Arizona republican., 1906-12-03

colt National bank and the Santa Fe. Prescott and Phoenix railroad. and he is also a director in several other coni- , 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 important that there should be nothing to retard that growth" said he.
 "i have seen municipal ownership tried in other cities and I have studied the question quite thoroughly. People may say that because I am in an off, cial position in several companies am a corporation man and can see only one side of the question. but such Is not the case.
 "A man in my position finds the ne cessity of studying such a question. and we make 1t 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 i city's service find in it political capital and campaign argument IL sounds well and the working people think that ] but in reality it will not. for the street railway or other utility controlled by the city soon becomes a big 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 fin power can use the public utII- ity machine for its own gain.
 While there are politics there should be no municipal ownership, any more than there should be government ownership of railroads.
 Tt Is impossible to keep politics out of municipal ownership. and as long as human nature is as it is there could h.s no improvement What reason have We to suppose that the people la charge of the municipality are abov. grating?
 Take the case of the Pacific Electric Railway company. There Is not a finer street railway system in the land. IL Is to Mir. HuntingtOn's interest to make Ia the best in the country He knows tt IS 10 his interest to give the peOp,e what they want, and he gives it ts them.
 MT. Huntington is a trained railwar man. He knows the business from one end to the other. and he sees throuEA the eyes of trained men who are in hiz employ. He Is eminently better fitted to control the street railway system es Los Angeles than any set Of city off, eials who know nothing of the busl- ness To be an efficient head of any DusinesS corporation man must kno-- the business from A to z He must b. trained and to put the control of large business or public utility Into hands mat are not trained Is a grave mistake.
 As it is. the city council controls the franchise, and thus even if Mir. Hunt ington did not see what Is best to ao- did not see 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 powerless. for they could not get the council to do what they wanted done at the right time. When Mr. Huntington wants to spen.l S5OO.OO0 or $1.00O.000 on his system hs does it. He makes his improvements Just when they are most needed. ana not as the city council would have 10 make them-when the bonds had beeu voted The city officials have quite as much to take care of now as they can handle properly. and sometimes city officials cannota manage what they have on their hands already to the sat- [ isfaction of the people