The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-17
review OF REPORTS
BY Civic Commission
New Haven Water Company
Has Evidently Cause
for Pride.
TYPHOID DEATH RATE
Health Authorities Say it is
Not Due to Quality
of Water.

The commission has spent nearly
two years in exhaustive study of this
question The method pursued in treat
ing the extensive mass of information
collected by the commission experts is
novel and interesting. A sub-commit-
tee composed Of two members of the
commission who are known to favor
municipal ownership has digested this
material and summarized results in a
comparatively brief report; another
sub committee of two members known
to be opposed to municipal ownership
has prepared report based on the
same facts.
The inquiry covered the three pub
lie services Of gas, electrical and water
supplies. In each of these fields GER
tain cities where the service was OPP
Grated by the municipality, and certain
others, where 1t was maintained by a
private company, were investigated,
and the conditions and results COM
pared. This comparative method,
while attended with some drawbacks
is perhaps the best for the determine
ton of this important question. 1t has
not before been pursued with anything
to approach the degree Of thorough
ness that characterizes the investiga-
ton now under discussion.
The pro-municipal report is largely
historical and statistical 1t Is bril-
liantly written argument for munich
pal ownership, in which all the points.
historical, political, social, statistical
favorable to the writer's contention
are marshalled with great skill. The
anti-municipal report confines itself al
most exclusively to the facts collected
by experts; it considers the determin-
ing factors,-quality of product, quality
of service, condition of plant, etc.
comparing one class with another and
drawing conclusions based on first hand
knowledge 1t thus speaks with an
authority, and forces conviction
which the pro-municipal report, with
all its brilliancy and Skill fails to com
mand. The question Of the adoption,
or rejection, by American communities
Of the municipal ownership and OPP
Grafton of their public utilities will be
answered by considerations Of another
character than the alleged poor service
given by private water or gas COM
panies a generation ago. To revive old
scandals and charges of corruption in
connection with this inquiry is to avoid
the present question. Municipal owner
ship must stan dor fall on present day
results and Conditions. The real ques-
ton is that between the results to the
consumer and the people of municipal
operation on the one hand and Of pri-
waite operation on the other,
In the gas field, the municipal plant
of Wheeling, w. Va, is compared with
the gas companies at Atlanta, Ga, and
Norfolk, Va. There is also compari-
son drawn between the conditions in
Philadelphia, under the municipal gas
bureau, and under the present lease to
private company. The anti-munici-
pal report reveals conditions in the gas
situation at WheeSng rpout as bad as
they can be, and draws damaging
contrast between them and those ex-
listing at Atlanta and Norfolk. The
Ipro-municinal report does not deny that
the service and the condition of the
plant are bad, but lays stress on the
cheap prices Of the gas and on the fact
that the municipal gas plant has ir
"a years turned nearly 100000 into this
city treasury. The anti-municipal re-
port demonstrates, however, that
while the price Is nominally cheap (75c
per 1000 Gu. ft,), when the poor quail.
ity of the service, the charges for pip.
ing and meter setting and the absence
of any care Of the consumers burners
and appliances are allowed for, the
Wheeling price, measured In net resul
Of service, is high and the social good
derived from the operation of the plan
a negative quantity. The anti-munici
pal report shows, that for the yeal
undar investigation, when all proper
charges are included, the gas plan
showed a deficit of $16.500 and The
service was poor.
In dealing with the gas questions II
Philadelphia, the pro-municipal repor
Is particularly unhappy. 1t strives t.
create the impression that condition!
under the gas bureau were, after al
not so bad, and that the undertakins
was financially successful. 1t closes
with quotation from Professor Row,
Of the University of Pennsylvania ant
a member of the commission regardin;
the dlstrustful and suspicious state O.
the public mind toward the leasins
company, as created by the agitation
Of 1905. The anti-municipal report
quoting all It's statements from Pro
fessor Rowe's report, SHOWS that thu
bad conditions of service and of poll
tics under municipal operation have
not been exaggerated. 1t also point
out, that during the last four year.
of municipal management, when tn,
price was reduced to $1.o0 per 1000 Gu
it,, the undertaking sustained a largt
annual loss. That the attitude of tn
public toward the leasing company Il
not as alleged, is abundantly proven b,
the results of the recent agitation
when the most active and persistan
attempts to infame the public minC
against the company were unsuccess
full. The service rendered under pri
waite management was so superior t,
that given by the city bureau, tina
the inhabitants said in effect, 1--WE ar
satisfied"
Water supply, in its monopolisti
character, its intimate relation to tn
public health, and its comparative alb
sence of the trading element, seems t
lend itself particularly to the metho
of municipal operation. It is not sur
prising that there are so few privat
water companies in the country. I
is surprising to learn from these re