Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1907-08-08
MOUNTAIN ANDMOUSE
National Civic Federation Report
Is Disappointing.

After Two Years of Labor the COM
nittee Brings Forth Report Which
Proves Little--lnvestisators Allow
Their Prejudiees to Blind Them to
the Faets--Labor Unions Are Warmed
Of Danger.
For two years a committee of the
National Civic federation has been
making a study of municipal owner.
ship in the United States and Eng |
land, the investigators having been |
selected impartially from the advo.
Gates and opponents of municipal own
ership. The report embodying the |
findings of this committee will be pub
lished this month In two parts, one
Of which will be devoted to the opin
ions Of the Investigators, the other to
the statistical information upon which
those opinions are supposed to be based.
Half Truths.
We use the word supposed" adj
visedly, for from the advance sections
that have been given to the papers 1t
appears that some at least of the mu-
mittee have not considered it neces-
sary to make their opinions square
with the facts. For instance, Mr..
Bemis holds up the Wheeling CIV. Na)
gas plant as an example of successful
municipal ownership because its net
rate is IS cents, while 81 is charged
by the companies in Norfolk, Va, and
Atlanta, Ga According to the news
paper reports. Mr.. Bemis does not in
form the public that the average price
of coal In Norfolk and Atlanta is at
least 60 per cent higher than in Wheel
ing and that the latter city uses natu-
raj gas as fuel in its retorts, nor does
he call attention to the important fact
that the average candlepower in the
two cities named is % per cent higher
than in Wheeling.
Charity Begins at Home.
Where Mr. Bemis does use figures
he uses them shrewdly As superin-
tendent of the Cleveland waterworks
he of course knows that in that city
the average death rate from typhoid
In the thirty-two years preceding 1905
was 50 per 100000 So he uses
for comparison with cities that have
private waterworks only the years
19O5-06, when the typhoid death rate
In Cleveland averaged only 17.6 per
100000. Two years is of course far
too short a period upon which to base
such a comparison, since the rates
vary widely in different years, the rate
In Syracuse in 1906, for example, be-
ing only about half what it was in
1906 while Cleveland dropped from
ia in 1903 to 10 in 1905.
Hope Versus Experience.
Professor Parsons, another of the NJ.
.. members of the committee, seems
to prefer the future to the past as a
basis for determining results. He eX-
presses his conviction that municipal
ownership would develop a higher
class of municipal administrators, but
when he is faced with such conditions
as existed in Philadelphia under the
notorious gas ring be promptly side
steps the issue by declaring that Phila-
deIphia did not have public owner
ship, but only ownership by political
grafters. The humor of this is APP
parent when one considers that one of
the principal objections to municipal
ownership is that 1t tends to result in
Ownership by political grafters."
Politics Versus Efficiency.
On this point the opinions of Pro
fessor Commons are worth quoting.
Although he also has a prediction
for municipal ownership, he evidently
assumed that it was his duty to give
a verdict in accordance with the facts.
His sincerity must be recognized even
by those who do not accept all Of his
conclusions. He and Mr.. Sullivan, edi-
tor of the Clothing Trades Bulletin,
consider the labor aspects Of the sub
1ect. Professor Commons admits that
some municipal plants are politically
honeycombed" and adds:
"The appointment, promotion and dis
mlssal of employees and the wages to
be paid offer peculiar opportunities for
political and personal influence incon-
sstent with efficiency"
Professor Commons finds that 1t is
not unusual for public service com
PohACS " HClOiIl SAhbiON NS1 ~ S@N
behest of political bosses, but he notes
that in such cases the employee has
to make good In order to hold his pO-
sition, while in the case of city plants
the politicians influence is expected to
keep the man in the position even If
he is incompetent or negligent.
Municipal Employees Pull Together.
In Great Britain Professor Commons
finds that municipallzatiOn has pro-
auced ga spurious form of trades union
ISM" which was repudiated by prac-
tically unanimous vote of the trades
union congress in 1906 on the ground
that the Municipal Employees assocla-
ton Is class rather than trade or
ganlzation. Speaking of the advocacy
by some councillors Of the dlsfran-
rhigQmQut Of muOicipal pmnlOVepS be-