The Paducah sun., 1906-03-28

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question of municipal ownership. In
connection with his address, which
dealt in a very succinct way with q
great problem that Is in the fore
front of present consideration. Mr.
Mcdonald accorded an interview to
a Louisville Herald reporter in
which he supplemented his remarks
at the association with further inter-
esit.ng comment.
'My remarks at Cincinnati were a
part of the address required of me
as president of the Ohio Gas Light
Association. This association start
ed in Ohio. 1t has now a member
ship from every state in the Union
There has been feeling among its
members that some organized effort
should be made to counteract the
tendency toward municipal owner
shsp. the idea being to educate the
public opinion as to the evils which
This system has developed. My re
marks were as follows:
Much has been said during the
year about the progress of the craze
for municipal ownership. | believe
that with American cities, organized
as they are. municipal ownership
would be a great mistake; but do
not believe that 1t is the duty of gas
men to oppose this idea to any great
er extent than 1t Is the duty of all
good citizens to oppose it. If the
public wants our works, they will pay
for them; and apart from the pro-
lection afforded by law, the national
sense OF fair play in the American
people is sufficient guarantee that
if the works are taken and paid for,
they will be paid for at fair price.
"'My opinion is however, that the
time when the American people will
be willing to embark i'm the manu-
facture of gas, and will create the
debts necessary to do so, and ratify
those debts at popular elections, is
as far off today as It ever was. Gem
erally speaking, the gas companies
have furnished, year by year, a bet
ter service at a lower price; and
while some sort of regulation SINH
laf. to that which has existed for
years in Massachusetts, may result
as the outcome of the present agita-
ton, | do not believe that there will
result anything radical, or anything
which will seriously injure those
companies which are treating thu
public fairly, as | believe nearly all
gas companies are
"a large volume can be written
on either side of this question; but
there Is not an argument in favor of
public ownership of gas works and
electric works which would not APP
ply as well to the public ownership
of drug stores, groceries and saloons.
Surely food and medicine are neces-
sites of life, equally with light and
heat. Surely it is just as necessary
to get pure food and pure medicines
as il is to get good service in light
and heat. Public ownership of sa-
Icons and drug stores has been tried.
ar1 has, on the whole, been much
more successful than public owner
snip of light plants and heat plants.
"Public ownership is not an ex-
pertinent to be tried. 1t is an exper-
iment that has been tried in many
rlaces. and has proven failure in
nearly all of them. There are many
gas companies in America owned by
the public The gas which they sell
Is not as good nor as cheap as the
gas sold by many companies private
ly owned. Wherever the publicly
owned companies show profit 1t Is
done by omittmg all the charges for
taxes. for interest and for deprecia-
ton. The private company pays tax
es. and the public treasury Is en-
riched. Interest. and depreciation
go on. whether they are charged Tor
or not, and eventually both inust be
lost.
al believe that public ownership
Is better than Unrestricted private
monopoly; but experience every
where has shown that a properly reg
ulated private company serves the
public better than publicly owned
plant, the principal reason being
that a man of such studious habits
as would make him competent man
ager of public utility, cannot at
the same time, be the joyiaa, sociaoie
good fellow Chat would likely be
elected to an Office. The men VINO
do the electing have scant knowledge
of engineering, and still less OF
chemistry, and they are totally un-
able to give proper weight to at
tainments in these absolutely essen
tial lines.
Louisville has had for many years
.Ata.1.. Ssu,po wat OF. cOmnany III