Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1906-10-25
CITY OWNERSHIP
REPUDIATED
REPEATED FAILURES PROVE
THEORY NOT PRACTICAL.
Investigations Show Results Different
from Those Painted by Social
lstle Speakers.


Des Moines, Iowa.-The disclosures
which have been made in Omaha con-
corning the failure OF municipal owner
ship in that city have attracted wide
spread attention over the entire country,
and adjoining states watched the devel-
opments with great interest both be.
cause Of the proximity of Omaha as we'll
Volved in the Omaha troubles.
Some time ago the entire middle west
seemed with municipal ownership Ideas
and fads, but the showing made in Oma-
ma mas set up train of Investigations
by those who really wanted to know the
effects Of the public ownership of public
utilities, and the result has been that
thousands who formerly were advocates
OF this idea have now changed their
minds and are as much opposed 20 their
cities owning the street cars, electric
lights, gas systems, telephones, etc, as
they formerly were in favor of such
When the Iowans began looking
around and investigating municipal own
ership, they found that not alone was
in various other parts of the country
similar reports were being made. For
instance. Muncie. Ind, which has for
years owned its electric light plant, has
just abandoned the cty-Owned plant and
has gone back to a privately owned
electric light company. In Richmond,
Ind, the mayor, who was elected three
times on a municipal ownership ticket,
has recommended that the city sell its
a.
private corporation. LOgansport, Marion
and several other Indiana cities are adj
Yocating the same thing, and there al
ways remains the city of Hamilton Ohio,
whose waterworks claimed at one time
to be model of municipal ownership
results :, under official Investigation
showed itself to be reeking with graft
and source Of constantly increasing
burden for the tax payers.
In Omaha, the municipal market house
was complete failure and a total loss
and to-day stands without a tenant.
This, together with the asphalt plant
and the waterworks muddle, has stirred
Omaha taxpayers to point where they
are declaring that Omaha has had
enough of municipal ownership, must get
rid of what It now has on hand and
must then give the fad a wide berth for
all time to come.
Because of the political unrest OF Iowa,
Wisconsin and other middle west states,
the agitators who are preaching munich
pal ownership, socialism and other the
cries of this kind, gained a ready hear
Roadway and gaining adherents in every
direction. But the fundamental hard
common sense of the westerners would
not permit them to accept the mere word
of the soclalistic siren, however sweetly
sung. They begun investigating for
themselves. They wanted to know how
far the municipal ownership theory jibed
with the results.
One. of .tfe very first results Of these
Investigations was the discovery that the
greatest talk for municipal ownership
emanated from socialstic headquarters
In Milwaukee, Paterson, N. j., and Chi
cago. The socialists openly boosted that
they had inaugurated the campaign as
an entering wedge for their beliefs with
the expectation that their cause would
Then, again, it was found that wher-
ever municipal ownership was In opera
ton, taxes had been increased, the serv-
ices rendered were inadequate and that
a horde of political heelers were kept in
sinecures at the public expense. The
work nowhere was conducted as eco
nomically as where private enterprises
had developed the business; waste was
at its height. Political rings were
strengthened on every side and the party
system was inaugurated continued in
power right along; The public officials
to handle business of that kind usually
having no technical knowledge of the
business. and therefore the city's bust
couraged and young men filled with en-
thusiasm to make something of them
selves found that their services were
who usually ruled the municipality owned
corporations. 1t was not Intelligence,
not skill in the work in question, that
What was wanted, the sole qualification
demanded. was political ''pull'-the rec
nmmerdation Of some peanut political
boss. who in the majority of cases was
a saloon keeper.
The ro7-property owners who were in
vestigqting the subject suddenly discov-
to believe that all the Increased taxes
causei by municipal ownership were
paid by the rich ard by the owners of
real estate, that eventually the increased
taxation was shifted to the shoulders of
the poor man himself in the way of in
creased rents and increased cost of sup
piles and raw materials. This point was
one of the clinchers which caused many
a western man to change his mind con-
cerring the beauties of municipal own
ersh!p,
According to reports, the citizens of
Omaha are congratulatlng. themselves
that they discovered early In the game
that the municipal ownership road was
not altogether rosy, and that they did
service corporations of their city at a
cost OF many millions, which would
eventually have to be paid in the shape
OF high taxes and higher rents. On the
seems to have decided that he wants no
more municipal ownership, but would
rather get rid of even that little bit of
the system which the city already has
This sentiment is gaining ground rap
idly all over the middle west. The solid
people have made up their minds that
they viii think a good many times be-
fore they make themselves the cats-paw
for lot of long-haired socialistic cTanks.
They have seen through the sooialistic
used as entering wedges for rank social
ism by voting for the gradual extension
of its un-American doctrines through the
preliminary. process of extending munc-
| prises which experience on every hand
! In the middle west and everywhere else
Including Europe, as the former mu-
nicipal ownership advocate Mayor Nc
Clellan, of New York city, has so re-
Gently testified-has shown are better adj
ministered under the good old American
| system of private control and individual