The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1907-01-25
MUNICIPAL
OWNERSHIP
Rev. T. 7. r. fripp Again Takes
Cudgel for the People
HOLYOKE AS EXAMPLE
Proves That Municipal Ownership In
Massachusetts City Gave Better Serv-
ice and Cheaper Rates.

White City, Fla, JAM ~, 1907.
EDITOR TRIBUNE:
Prof. Fessenden's mote Of warning
appearing in the TRIBUNE of Nov. 3Oth
necessitates restating of its leading
features at this time. He says, "it Is
found from the very essential nature
of the matter only a certain class of
engineering undertakings can be ef-
ficiently and property operated by
states or municipalities. "-"It is true
that under state or municipal operation
some minor and sporadic developments
may be expected, but nothing Of gen.
eral or important character" If this
latter expresses the truth, then the
Professor need not have made any ex-
ception in the preceding sentence. What
follows. strengthens this view and fur
nishes also the keynote of the whole
article; said he, Important develop
ments generally come only from the
hands:of individuals or bodies responsible
only to themselves and provided with
the incentive of large profit (He
would have his patron friends to skin
the people at their mercy and without
redress) The conclusion he draws from
an elimination of that incentive Is too
dismal and at the same time too
ludicrous to rehearse. The old dogma
of capitalism whatever eliminates the
incentive of large profits is destructive
to ambition and energy is not sustained
by facts but to the contrary as will ap-
pear later on.
Notwithstanding the foregoing sweep
ing assertion that Estates or munich
palities are incapable of successfully
operating important Developments" or
nothing of general and important
character, the Professor proceeds thus:
1T is to be noted that this conclusion
is derived from engineering consdera-
tons alone.
Prof. Fessender then presents the
only argument in the entire article, to
wit: "A danger which is always asso-
ciated with the ownership of industrial
undertakings is that the capital invested
may be lost through the development of
new and cheaper methods and pro-
cesses. He then cites the Carnegie Co.,
"to have scrapped on one occasion more
than 81 ,OOO, 900 worth of new machinery
which had never been used" Mr..
Carnegie having suffered such loss, did
he keep on spending more money just
for fun? Nay, verify, for where he
loses one million he makes other mil
lions. Then, why should it not pay
large city to pursue exactly the same
plan and not suffer financially? For
tunately we have the means Of know
ing that that very thing is being done,
and successfully done by municipalities,
So we are not left to gaze awestricken
at the magnitude of these -scraping
Deferring to later issue the great
body of demonstrations of financial sue
cess in municipal ownership, suffice for
the present to close with an illustration
given to the public in the Thrice-a-
Week World IN. ~ Of jams, 1907. 1t
is of Holyoke, Mass. Nearly column
is taken up with it--a few extracts
only must be given mot to trespass on
the TRIBUNE's space) as follows: "Un-
der corporate ownership which termin-
ated in Nov. 1902, the city of Holyoke
paid 500 per year for an arc street
light. Merchants who burned arc light
a small number of hours per day paid a
price proportionately large the
city now $50 per arc light per year.
"To corporations and individuals the
city of Holyoke furnishes electricity
for heat, light or power at a lower
price than prevails in any other New
England city or town."
1.-THE record of the past year is the
more noticeable because the concessions
to users of gas and electricity instead
of being made possible by pulling, haul
ing and straining, are merely con-
sentative reflection of the splendid man
agement of the gas and electricity
plants"
| Continued on page 81