The log cabin Democrat., 1907-02-07
Cairo, H., $Io, and Rock Is-

Sdilo, Ill.,, plo, anu NO>h 10 land, $.
 But our opponents raise the ob- | lection that we use extremes. This is by no means true. In some Pennsylvania towns under private owpership the cost to each family reaches as high as $40 or more per year, while others in Illinois, for example, Hillsboro, under public ownership reach as low a figure as SI.47 per year. Brookline, Mass. under public ownership furnishes water for s per year, while Hyde Park, Mass, under private owner ship furnishes water for S6. Yet the cost of the work and of obtain ing water is much greater in Brookline than in Hyde Park.
 Do our opponents object on the ground that we quote untrust- worthy figures? We quote from two sources, public and private. The private sources are, from inves- tigations by scientific students whose sole aim is the truth. These figures have long been before the public. The public sources are two-fold, state and national. In 1897 the labor bureaus of each state made an investigation into the management of both public and private water plants. These reports are to be found in our libra ry. Our opponents can not cite even one example another investi- gation made under legal authority. The report of the United States Commissioner of Labor shows that the average price per thousand gallons of water supplied by private plants is fifteen cents as against nine cents for the same service when rendered by public plants.
 In the fourth place more efficient service is rendered by municipal plants. After having examined a table prepared under the personal direction of Prof. Commons of Syracuse University we find that the number of miles of mains, num- Der of taps and hydrants and con- sumption of water per family are all greater in places having public works than in places served by pri- vate companies. This indicates greater efficiency and more gener- al use and satisfaction under pub lie ownership. We find that throughout the country there is a greater number of taps per family where the works are public than there is otherwise. This indicates the degree of universality in the use and the satisfaction with the price of water furnished by private and public works. In places of less than 1000 population we find from the tables that I2 per cent more of the residents use the water from public than from private works. In villages having from 1000 to 5000 inhabitants the differ ence is II per cent of the entire population. the position supplied by public plants being 42 per cent and by private only 3I per cent. Where the population is from 5000 to 5000 the percentage is 46 to 34 in favor of municipal ownership. If we adopt the proposition of taps to families as our standard of efficiency of service and modera- ton of rates, we can do nothing save 10 concede the preference to be with the public works. Also the efficiency of waterworks system as means of fire protection is without exception in favor of mu- nicipal ownership. It has been demonstrated that those towns and cities that own their own water works have all the way from to 72 per cent better fire protection than those cities whose waterworks are in private hands.
 In the city of New York while the water plant was operated by a private corporation, the supply was inadequate, water unwhole- some and fire pressure insufficient. After the city took charge of the works, the fire pressure was good, water supply abundan; and whole some, a private company, how ever, stills owns and operates the water plant in the Borough of Bronx. For this reason, the sup ply is inadequate, unwholesome, and the fire pressure insufficient. Finally the city had to come to the aid of the inhabitants of Bronx and by supplying water from the pub lie plant water famine was avert ed.
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