The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-07-22
PUBLIC
UTILITIES

New York, July 22.-The operation
of the British street railways by mu-
inequalities and privately owned cor
poratioas respectively, is considered
in great detail in two reviews of eX-
pert reports on the subject made to-
the National Civic Federation Com
mission oil Public Ownership. The
reviews were prepared by members
of the Commission after an exhaustive
investigation OF the systems treated,
and were made public to-day. They
are based upon technical reports COM
piled by expert engineers who, with
the reviewers, spent several months
in the British cities where the several
lines are operated. The reviews are
by William ]. Clark, of New York, as
an opponent of municipaliZation, and
Prof. Frank Parsons, of Boston, as an
advocate of public ownership and op-
GRAFTON. Mr.. Clark is general mana
ger of the foreign department of the
General Electric Light Company.
Professor Parsons has been a student
of municipal ownership for years and
Is the author of several works on that
subject, among them ."The Railways,
the Trusts and the People"
In his review Mr.. Clark compares
the tramways of Great Britain with
the private enterprises of the United
latter. He declares that the American
traction systems under private owner
ship are far more progressive than
those of England, Scotland and Ire
land; that they give far better sub
urban service, that cars are less crowd
ed and that lines are being extended
with far greater rapidity. This he
attributes to the absence of restric-
tions in the United States as compar
ed with Great Britain, where, he says
private traction enterprises are Civ
en- franchises only on almost prohlbl-
tive terms. The difference of rate
of fare in the two countries, Mr.. Clark
says, is more than offset by the great
number of free transfers given by the
American systems. He says that
while on the fact of reports it would
appear that municipal operation OF
lines in some of the cities of Great
Britain mad been success, that as a
matter of fact just the opposite is
true. He says the private companies
ia the United Kingdom give super
ior service as compared with the mu-
nicipally operated lines.
Professor Parsons, ON the other
hand, expresses the opinion that mu-
nicipal ownership of British tramway
systems has been successful from ev-
cry point of view. He sets forth that
municipalities were the first to snow
a progressive spirit in changing from
horse cars to electric systems; that
their lines have been we'll managed
and the service improved, and that
fares have been lowered in spite OF
the fact that the hours of labor of en-
pIoyees were shortened, while in ma
ny instances wages were increased
The comparisons he makes are be-
tween British publicly-owned and pri-
vately owned companies, and in this
connection he declares that the Brit
ish plants must be measured by Brit
ish and not by American standards.
The conditions and habits of the peo-
pie are different, he says, and these
must be taken into account in the
Judgment of the management of tram
ways. Professor Parsons also notes
tnat in England the payment of a tare
means that the passenger has seat
and not merely the right to transit.
Mr. Clark points OFT that no Amer
lean street railroads were Investigated
by the Commission and only tramway
installations directly investigated in
Great Britain were those owned by
the municipalities of Manchester, Liv-
erpool, Glasgow and the London Cou1-
ty Council and those owned by the fol
lowing private companies: LONDON
United Tramways, Dublin United
Tramways and the Norwich Electric
Tramways the writer calls atte1-
ton to the fact that the entire de-
velopment of street railways in the
United States has been accomplished
by private enterprise and that this has
permitted the construction of exten-
sive systems serving entire communi-
ties and linking them together ire
spective of municipal boundary lines.
On the otner hand since 1894, at least
municipality controlled traction sys-
TENS nave been confined to a great
extent within the narrow limits OF
their respective municipalities MT
Clark here enters into a statistical
statement of the facilities enjoyed by
the urban inhabitants of Great Britain
as compared with the town and city
population of the United States. In
1902 the town and city population to
each mile of tramway track was H.
ats. while in the United States there
was a mile of track to eacn 1,516, OF
town and city population In Great
Britain there was one car for each
3,76O of population while in the Unit
ed States there was one car to 574
city residents. Thus the urban resi-
dent of the United States had compa-
ratively more than six and one-Salf
times the number of cars available for
his use tnan were available to the
British inhabitant The British sys-
TENS carried 1884, ,452, 1888 passengers
and the American 5,521, 500 ,521 and of
these 1,O62, ,403, ,392 or practically 80
per cent of the British total were
transported free on transfers.
Mr.. Clark taxes up the charge that
the traction cars in the United States
are over-crowded and declares that
the figures given above show that on
the basis of passengers carried per
car per year the American car aver