The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-21
MunieinnI orxnernhin.

The recent municipal contest in Chi cago in which the election of a mayor
 involved the question of municipal | ownership of public utilities, with the
 electors deciding sarongly in the af- firmative, undoubtedly gave a greater impetus and force to that affirmative
 side than all the writings and speeches that have, come from any source in ad-
 vocacy of the cause.
 Therefore, 1t Is just now timely that the Department of Commerce and La-
 bor publishes a bulletin containing re- ports from many consuls abroad show ing what progress has been made In
 the older countries of the world toward
 municipal ownership of public utilities.
 In Vienna. Austria. the city has been
 operating its own gas plant for the
 past five months Investigation shows
 that the city wlll make a justifiable
 profit.
 Some experiments have been made
 with reasonable prospects of success in
 the municipal ownership of light and
 power plants In most of the principal cities of Canada. The latest municipal
 elections in Canada generally were de-
 cided for municipal ownership.
 From France the only public uutility proposition heard from through a con
 sul is a peculiar experiment tried In the city of Nantes. Consul Britain, at that place. tells about 1t in communica- tion to the Department of Commerce and Labor. The French call 1t Les Fourneaux Alimentaires Municipeaux," in other words, kind of municipal kitchen, where persons without money may present tickets and procure warm. substantial meals. The city has also gone into the work of providing bed- houses as well as food for the desti- tute. The sick are sent to the hospital. During the stay at the dormitory each person is given two meal tickets day. The kitchens are open from October 15 to April 15, but the dormitory is open all the year. With the exception of the kitchen connected with the dormitory, the meals are not exactly free, but the prices are so low that no one Is obliged to suffer from hunger. Tickets entitl- ing the holder to one dish of anything on the bill of fare are deposited at the bakeries and tobacco shops throughout the city, where they are purchased by charitably inclined persons. who In turn hand them to applicants for charI- ty.
 The bill of fare furnished daily, with the price. is this: Beef soup, boiled beef, beef stew. beef with sauce, cod fish, pork and cabbage. beef a la ravi gote, stewed tripe, eggs a Ia tripe- each plate two cents. Water soup, DedHS anu iiCc ar IuIIllSlltu Ut OllN cent a plate.1 When these kitchens were first opened the expense to the city was consid derablc, but during re- cent years the deficit has been gradual ly reduced, until last year it was only 5000 francs ($1.544) The total ex- pense for the same period were 4s,000 francs ($9.26D and the receipts 10000 francs ($7720)
 Tn Germany there is a more wide spread experimentation with municipal of public utilities. The ! authorities own and manage 1 electric works supplying light and | power in the cities of Bremen Barmen, | CasseI. Darmstadt. Dusseldorf. Eber- field, Hanover, Cologne. Konigsberd, | Lubeck and Pforsheim. All of these | cities, with the exception of Hanover, | nave constructed works for light and | power and have leased the management | 70 private parties are Ak la Chappelle, | Frankfort. Strassburg and | Stuttgart, all of which with the excep- | Ion of Chemnitz, are cities where the | gas works are under the management | ,f a private corporation. Other cities ' where private companies have agree nents that under certain conditions | hey must surrender the management | o the municipal authorities are Altoo- Ia, Dessau, Gera, Hagen, Heilbronn 4eipsig, Mulhausen. Stettin and Zwick u. Of these cities. the gas works ar lnder private control in Dessau, Hagen dulhausen and Zwickau.
 In Berlin the street car system is op- rated by the municipality. having pur- hased the system in 1901 from thu firm of Koenen & Go.
 In the city of Mannheim a successful ownership of the street rail way system is operated
 After all the best that has been told f the high-class municipal government g sent by United States Consul Haynes. t Rouen, France, in a story taken from The London Daily Mail, and it is a wig ,rous exposition of the value of gov . rnment by experts. It is as follows. l