Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-10-18
CITY OWNERSHIP
REPUDIATE0
REPEATED FAILURES PROVE
THEORY NOT PSF cTIcAL,
Investigations Show Results Different
from Those Painted by Social.
istic Speakers,

Des Moines, Iowa.-The disclosures
which have been made in Omaha con-
corning the failure of municipal owner
ship in that city have attracted wide
spread attention over the entire country,
and especially AVE the people OF Iowa
and adjoining states watched the devei-
opments with great interest, both Pc
cause OF the proximity of Omaha as well
as because of the general principle IN
volved in the Omaha troubles;
Some time ago the entire middle west
seethed with municipal ownership ideas
and fads, but the showing made in Oma-
ha has set up a train Of Investigations
by those who really wanted to know the
effects of the public ownership, OF puphc
utilities, and the result has been that
thousands who formerly were advocates
of this idea lave now changed their
minds and are as much opposed to their
cities owning the street cars, electro
lights, gas systems, telephones, etc., as
they formerly were in favor of such
ownership.
When the Iowans began looking
around and investigating municipal own
that system a failure in Omaha, but tnat
in various other parts of the country
similar reports were being made. For
years owned its electric light plant, has
just abandoned the city-owned plant and
has gone back to a privately owned
ELECTRIC light company. In Kic a f6nes
times on a municipal ownership ticket,
has recommended that the city sell its
electric light plant and go back TO a
private corporation: Logansport, Marion
and several other Indiana cities are ad-
v~ocating the same thing, and there al
ways remains the city of Hamilton, ohio,
whose w~aterworks claimed at one time
to be a model of mInilcipail nv ow2eash1p
showed itself to be reeking with graft
and a source of constantly increasing
burden for the tax payers.
In Omaha, the municipal market mouse
was a complete failure and a total loss
and to-day stands without a tenant.
This, together with the asphalt plant
and the waterworks middle, has stirred
are declaring that Omaha has had
enough of municipal ownership, must get
rid of what it now has on hand, ana
must then give the fad a wide berth for
Because of the political unrest of Iowa,
Wisconsin n other middle. west states
the agitators who are preaching. municl-
pal ownership, socialism and other the
cries of this kind, gained a ready hear
ing and for a time seemed to be making
Roadway and gaining adherents in every
direction. But the marc
common sense of the westerners would
not permit them to accept the mere word
of the socialistic siren, however sWeetly
sung. They begun investigating for
themselves. They wanted to know nov
far the municipal ownership theory Jlpeu
with the results.
One of the very first results Of these
Investigations was the discovery mat tne
greatest talk for municipal ownership
emanated from socialistic Headquarters
in Milwaukee, Paterson. N. j., and chi.
cage. The socialists openly boosted thai
they had in~augurated the campaign as
an entering wedge for their beliefs with
the expectation that their cause would
benefit thereby.
Then, again, it was found that wher-
ever municipal ownership was in opera
As1x~ z.-@- I.-1 H0Na nnran sod tho Cnry,
ices rendered were Inadequate and thai
a horde of political heelers were kept in
sinecures at the public expense. The
work nowhere was conducted as eco
had developed the business; waste was
at its height. Political rings were
strengthened on every side and the party
which CHANGED to be in power when the
system wal inaugurated continued in
power right along. The public officials
were not men with the proper training
to handle business of that kind, usually
having no technical knowledge of the
business, and therefore the city's bust.
ness suffered. Individual effort was dis
couraged and young men filled with en-
thusiasm to make something of them
selves found that their services wert
really not wanted by the political bosses
who usually ruled the municipality owned
corporations. 1t was not intelligence
not skill in the work in question thai
was wanted or that was employed
What was wanted, the sole qualification
demanded, was political 'pull'--the rec
ommendation of some peanut politica
boss, who in the majority of cases was
a saloon keeper.
The non-property owners who were in
vestigating the subject suddenly discov
cred that whereas they had been taugh
to believe that all the increased take:
caused by municipal ownership were
paid by the rich and by the owners o
real estate, that eventually the increased
taxation was shifted to the shoulders o
the poor man himself in the way of in
creased rents and increased cost of sup
plies and raw materials. This point va
one of the clinchers which caused man,
a western man to change his mind con
corning the beauties of municipal own
ership.
According to reports, the citizens o
Omaha are congratulating themselve
that they discovered early in the gam
thai the municipal ownership road wa
not altogether rosy, and that they di
not rush pellmell to acquire the publ
service corporations of their city at
cost of many millions, which woul
, eventually have to be paid in the shap
: of high taxes and higher rents. On tn
other hand. the average Omaha citize
: seems to have decided that he wants n
more municipal ownership, but woul
rather get rid of even that little bit O
the system which the city already ha
taken on.
This sentiment is gaining ground raI
n idly all over the middle west. The soil