The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-02


 municipal ownership abroad marks the l first stage in an investigation which will be watched with great interest all | over this country No report Is ex- pected for several months. since the committee plans to spend the summer l completing its work in England and on the Continent. But meanwhile wide spread attention is being attracted by 1 the publication, in the May number of | the Journal of Political Economy. of l the studies made last summer by MT. Everett w. Burdett of Boston of the methods and results of municipal own ership in Great Britain.
 There is a special interest in what MT. Burdett says about the telephone because that has come to be recognized as perhaps the most characteristically American of all public utilities Noth- ing could sum up the matter more pointed1y than his statement that out side of London the competition of the National Telephone Company-the pri-
 vately owned system corresponding. In
 it's limited way. to the Bell system in
 this country--has practically put gov
 e-rnment local telephones out of busi- ness. notwithstanding the fact that the
 Postoffice Department has the monop-
 oly of long distance tEansmissions.
 It will not surprise the American bus
 mess man when he is told that in the five important cities in Great Britain where private and municipal competf- tion exists-Glasgow, Hull. Brighton. Portsmouth and Swansea-the National company has more subscribers, by S7 per cent. than its municipal competi- tors, and is adding to them from two and a half to six times as fast as the publicly-owned ssytem and, moreover. that a majority of the telephone plants the taxpayers run are of types consid- cred from ten to twenty years out of
 date in this country. MT Burdett indf- cates how far behind the times our transatlantic cousins are In the Govern ment telephone booths in Portsmouth. Here it is:
 "Ffrst--App1y telephone to ear and
 press r4d button with right hand until you hear operators voice. Then re- move hand from button and give num- Der of subscriber wanted.
 "S scond--Replace telephone and turn crank briskly. This will ring bell of subscriber wanted.
 l "Third-When finished hang up tele- phone ard (very importantly press the | red button for two seconds"
 Imagine an American spending two seconds in ringing off, after a tele- | phone talki With our highly perfected I Bell apparatus it does not take much longer than that to give Central the
 number to be called and get started on 1 the conversation.
 | These elaborate directions" Mir. Bur- dett explains, "are deemed necessary l for the successful use of what Is called I the ring through system, which, | while antiquated, is in use Tn three of l the five municipal plants mentioned.
 The most curious thing about 1t, per- haps, Is the opinion expressed by the | officials in charge of it: that 1t Is well | H.. Il, af l the necessary work as possible. in order
 that he may better appreciate the labor
 and trouble involved in furnishing him 1 with the service" On this side of the | water, on the other hand, saving the telephone User time and effort Is the
 constant study of the Bell engineers.
 The telephone was, however. only one
 of the subjects of Mir. Burdetts in- | uiury into the workings of municipal 1 ownership in Great Britain. His exam
 ination extended also to the gas, elec- | tric light and street railway utilities. | So far as municipal gas and electric l light plants go, MT Burdett says that | their success has been confined to a | slight difference in rates. which, how
 ever, has resulted solely to the benefit | of comparatively few consumers and
 not to that of the general public. It | has likewise been accompanied. he | continues, by failures In other direc- | tions which more than counter balance | this single favorable feature"
 l The most serious of these i'll effects i MT. Burdett considers to be the hamp- | ering and restricting of the industry | In this connection he has compiled some I interesting statistics. From one of his l tables 1t appears that in 1901 the United | States, with less than double the popu- lation of Great Britain. but without municipal ownership. already had six | times the amount of apparatus installed | for furnishing electric light and power | sixteen times as much for electric trac- l tion, twenty three times as many miles | of electric railway. twenty-six times as many motor cars, and five and invested As late as last Au-
 gust. to cite specific case, Totten- ham, a part of metropolitan London | with a populato Of more than 100000 1 had no electric light supply, and Rhond- | da, a Welsh city of more than 12O,Oot people, had neither electric light nor 1 street railway
 The reason for this lack of progress | iveness Is, Mir. Burdett says, that the
 English law allows municipalities es- peciaI privileges In entering commercial business competition, the laws govern ing the electric lighting and traction industries, particularly, being framed for the express purpose of encouraging
 municipal and discouraging private en-
 terprise in those industries. Private
 capital Is lotf., in view of the handicaps,
 to undertake tc furnish such public
 service as in this country is considered
 not only a convenience but a neces-
 sity On the other hand, municipali-
 ties freduently exclude private enter
 prise from undertaking a public service
 they will not attempt themselves by
 reserving to the city the privilege of
 carving On the industry.
 The municipal trans" of Great
 Britain are often pointed to as exam
 pies of the splendid success of civic
 ownership According to Mir Burdett,
 1t all depends upon what people are
 willing to consider success. Municipal
 street car fares are low for short dist
 ances, he says. but the fares for long
 distances, and the average fare per mile travelled. are higher in England than
 In the United States There are many
 instances in the United States of rides
 of five miles or more for cents. but
 few. if any. in Great Britain. while free
 transfers 1re unknown there.
 Financially municipalzation has not
 shown good results, MT. Burdett points
 out. Wlather or not the Increase in
 local debts ard taxes of English cities
 is to b. wholly or chiefly attributed to
 the extraordinary extent of so-called
 "muaicipal trading" he does not under
 take to say But that it exists in con-
 nection with. and has risen simultane-
 ously with. the recent enlargement or
 the old-time notion of the proper hml-
 tationz of municipal governmental
 functions Is lndisputable. investigation , shows that the highest rates are levied