Bisbee daily review., 1906-12-06
|reAhk MURPHY |oe@ MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP.

The Los Angeles Herald lately 1 printed the following interview with r. M., Murphy On . subject which is DOW foremost in that city:
 Municipal ownership would retard the growth of L0s Angeles or any oth- er city," says F. M. Murphy. a promi- nent banker, railway man and capital ist of Prescott, Arizona, who is at the hotel.
 Mr. Murphy Is president of the Pres colt National bank and the Santa To. Prescott and Phoenix railroad. and he is also a director in several other com panies. It was to attend meetings of some of these companies that he came to Los Angeles.
 This city has had a wonderful growth. and in my mind it is import ant that there should be nothing to retard that growth" ne said.
 q have seen municipal ownership tried in other cities and have studied the question quite thoroughly. People may say that because I am an ofnciai in several companies I am a corpora ton man and can only see one stie of the question, but such is not the case.
 "A man in my position finds the nee. easfty of studying such a question. and we make it our business to keep in close touch with all movements in this direction.
 Municipal ownership sounds good, and men who aspire to places in the ctty's service find in it political capd. tai and campaign argument. It sounds we'll and the working people think that it might help to better their con dition, but in reality it will not, fo4 the street railway or other utility con- troiled by the city soon becomes a bfs political machine.
 Men hold their positions by voting as the bosses of the machine tell them to- They are slaves of the political bosses. and whichever party happens to be In power can use the public util. ity machine for its own gain.
 While there is politics there should be no municipal ownership any more than there should be government own, ership of railroads.
 Tt is impossible to keep politics out of municipal ownership, and as long as human nature is as it is there could be no improvement. What reason have we to suppose that the people in charge of the municipality are above grating?
 Take the case of the Pacific Elec- tric Railway company There is not a finer street railway system in the land. It is to Mir. Huntington's tn- terests to make it the best in the country. He knows it is to his inter- est to give the people what they want and he gives it to them.
 Mir. Huntington is a trained rail- way man. He knows the business from one end to the other. and he sees through the eyes of trained men who
 
 better fitted to control the street rail way system of Los Angeles than any set of city officials who know nothing of the business. To be an efficient head of any business corporation man must know the business from A to z. He must be trained and to put the control of large business or pub lie utility into hands that are not trained is grave mistake
 As il is, the city council controls the franchise, and thus even if MT. Huntington did not see what was best to do, did not sec that it is best to give the people what they want, the council could make him do so. If the council was in direct control of the railway the people would be power less, for they could not get the coun- cil to do what they wanted done at the right time. When MT. Huntington wants to spend s59o,000 or s1,000, ,0eo on his system he does it. He makes his Improvements just when they are most needed, and not as the city coun-i cil would have to make them-when the bonds had been voted. The city officials have quite as much to take care of now as they can handle prop erly, and sometimes city officials can rot manage what they have on their hand ready to the satisfaction sf