Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-28
TOWN WITHOUT TAXES
Port Arthur, Canada, Will Soon
Pay a Dividend.
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP TALE
It Sounds Almost Too Good to Be
True.
WEALTH OF SIR VIM. VAN HORN
This Was What Drove the Citizens to
the Ownership of Public
Utilities.
WEALTH OF SIR WIN. VAN HORN


SCISSORS office that he would not be re-
qulred to pay taxes thereafter. And the
same citizen would probably not survive
the shock of later being requested to call
at the District building to receive check
as his share OF the profits of the municipal
government. And yet this state of affairs
this Welsh rarebit dream.-is about to be
realized in this town of Port Arthur
II somebody had only told Mayor Dunno
OF Chicago about Port Arthur he would not
have been compelled TO cross the ocean to
secure the services of an expert on the
practical operations of municipal owner
ship. He could have found any number
of them on this continent. Almost any
citizen OF Port Arthur would have an
swered the purpose and not man jack
OF them would have thrown cold water on
the contentious Of Dunno. Johnson or any
other OF our insistent municipal owner
ship advocates. Not man in Port Arthur
has the slightest doubt about the practical
operation OF public utilities by the NUM-
cipality. The man who would express
such doubts In this town would be ex-
pected to Immediately throw fit on the
main street and then leave for chronic
ward in the nearest asylum. These folks
are not from Missouri. but they have been
shown. just the same.
Some Local Patriotism.
Every stranger who drops into this hos
pitable little city at the head of Lake Su
perior on the Canadian side, is forced to
become familiar with the towns method
and manner of doing business before he
can make any sort of Roadway at all in
any other direction. He may not be in
terested, but that matters not a whit.
He must listen, If necessary, the good
folks of Port Arthur will tie him to a
tree while they pour into his reluctant
ears the triumphs OF municipal owner
ship. They'll get the facts into him some
how. II he happens to be a drummer he
can't sell a dollars worth OF goods before
he visits the municipal power plant and
absorbs some information about street rail-
ways and electric lights. II he comes up
this way to talk about grain he must first
soak up "A gallon or so of facts anent NUM-
cpal telephones and how they are run.
Every citizen of the town is loaded to the
guards with information about municipal
ownership and carries around with him the
last quarterly statement OF the railway
and light commission. He knows to a
cent just how much profit there was in the
operation of the waterworks and can tell
you to a mill the profits of the last quarter
from the telephone system. Incidentally.
he will explain between grins and chortles
that the rival town OF Fort Williams. six
miles away, ia helping to pay the taxes
due on Port Arthurs real estate because
the street railroad which connects the two
towns of approximately the same popula-
ton Is owned by the municipality of Port
Arthur. Therefore. when n Fort William
resident pays : cents TO the street con-
ductor he contributes mite to every in
dvidual taxpayer In the rival town. That
fact seems to tickle the Port ArthurianS to
death. II you are with a Port Arthur resi-
dent for half an hour and he doesn't men
ton the above conditions thirteen times
Il Is considered remarkable by the natives.
This story isn't popular In Fort William.
The only man who ever mentioned II there
in public barely escaped with his life.
The Real Mr. It
Although the street railroad doesn't give
the citizens any reduction in car tickets
which other cities do not enjoy. the tele-
phone service is much less The enthu-
siastlc advocate OF municipal ownership in
this town-and every citizen is in this class
will not forget to explain that the Bell
company used to charge 500 year for
business telephone which is now supplied
for $24, and that residence telephone now
costs only $i2 year He knows, too, that
Port Arthur IS the only town on the Ameri-
can continent which owns and operates all
or It's utilities, and is very fond of ex-
planning why all this came about.
The most conspicuous citizen of this
town is a member OF the railway and light
commission. Tie membership of the COM
mission Is restricted TO three, and one
member Is elected each year 1t is by far
greater horEor to be "a member OF the
commission tEan II is to be a mayor or
alderman AS member OF the board the
citizen who has been so honored by the
municipality must serve without pay. But
he is amply compensated. He can drift
down the main street with his chest stick
ing out and his shirt studs grooming with
the strain, and there's nobody big enough
TO call him down. He can give tbs mayor
the refrigerated filpper. and a member OF
the board OF aldermen dare not be seen on
the same side OF the thoroughfare. He
can't even issue pass to a member of
his own family and there are absolutely
ward heelers hanging around wait
ing for a hand-out. He Is 1T" all by
himself. He's the biggest toad in the pud-
die. and he's dead wise to the fact and
no mistake.
Passes Don't Go.
Nobody rides on passes in this town. and
perhaps that is one OF the reasons why
municipal ownership is possible. But there
are even better reasons than that. for the
falls OF the Current river are almost In
tho c.ty Itself. and all the power necessary
for electrical operation OF any kind, incIud-
Ing manufacturing is supplied by this
kindly and convenient stream. The city
has appropriated everything and the manu-
facturer must do business with II. But the
terms are easy and no one seems to have
kick.
The controlling officials serving without
pay saves all OF the salaries which go to
eat up the profits Of public utilities else
where. and because OF these and other
reasons one would hardly be justified In
pointing to this town of 10000 people
proof positive that municipal ownership is
Justliiable in all American cities.
Fight With Fort William.
Port Arthur Is not burdened with political
Rgitators There no lieutenants to re-
ward INDECENT relatives to care for
with public jobs. The only politics
which concerns It is the ever-pres-
ent agitation involving the develop
ment of Fort William In the con-
test for supremacy between the two towns
there ! sno division in either OF them
Everybody in Port Arthur Loyalty sup
ports the town government but he Is no
less genuine In his loyalty than the clti-
zen OF Fort William. Everybody In each
municipality is thoroughly convinced that
his town Is to be the metropolis at the head
OF Lake Superior and he can't see for the
life OF him. as the stranger does that some
day the two cities must grow up together
and that what ever benefits one cannot
fail TO be of advantage 10 the other
One-haif of the taxes of Port Arthur are
paid from the revenues derived from its
waterworks. lighting plant street railway
and telephone. The total investment by the
municipality was $150D0o and last year the
net Income was $4,000 OF course II would
be impossible to continue these proportion
fha .tf uAD