The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-16
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP.

niclpai ownership here and abroad, as
formulated by the experts chosen by
the National Civic Federation, discloses
some interesting deductions The COM
mittee itself made no strong recon-
While the members represented diverse
interests and varied preconceived opin-
ions, they agreed with fair unanimity
that cities in this country should not
go into municipal trading for revenue
though they were of the opinion that
a public utility which concerns the
health Of the citizens should not be left
to private control. They agreed fur
Their that "all future grants to private
companies for the construction and op-
GRAFTON of public utilities should be
terninable otter a certain first period,
and that meanwhile cities should have
the right TO purchase the property for
operation, lease or sale, paying its fair
value"
Most significant is the comparison
between British municipal govern
ments and the government of Amer
lean cities as indicated by the class
of men who hold civic office in either
country. The comment of the commit
tee on this factor in, municipal opera
tons is worth reproducing in full
I've wish TO bring to your consider
ation," says the commission, 1.-THE dan
ger here in the United States of turn
ing over these public utilities TO the
present government of some of our
cities. Some. we know, are well gov
erned and the situation on the whole
seems to be improving, but they are
not UP to the government of British
cities. We found in England and Scot
land a high type of municipal gov
ernment, which is the result of many
years of struggle and improvement.
Business men seem to take a pride in
serving as city councillors or aldermen.
and the government of such cities as
Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham
and others includes many of the best
citizens of the city. These conditions
are distinctly favorable to municipal
operation.
I'm the United States, as is well
known, there are many cities not in
such a favorable condition. 1t is
charged that the political activity of
public-service corporations has in
many instances been responsible for
the unwillingness or inability of Amer
lean cities 10 secure a higher type of
public service This charge we believe
to be true However, there seems TO
be an idea with many people that the
mere taking by the city of all its pub
lie utilities for municipal operation
will at once result in ideal municipal
government through the very neces-
sity of putting honest and competent
citizens in charge. While an increase
i'm the number and Importance of mu-
nicipaI functions may have a tendency
to induce men of a higher type to be-
come public officials, we do not be-
municipal reform. We are unable to
recommend municipal ownership as a
political panacea.
In many cases in the United States
the people have heedlessly given away
their rights and reserved no sufficient
power of control or regulation, and we
believe that corruption of public ser
wants has sprung, in large measure,
from this condition of things. With
the regulations that we have advised,
with the publication of accounts and
records and systematic control, the dan
toll
is very much reduced"
Salt Lake furnishes a demonstration
exactly illustrative of the conditions
noted in these remarks. OF the men in
real control of the city's government.
few. very few, are competent to handle
large affairs; some ought not to be
trusted to handle public funds directly
or indirectly. Public welfare is the
last consideration in their official life
and private gain is the chief incentive
to political activity.
It is unnecessary to specify the men
in mind, because the public knows
them and their ways. Their class is
always active in political campaigns,
while the substantial men of the COM
munity, the men best qualified to serve
the public, refuse to make the sacri-
flee of time and money involved in such
service. The best citizens" of Salt
Lake, like their kind in most other
American cities, have so little public
spirit that they evade their civic duties,
take no part in politics, complain most
bitterly of poor city government and
not seldom aid actively in the de-
moralization of that government.
Imagine the kind of public service
Salt Lake would get from its street
cars, its lighting plants, its gas plants
or any other public utility if it had
to depend upon the present city coun-
ell to manage those enterprisesl Pic
ture a transportation system directed
by Black, a lighting plant under con-
troll of A ]. Davis and a gas plant
with Crabtree as sole responsible head
and all these serving with the meagre