New-York tribune., 1906-05-14
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP.
only Partially Successful an Great
Britain, Eepert Reports.

some time that men OF national reputation were
engaged in making first hand study OF the Inp-
nicipal ownership question in Europe N pehah ol
conservative American interests but the reports
Of their investigations have been withheld as con-
Adental documents At last one Of them is 70 ap-
pear. In THE Journal Of Political Economy fos
May. which is TO come out this week. IS an eE-
haustve examination Of the methods ana results
OF municipal ownership in Great Britain maae DS
Everett W. Burdett, Of the Boston bar
The experience of Great Britain being most ire
ouently cited as indicating what the experience or
America would be. Mr. Burdett went to England
last summer and gathered exhaustive information
for his report Briefly stated. his conclusions are
that municipal ownership and operation OF public
utilities In Great Britain have been only partiallS
successful at tile best. and have failed In many
OF the very respects for which their supporters mere
claim most; and that. so far as the present status
in Great Britain Is desirable, It Is owing 70 tne
conditions which do not exist and cannot be dupli-
Gated in America
Perhaps the most serious of the iH consequences
is the hampering and restriction Of industry. The
backwardness of the development of electrical en-
terprise in England led to such state OF things
that in 1902 council of the Institution or Elec-
trical Engineers appointed committee to invests
gate conditions and suggest action that would as
sist the industry The committees tabulated con-
clusions showed that the United States with less
than double the population OF Great Britain had
six times the amount of apparatus installed for
FURNISHING eieclIlC ll5Ilt anu GONSA' StfSN~- NNN
as much for electric traction, twenty-three times
as many miles Of electric railway, twenty-six
times as many motor cars and five and a half
times as much money invested in such enterprises.
Electric railroading which has meant so much
FOR the development of the growing communities
of the United States. has been retarded for years
under the English provisions for municipal owner
ship and operation of tTamways. Though elec-
tricity successfully adapted to street railway
work In England and Ireland several years before
-e.,nr-, tw Tfnf
appears that in 1901 Great Britain had only 500
miles of single track electrically equipped, as
against 1900 miles in this country, and only Aeo
electric cars as against 1900 here while It's popu7
lation was more than half as great as ours.
Glasgow with all it's bOasted progress toward
the millennium of municipal ownership. has a total
Of only 14S miles of municipal railway. which is less
than one-third Of the mileage OF the company
which the city of Boston. though the scotch
city has a larger population than the American
Next to absolutely restricting industry munlci-
pal ownership shows its evil effects. Mr., BuFdett
declares In the diseouTagement Of private invest
ment without private capital and skill ne"
industrial enterprises do not receive that impetus
and development which they otherwise would
Pyae nj Initiative at, nHen Is sWSyS eEpo S develop ne%
things but leave the field OF discovery ~,
the hope OF large rewards Whatever may be the
result Of the prosecution Gy the R4Pe q as s BEEN
founded and put on its feet by individuals. i Is
+As-~-~
tion OF such enterprise can be cited, .
on the whole II appears that the financial results
from municipal operation Of PUBLIC services IN
Great Britain are unsatisfaetory. Tue otteial re-
for the electric lighting Undertakings OF the
kingdom. for instance, TO December a. lse5 snow
that IS per cent of the municipal plants produced
profit the average being $t20 plant while 4z per
cent made absolute losses: On the other hand. OF
average profit of $5l26 each, while only per cent
showed a loss. The government telephone lines for
the year ended March 81, 1885, showed loss OF
S67 800 while the loss government telegraph lines
In the same period was Sa45l, OD ,, ,
of oficehOldng voters and the tremendous increase
of municipal Indebtedness and taxes are obvious
objections municipal ownership, and are among
its very serious results in Great Britain The natu
raj effect Is that the character OF men who are
willing the responsibilities of public office
is becoming lowered from its previous high stand
ard.
Mr. Burdett's general conclusions are that even
IL disagrees with him the character OF the
results achieved by municipal ownership in Great
Britain. IL would be impossible to duplicate them
In this country. owing to the totally different pO
litical conditions which have produced there q
much higher grade Of legislative and executive local
officials Not only is the municipal civil service IN
Great Britain totally different from that Of Amer
ica he says. and dependent for its character and
tenure upon wholly different system of laws and
administration. but the public sentiment and edu-
cation Of the people of the two countries upon the
subject is opposed that the conditions in either
country could not be reproduced. by legislation or
otherwise. in the other"