The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-19
PUBLIC UTILITIES
IN Great britain
Report Of Municipal Opera
tons by Experts Re-
viewed.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY
Opponents of Public Owner
ship Say They Alone Seek
Civic Welfare.

New York, July 1S-Municipal oper-
alton of public utilities in Great Bril-
tain. as observed by a committee of
experts sent abroad last year by the
National Civic Federation, is treated
at length in series of reviews by
members Of the committee, which
We're made public to-day These re-
views by members of the committee,
which were made public to-day These
reviews of the experts reports, writ
ten by Milo R. Maltbie, Walton Clark,
vice-president of the United Gas I'm
provement Company Of Philadelphia,
and Charles L. Edgar, president of the
Edison Electric and Illuminating Com
pany of Boston, are divided in opinion
as to the success of the undertakings
as a whole. Mr. Maltbie, is one of the
members Of the newly created Public
Service commission for Greater New
York, This body has the widest pow
ers and the greatest responsibilities of
any commission to which the regula-
ton Of corporations has been entrust-
ed, UP to this time, in the United
States. Mr.. Maltbie spent six months
in Great Britain supervising the work
of the expert accountants and engi-
neers. He says that municipal opera
tion Of public utilities in Great Bri-
fair1 noc t1a ~, +n1
stage. He declares that the gas and
electric plants operated by mnnicipali-
ties, generally give a superior service
at a relatively lower cost, as compar-
ed with the privately owned compa-
MES. This condition he finds to be
due principally to the higher rate Of
interest and profit and the greater
@nount of liabilities Of the private
companies. BY far the most interest
ing part of Mr.. Maltbie's conclusion,
however, is that actual ownership and
operation is not necessary for the sue
cess of the municipal ownership idea.
He says that the power to operate, if
necessary or desirable, in many in
stances, has been as effective as act
ual operation-that the mere fact that
a1city has the power to step in and
operate an undertaking itself often
makes the exercise of this power un-
necessary, 1T has been found in
Great Britain that no sytem Of con-
troll or regulation is complete without
the power In the hands of the munich
palities, to purchase and operate, /"
says Mr.. Maltbie. IF one company
may be succeeded only by another or
only hedged about by restrictions,
there come times when action, not re-
preston, is wanted, and then no rem
edy is adequate unless it be the pow
er of the city to step in and operate
the undertaking itself, But the mere
fact that 1t has the power often makes
It's exercise unnecessary, and what the
Britisher desires Is not the universal
adoption of some method Of produc-
ing results, but the results themselves.
In the following analysis of the re-
suits of public and private manage
lnent 1t should be borne in mind that
such comparison is not a comparison
Of municipal with private operation
subject to no restraining force, but
with private operation under systems
Of regulation which are claimed to be
the best which have yet been devised
In Great Britain and with private
management that has been chastened
and bettered by the fear of public con-
domination, by the restraint of govern
nent regulation and the possibility of
nunicipalization. Thus the low price
at which gas is supplied by the Shelf
field company is largely the result Of
the avowed determination of the men
In control to head off municipalization.
II municipal operation had not been
& q possible alternative looming above the
horizon, 1t is likely that even now the
consumers would be paying very much
higher rates; and the present low rates
SO far as they are due to the desire to
prevent municipal operation should be
counted as one of its indirect results j"
The reasons that have led to British
NATURALIZATION, Mr.. Maltbie finds.
are many. First among them, al
though not the most general nor the
most important, is the desire to secure
for the public the financial profits of
the undertakings. Second, there is
the desire to keep the city from being
mulcted by a private company and
third, the general demand for better
service at lower rates. He mentions
also, fourth cause, which has played
a prominent part In the United States
and which is not unknown in Great
Britain, namely, OPPOSITION of privately
operated public utilities companies to
the welfare of the city. A fifth factor
has been the belief that municipal
operation would permit the corordina-
ton Of public services in a way that is
not possible where different services
are operated by private companies.
Messrs. Edgar and Clark favor some
form of regulation of private compa-
MES rather than the adoption of the
municipal ownership idea. They de-
clare it to be plainly proven that
municipal ownership is productive of
many and serious ills with little or no
compensating good. They hold that
the solution of present difficulties Is to
be found, not in municipal ownership
and operation of the public utilities,
but in the election of municipal officers
who will protect the governed against
injustice on the part of individuals or
corporations.
Mr. MaItbic's Review.
British Gas Lighting
The gas plants examined by the in
vestigating committee of the commits