. She has so man aged her electric light plant that she has reduced the cost of arc lamps from $125 to about $54 per arc lamp per annum. She is operating both depart ments as well as her police. fire and educational departments without scale, graft or corruption, besides cheapen- ing the cost of utilities furnished to the public. She will have the same record of success in relation to her street car system"
 After recounting the history of the struggle during the recent campaign for municipal control Judge Dunne outlined the plan of his administration as follows!
 "The operation of these utilities whether by public or private persons is a valuable privilege. We propose to raise all the money necessary to purchase an up-to-date street car sys- tenn upon certificates which are special or limited promises to pay out of the income collected from the system Un- der the law of the State of Illinois these certificates are termed street car certificates and are secured in three ways: First, by the pledge or all of the income \of the municipal street railway plant, this income being unlimited as to time; second, these cer- tifcates are secured by mortgage which conveys all of the tangible prop erty in the transportation de- partment of the city, private, personal and mixed, and every kind of property used In the transportatIon departmentI third, these certificates are secured by twenty wear franchise. In other words, there is a provision in the law under which if default be made in the payment or street car certificates or of interest thereon, for a period of one year, then the holders of the certificates may ap- ply to a court of chancery to foreclose all of the tangible property used py the city in its transportation depart ment and at the foreclosure sale there shall be knocked down to the bidder the franchise. commencing to run up- on the date when the purchaser buys the property and running twenty years thereafter.
 ''This security, in my judgment. is much better security than the private companies in the past have been able to offer, either to the stock or bond holders Private companies in the mast have been able to sell stocks and bonds ageregating in value $11T T,0O0,- 900 when their tangible property was worth less than $27.O00.o00. If they could raise four times the value of the tangible property upon an expiring franchise, can any sensible man for a moment hesitate as to what amount of money the city of Chicago can raise upon the security hereinbefore men, tioned? I have no hesitation in pre- dieting that if these street car eer- tifcates secured in this manner are offered upon the financial market the AnaociaI syndicates of this nation will be tumbling over each other to get possession of these securities, and even if the financial powers that be should combine to discredit them, the savings bank depositors of Chicago, if they are offered these street car certificates, se- cured as have detailed. will be very glad to take their moneys Tram th-