The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-03-09
How British Cities
Manage Public Utilities
by Frederick Upham Adams.l

Great Britain is in the throes of a
revolution. Her antique customs and
enervated institutions are in process of
destruction. From out their ruins
there is rearing the framework OF an
edifice which may typify new civiliza-
ton. The revolutionists are in absolute
control, yet their numberless victories
have been won without blow struck
in anger.
l claim credit for discovery. The
United States is the most conservative
nation on the globe, and Great Britain
is the most radical We smile at the
visionary and hesitate to grant his
theories the favor of a bored tolerance.
Great Britain elects him to Office, in
dorses and adopts his fancies and by
the expenditure of countless millions
of treasure, willingly raised, transforms
his dreams into monumental and SEEM
ingly practical realities.
In more than 100 of the larger cities
Of the United Kingdom the right of pri-
vate ownership in public utilities has
been repealed by legal enactments.
Those of us whose knowledge of what
has happened is confined to occasional
newspaper comments have not the
faintest conception of the stupendous
momentum Of this movement or OF
what it portends not to England alone,
but to every civilized country on the
face of the earth.
Even more startling is the paradox
that this municipal radicalism has de-
veloped among people who yet stu
pidly cling to obsolete customs and ira
ditions and whose commercial and
manufacturing prestige is menaced by
their refusal to adopt methods and de-
vices of proved superiority. 1t shall
be my purpose to show in accurate
contrasts the products of the new rad
Iicalism and the time worn institutions
who surround them.
1t had been represented to me that
our English neighbors were divided
into two classes in the matter of pub
| lie ownership of such undertakings as
street railways, gas and electric light
| ing plants, baths and washhouses, ten
ement houses and cottages, docks, mu-
nicipal farms and other enterprises
which have been completed or are In
progress of construction: I had been
led to believe from reiterated state
ments in various publications that a
powerful and aggressive minority OF
the English people were arrayed
against any extension of municipality
owned works and that through their
influence halt had been called.
| The simple truth of the matter is
that there is no organized opposition
| in Great Britain against the public
Ownership of utilities which naturally
tend to monopolize control. There are
individuals who protest against what
has been done and who sound warn
ings against all that is proposed, but
their feeble activity makes not the
slightest impression on the collective
English mind.
The citizens and taxpayers OF that
country have accepted public owner
ship and have installed it as fixed
institution. They act and speak as il
they have forgotten that any other sys
tenn ever existed. They do not con
slider new projects as experiments, but
as investments. The few privately
owned street railways are looked on
as curiOSitieS.
The intelligent observer of this de
yelopment is almost bewildered by the
paradox which it presents. The Eng
lish1 Individuals an Individuals
the most conservative in the world
He is devotedly welded to that which
was. He venerates that which is old
n~~l9~