The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-31

iasia- Where il is fin force 1t has re-
 suited in reduced fares. in more rapid constant and efficient service, in in= in general public satisfaction. In near
 every instance, I may add, ii is has
 contributed 10 the reduction of general taxes.
 In the scores Os cities of the world
 municipal ownership and poreation has
 become a reality under a Civil Service
 law, it has mimimized. municipal cor
 ruptian. It has stamped out the briber
 and the boodier. It has taken fran
 chise and special privilege seeking,
 breeder of official debauchery, out of
 politics
 Out of the six cities of the world
 which have approached or passed the
 100000 population mark-LondOn, Der
 lin, Paris. Vienna, New York and Chi eagO-aIl. Nsave Chicago, have known
 public ownership of rapid transit fa-
 Cilities of recent years to some degree. Vienna operates its own street rall-
 ways. Berlin now owns and operates
 two minor electric mies and has di.-
 C!.ared for no further tramWay grants. Paris has provided for the mun!c'Pal
 orerat on of the elaborate system af underground electriep railways it is coInpletiI g. New York owns twert. y- four I..iles of subWays and has talk II over the ferry ss1viee to Staten Is 1nd. The London Cr'nty 'Fcil gradual ' is srcLrlng possession If all tran.way lines in the county, bu. a few We KS as' having determined to pay $l6,sa,,,- 0O0 for the physical propsTty and S600,- 1Ej for four years uneypired leases of the lines north of the Thames - lines heretofore leased to pri Eate company for a rental of $fi0,000 aG- nua. Iy
 Chicago, fn part, has learned it's
 municipal ownership lesson first hand. , In a decade it has developed what is probably the greatest municipal
 electric lighting plant in the world. re- ducing the cost of electric light more than one-haIf. For fifty years it has I operated it's own water system deriving
 a net annual profit of more than I,500,- 00O, and supplying it's people with water at the cheapest rate known in any city in the State of Illinois, if not in the United States.
 But for almost eight years Chicago
 had been kept on the traction griddle.
 It was during this period that there came the public awakening which re- suited in the people declaring three times at the ballot box for municipal ownership of these public utilitesi While traction history was making, Chicago learned, from bitter, experi- ence, the gross fnefficiency and in- decency of private management of
 public utilities. It learend that the chief aim of private ownership is to pay exorhitant dividends upon watered stocks; in the case of the Chicago City Railway Company the dividends aver | aged as high as F per cent annually for nineteen wears It was forced to ! submit to being damned into miserable | i'll lighted, i'll kept cars It hung on straps on it's way to work in the morn ing and on it's way home at night. It underwent the collection of illegal double fares for years It rode In cars
 the temperature of which would chill the living and preserve the dead. T'rf- vate management of these utilities de
 bauched over and over again the city's
 lawmakers and the lawmakers os the State. The bad service retarded the