The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-20

the United States. 1t appears that in 1901 Great Britain had only 300 miles of single-track electrically equipped, as against 21.000 miles in this country. and only 2.6o0 electric cars, as against 16,- 00o here, while it's population was more than half as great as ours f
 Prior to 1895 only two British cities had adopted electricity as motive power Tor their public tramways, while in the same year no less than 94 per cent. of all the street railways in the State Of Massachusetts, to take q single Amer fcan example, were electrically equip Fed. Even as late as 1900 there were only seven British municipal railways operated by electricity. In 1902 there were 2s0 cities of 15,0o0 population. or electrical railroads, while in Great Britain there were 26o such cities. only 143 of which were so supplied in 1908. During the years from 1890 to lS95, when electric roads were building at such a tremendous rate here, there was practically total stagnation in Great Britain. only one and one-auarter miles being constructed by municipalities. and but eight short lines being built by private enterprise, which had ever before 1t the disoouragins possibility that as soon as it became profitable 1t would be municipalized by compulsion.
 Glasgow, with all it's boasted pro- gress toward the millennium of muni- cipal ownership. has total of only 14s miles of municipal railway. which Is less than one-third of the mileage of the company which serves the city of Boston, though the Scotch city has q larger population than the American. The population per mile of track in Glasgow is two and a third times greater than that of the Boston sys- tenn; yet Glasgow refused to consent to have private capital connect the city with several important suburbs by building eleven miles of track. Accord ing to the census of 1901 more than a third of Glasgow's 760,000 people lived in one or two-roomed tenements, each tenement housing from three to twelve persons--a condition Americans would consider intolerable.
 - Next to absolutely restricting indus try, municipal ownership shows its evil effects. MT. Burdett declares, in the dis couragement of private investment. without private capital and skill new industrial enterprises do not receive that impetus and development which they otherwise would. Private initia- tive is always necessary. Public off, cials do not invent, exploit, or devel- ope new things, but leave the field of uISCoVOTyy ihltidIiOH anu uOFCioPhiCht " private persons actuated by the hope of large rewards. Whatever may be the result of thu. prosecution by the public or its representatives of an enterprise which has been founded and put on its feet by individuals. it is doubtful if any case of successful municipal in- itiations of such an enterprise can be cited"
 MT. Burdett cites many cases of nu- nA npf nnpnnHffffOn In which the service afforded by public authorities seem invariably to be in- ferior and out-of-da and inconveni- ent. To qoute a single paragraph: "A striking illustration of the results Of municipal and private competition is furnished in the city of Shefheld. There the private gas company supplies good gas at so low a price that the city cannot afford to light its own streets by electricity. although it has mu- nicipal electric plant. which has cost about $4,000,00o. And the gas com pany earns and pays a dividend of 10 per cent. upon Its capital"
 On the whole. 1t appears that the financial results from municipal oper- stion of public services in Great Britain are unsatisfactory. The official returns for the electric lighting undertakings of the Kingdom, for instance. to De- cernber 31, 1904, show that 5S per cent. of the municipal plants produced profit. the average being $4.230 per plant. while 43 per cent. made absolute losses On the other hand, of the pri- vately- owned plants, 92 per cent. made an average profit of $45.t26 each, while only s per cent. showed loss The Government telephone lines for the year ending March 31, 1905, showed a loss of S637 500, while the loss on Gov errment telegraph lines Tn the same pe- riod was -s4,4s760Q. Tn cases of loss in the prosecution of municipal bus iness," MT. Burdett pertinently remarks, ''of course. the non-consuiner, being a rate- payer, must stand the brunt, in the form of increased rates. He has been made an involuntary partner in an enterprise not established for his beneAt and from which he can derive no advantage except in the form of profits, if any are realized, and must bear the losses if there are no profits.
 The creation of large and ever-in- creasing class of office-holding voters and the tremendous increase of muni- oipal indebtedness and taxes are obvi- ous objections to municipal ownership and are among its very serious results in Great Britain. The natural effect is that the character of men who are will ling to assume the responsibilities of public office is becoming lowered from its previous high standard It is gen orally recognized that the local gov erping boards of the larger British towns and cities, are becoming less. rather than more, efficient: and the mul- tiplicity of their duties has grown to be such that they are, in some cases. fairly swamped with the extent and va riety of the public concerns which en- gage their attention.
 Mir. Burdett's general conclusions are that, even if one dtsaRrees with him as to the character of the results achieved by municipal ownership in Great Britain. 1t would be impossible to duplicate them in this country, ow- ing to the totally different political conditions which have produced there a much higher grade of legislative and executive local officials. Not only is the municipal civil service in Great Britain totally different from that of Anerican n ha aaxs "a md danGndart- fr-