The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-13
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF PUBLIC
UTILITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR
CORRUPT MUNICIPAL
GOVERNMENT.

tice or people everywhere, that the
point at which the economic principle
of government established by the con-
stitution has seemed the most sadly
to fail has been in the orderly and
smaller cities throughout the land.
Barring the exceptional cases incident
to so large scheme, the government
al control of the Nation has been
fairly free from scandal in the really
important functions of government. In
the municipalities, however, the rule
has been an ever growing and more
general corruption and disregard for
the principles which the democratic
ideal has been supposed to foster.
Starting with Philadelphia. the busi-
ness of city politics has spread
throughout the land until by the force
of habit the people have become in
different to the purity of the men
whom they elect to defend their rights
of property and of liberty. From the
brutal thugdom of the New York
police, the sceptical notion that there
is a string or graft connected with
every office has spread until the first
question that callous people is apt
to ask when a candidate is announced
is what does he want?" The office
has long since ceased to be the goal;
it is the perquisites, the vague term
for conscious or unconscious aban-
donment of trust that count
And, strangely enough to con-
science, yet logically evident to
natural sequence of events, the men
who are responsible for the debauch-
cry of the public principles and the
public morals are at the two extremes
of the social ladder banded together
in q hybrid and yet perfectly plausi-
BILE federation. On the one hand is
the tough, the policeman making his
pickings off the graft of vice, the al
derman dividing the spoils and max
ing new bargains above the heads OF
the blue coats, the gamblers and the
thousand and one grafters of the un-
der world and above the aldermen
the men of means in the community,
of place in the church, of unim-
peached standing and respectable
ty, the two extremes clasping hands
for selfish motives to the consequent
prostitution of the public good. The
why and the wherefore of the fact is
a thoughtful study, and the remedy
one that is needed as the one specific
for the disease.
Why should the utterly depraved,
those lost to morals and beholden to
vice, join with and have the support
of the better classes of the cities
throughout the States and Nation?
The coalition is an unnatural one. In
their hearts each party to the implied
agreement hates the other with the
intensity of old instinct. Yet they
band together and it is through the
very fact of their union that honest
government in the cities is almost
an impossible condition.
The answer is plain: the remedy
certain. The contract is one that
of rights denied to the majority
of the people, and privileges gran
ted from the city TO the individual
without compensation. At the root
of the corruption is not the bully of
the ward, the gambler at the corner
BAR nor yet the policeman levying
his monthly per centage on informal
ly licensed vice. The moving cause,
the enabling factor is in nine cases
out of ten an eminently respectable
citizen, ono who has a tender heart.
In ninety-nine cases out of hum
dred this citizen has an interest in
public utility. His money is plac-
ed where it is doing great work. Its
interest constantly .accrues. AS he
thinks about the condition that his
native city would be reduced to were
it deprived of his particular monop-
oily and it's conveniences, the citizen
feels in his heart as he pockets his
dividends that he is both wise man
and a public benefactor. 1t is not
to be expected that he should see
the fallacy in his complacent sense
of self-virtue. There is no reason,
however, why the people should not
see, nor why they should not under
stand, the motives that control the
votes on the one hand of the promi-
nent citizen for the tough of the ward,
and on the other the enthusiasm OF
the political heeler for the prominent
citizen. The mere fact that the two
influences join on basis of mutual
compromise, is prima facia evidence
| of the unworthiness of the ends for
which they work. The profession
al politician of the city is looking for
| the pickings of his trade, for an in
crease of power. for the continued
certainty of the gain that follows on
place. The owner of public fran
chise-water, lights, telephones, street
cars-finds himself in the uncomfort-
able position where the very fact OF
his gratifying gains warns him of the
danger of their end. I'm the emer-
gency he needs votes, he wants tools
to help him fasten his franchise on
4 the people. Where can he turn? Not