The Paducah sun., 1906-03-26
Not Ready for Municipal Ownership,
(Louisville Post.)

louisville Post)
Mr.. James Dalrymple, manager Of
the street car companies of Glasgow.
visited Chicago after the election of
Mayor Dunno, year ago. to examine
into the conditions of the street rail
ways of that city, and report upon
the best method of operating them
under municipal ownership
Mr.. Dalrymple came to Chicago at
the suggestion Of Mayor Dunno. His
visit seems to have been entirely one
of supererogation. That Mr. Dali
rymple would be an expert judge of
the relations of an American city to
public utilities was hardly to be ex-
pected: that he might speak with
full information concerning the Glas-
gov system is a matter of course.
but II was hardly necessary to bring
him to America to tell the mayor of
Chicago what had been Glasgow's
experience. Her experience is writ
ten in her annual reports. and avail
I
able to any one who cares to cen
slider It.
Mr.. Dalrymple's report has finally
been made public. He says he had
not been many hours in Chicago be-
fore he realized why the citizens
should be so anxious for a change.
He says the system in Chicago needs
reconstruction. but that municipali-
ties of the United states are not
quite ready to successfully under
take this work"
Two things have to be considered
in this connection. In the first
place. the conditions under which
traction companies operate is entire
ly different in the rapidly-grOwing
systems of the Western hemisphere
from those under which they operate
in the older cities of the Eastern
| hemisphere. We are building and
rebuilding American cities. We are
expanding at a rate unknown abroad
We have demands made upon trac-
ton companies that European COM
panies ignore. We doubt IL any
American city would be satisfied with
the per mileage charge for transpor-
tation such as EXISTS in Glasgow.
Here we want zone fare for one
ride" There they want one cent
fares for a certain distance. and two
cent fares for longer rides, and so
on up TO eight and ten cents.
No city in Europe has a service
that the American cities would be
satisfied with on any basis. Neither
car mileage nor track mileage COM
pares in European cities with cities
Of a similar size in America. and the
greatest advances in traction busi-
ness in Europe have been due to
Americans and American methods.
Aside from these conditions OF
traffic We have to consider the Pohu-
cal conditions, not merely the actual
operation of municipal government
but the relation of the city to state
and national politics. These are
matters purely for Americans to con-
slider. One does not have to come
from Glasgow to tell us that the mu-
nicipal governments of America need
to be reformed. Americans discov-
cred that long ago, and We believe
| 70
formation of municipal government.
One step toward this reorganization
is to. eradicate the influences of the
public utility companies upon poll
tics. With these vast privileges
given away or sold by men who dc
not own them We have established
corrupt connection between busi-
ness and politics. That connection
must be broken. 1t matters not
whether we are looking toward mu-
nicipal ownership or not, we must
take steps to separate these privi-
lege-hunting corporations from any
connection with American politics
Undoubtedly one of the strongest
arguments in favor. of municipal
ownership is that privileges of the
character indicated would not be for
sale under municipal ownership, and
therefore that scandals connected
with them in the past would not be
manifest in the future. Freed from
this baneful influence, the improve
ment in the conduct of municipal
cities would not be a hopeless task.