The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-15
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP OF PUB
Lie UTILITIES CANNOT BE
STAYED.

III the LIZ N. y. Report III WHICH lie
took the ground that municipal water
works constitute a necessary expense"
within the meaning of the constitution,
Chief Justice Clark took the trouble
to collate for the purposes of his ar
gument some interesting figures as to
the growth of the idea of municipal
ownership of public utilities.
AS is we'll known through a series of
more recent decisions of the court, the
opinion written by Judge Clark as
dissent in that case has since become
the law of the State, that waterworks,
lights, sewerage, etc, are necessary
expenses. Since that opinion was writ
ten, also, the cause of municipal own
ership of these necessities and other
public utilities has constantly gained
strength throughout the country.
Among other data collated by Judge
Clark in that opinion were the then
existing facts that i'm Germany over
two thirds of the cities owned their
street car systems and electric light
ing plants; that the same tendency
was increasingly true in the other
countries of continental Europe; that
in Great Britain and Ireland 2O3 cities
and towns, including every city of i'm
portance save five. owned and operat-
ed lighting plants not only for munich
pal purposes, but likewise for the use of
the public, and that the average price
of gas was "a cents per thousand feet,
the plants being conducted at a profit
to the cities. Richmond Virginia, has
owned it's lighting plant since 1852.
and furnishes gas to its citizens at
$1.00 per thousand feet. Over two
hundred towns and cities in the United
States owned their electric lighting
plants and the average cost to citizens
Of such municipalities was less than
one-third the average price paid in
cities in which the plants were owned
and operated by private corporations.
The number of, cities owning water
works was 1880 in the United States
more than half the total of 3,196 water
plants in the country. OF the fifty
larger cities in the United States all
except nine owned their water systems.
In Great Britain over one-third of
the street car systems are owned by
the cities excepting the city of Lon
don, over two-thirds) and it is shown
that they are operated for smaller
fares, give better accommodations
than the companies owned by private
corporations and that they pay profit
to the municipalities. In Europe, in
cases where the cities do not own their
street cars, the lines are under munic-.
ipal control, with minimum rate of
one or two cents for working people
and a division of profits with the cities
provided for
In commenting on the above figures,
Judge Clark wrote:
Thus the concept of municipality
as scarcely governmental at
all, except incidentally for the enforce
ment of it's ordinances, but
it is in truth a great business agen-
cy to supply its people with the prime
necessities of a crowded population,
light water sanitation, clean and we'll
paved streets and protection against
fire.
Indeed, one of the most fruitful
causes of inequality of condition and
the creation of a few enormously
men at the expense of the general
public. has been the great profits made
by private ownership of the public
franchises of furnishing light water
and transportation to large bodies of
men, incorporated into cities and
towns The general move
mcnt of the age in which we live is
towards the ownership and operation
of these franchises by the people of
towns and cities for themselves
through the agency of their municipal
corporations as one of the recognized
and chief purposes of city charters"
Chief Justice-then Associate JUS
tice-Clark proved in the writing of
that opinion not only a true prophet
as far as his own State is concerned
in living to see the principle that
lights and water are necessary ex-
penses come to be settled law, but also
in divining correctly the drift of pub
lie sentiment generally towards the
public ownership of franchises to serve
the wants of the whole people of a
community. The figures that he cited
at that time. 1898. undoubtedly speak
even more forcefully today after six
years of steady growth and progress
in what will inevitably become gen
orally recognized principal. The Chi
cago victory, significant as it is as the
settlement of long years of strife, bick-
ering and annoyance in that great
city. is but the first breaker of the
gathering wave which is destined to
sweep every town and every city clean
of private control of public necessities
and at the same time to purify mu-
nicipal government by the removal of
the chief source of it's debauchery.
WHO Is NEARER THE FAKIR?