Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1906-09-28
WASHINGTON LETTER

washington, Sept. 24.-In his Louis
vile speech Mr.. Bryan declared that
he expected Democrats to favor gov
ernment ownership whenever they are
convinced that the country must
choose between government owner
ship of the roads and railroad own
ership of the government.
There is no danger of railroad own
ership of the government so long as
the voters elect Presidents who will
see to the enforcement of the Repub
lican railroad regulation lawn as Pres
ident Roosevelt is now doing. So
long as this Republican policy is pur-
sued the railroads of the country will
one equal treatment on the highways
of commerce and so as to assure to
everyone reasonable charges for the
services performed without incurring
the many political and commercial
dangers involved In the government
ownership proposition. Not the least
of these is that there would be dan
ger, under Mr.. Bryan's plan of the
railroad employees, under the lead of
the President, who would be the head
of the system, owning the govern
ment. Mr.. Bryan's utterances on this
subject make it seem that he must
have made his tour of the world with
his eyes shut or with determination
to see only what he wanted to see
Otherwise when he was in England
he could not have avoided learning
that one of the political issues being
rapidly pushed to the front by munich
pal ownership in British cities is the
proposition to disfranchise all muni-
cipal employees and not permit them
| to vote municipal elections. The rea-
son for this is that in many places
these employees own the municipal
government. They control elections
and force the administration of the
publicly owned street railways, gas
plants, electric light plants, etc. in
their interests rather than in the in
terests of the taxpayers who foot the
bills, or of workmen in other lines of
employment. Under this system their
compensation has been advanced
above the general level of wages and
they have been converted into sort
of labor aristocracy out of sympathy
with the general body of workmen
But this is not all. Professor Hugo R.
Mayer, who has made an exhaustive
Istudy of municipal ownership in
Great Britain, estimates that the pol
icy of the municipalities and the re.
lstrictions placed on private enterpris-
es have resulted in depriving of en-
ployment in Great Britain no less
than 100000 persons who might have
been employed in street railway,
electric light and power plants, tele-
phone service, and electrical manu-
featuring enterprises had private cap
ital been as free to enter the field of
supplying public utilities as it has
been in the United States.
Democracy and the whiskey trust
were the allies against which the Re-
publicans in Maine had to contend in
the recent election in that State.
Aside from the local fight in Repre-
sentative Littlefield's district on the
labor question the only issue in the
Maine campaign was whether Or not
the prohibition laws of the State
should be resubmitted to a popular
vote. The Democrats favored resub.
mission and, despite their vociferous
denunciations of trusts, they eagerly
entered into an alliance with the whis-
key trust, the managers of which
knew that Democratic victory would
open up Maine as an additional field
for their operations. The combination
entered into between the Democratic
campaign managers and the Demo
cratlc congressional Committee In
Washington on the one hand and the
whiskey trust on the. other hand pro
vided that the Democrats should dc
the talking and the campaign work
while the whiskey trust should fur
nish the money. The consequence
was that the Maine Democrats had
more money for campaign use than
they had ever had before, but in spite
OF all their efforts the State remained
true to its traditions and elected q
Republican State ticket and a solid
Republican Congressional delegation
BURT'S THEATRE.