The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-30
saturday, November 30, 1oo7.
GOVERNMENT REsPoNSIBrIIrT'

Mayor Lee, Bridgeports new chler executive. recommends that the clty itself undertake in the future the task of laying all permanent pavements with government cash and govern ment machinery. He believes that the reaults would be better than are now achieved by contract work done oy outsiders. This sort of faith in the ability of the city government or Bridgeport in way encourages the be- lievers in the doctrine of municipal government and yet because it IS the conviction of Mayor Lee that in this particular connection Bridgeport can show it's heels to contractors hardly g,ves the general movement the boost 1t needs to succeed.
 The Hartford Courant we observe sees more than a passing assent given municipal ownership and control in Mayor Lees suggestion. It says; "The argument against city work is that It is usually done more expensively and less satisfactorily than that done by contractors But Mayor Lee, the gen tieman in question, points out that in his opinion all the asphalt paving in the city of Bridgeport is worn so thin that it will probably have to be taken up in a year. If we are not mistaken Bridgeport is not the only city where contract asphalt has proved very poor return for the money. Those who brave the billows of some of our own storm-beaten highways think they have seen smoother roads. or course, if city can make macadam, can avn and operate road rollers, and can undertake to maintain the streets, it can in2logic lay asphalt as well as broken stone. But every one of these things that 1t does is proof that the extreme doctrine-that a city should do nothing-is overdrawn and fool ish. The question is where to draw tFie line? As we have pointed out be- fore, New Haven throws fits at the suggestion of municipal water works and Hartford calls the idea of letting outsiders. conduct that business fifty years gone-by." :"
 The only foundation there ever was to the argument made in opposition to uniform city charter policy that each city and town has it's own tradi- lions which would refuse to yield to uniformity is the fact that the cities have adopted different policies in the making of local governmental respon- sibility Hartford and Waterbury, for example, owning and controlling their water plants, while New Haven has consistently held to private ownership of that business. But as matter of Tact these different attitudes mean very little from any practical stand point, whether the question involved is that of uniform city charter poli- cy or that of the proposed installment of street paving plant. The failure of the general plan of municipal own- ership to appeal to a sufficient num- Der of citizens at the same time to make it settled policy can be ex- plained on the ground that there is nc reason to believe that such blanket panacea would necessarily succeed Because private ownership has al times and in spots failed to live ur to the spirit of the trust reposed in ii the conclusion has been rushed to that public ownership would remedy the complaint Apparently no thought is given the number of instances under government ownership where equally bad and wicked consequences have been endured by the public, The argu- ment which the city of Hartford makes in it's conduct of the water sup. ply business for municipal ownership would make for government owner ship in this city if we were about tC supply ourselves for the first time witt water from stored reservoirs. Tn, people of New Haven have never re jected the opportunity to obtain tn, local water company on the grount that they are without faith in publi ownership. They have rejected it be cause the conditions are such that i would be unwise to make a chang from one kind of ownership to an other. No really just complaint ha been made against the service give by the local company. Its rates hav been fair, 1t has shown admirable en terprise in anticipating the demand of & greater New Haven and it ha finally conducted itself generally in
 decent manner. To purchase it woul have involved the expenditure of