The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-21
LIBERAL LAW FOR
 CITY GOVERNMENT
League of Municipalities Ask
 for More Freedom
TOO MANY RESTRICTIONS
In the Convention at Jamestown Ex. position Advocates of Municipal Ownership Speak for Freer
 Local Government.

Norfolk, Va, September 2o.-The League of American Municipalities adjourned sine die today, after selecting omana, Neb., for the 1908 convention.
 Officers were elected as follows:
 President, J. Barry Mahool, Mayor of Baltimore
 Vice president, Silas Cook, Mayor of East St. Louis, Ills.
 Secretary treasurer, John Macvokar, Des Moines. Iowa
 The trustees include William ]. Mosey Mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind, and Mayor Joyner, Atlanta.
 Municipal ownership constituted the principal subject of discussion at today's session. Edward A. Moffitt, secretary of the National Civic Federation's investi- Eatng committee of twenty, was intro duced by President Dunne as substi- ute speaker for Prof. Frank Parsons of Boston, who is warm advocate of municipal ownership. TO the surprise of the convention MT. Mofitt took a stand directly opposite to that of Professor Parsons. His strong opposition address was answered by President Dunne and other advocates of the municipal owner ship idea.
 In the absence of II. ]. Gorden of Chi cago, a paper prepared by him in opposi- ton to municipal ownership was read by Councilman Young of Kansas City.
 The following resolution was adopted:
 Resolved, That many of the defects and difficulties in the government of American cities results from the refusal of legislatures to grant charters permit ting local selfgovernment In matters of purely local concern, and that the utmost liberalty in matters of local concern should be insisted upon by all municipali- ties seeking charters from the state.
 Gorden's Address.
 MT. Gordon's address was as follows:
 The advance of municipal ownership and operation of public utilities in the United States and Canada has been due in d great measure to emotional prejudice. and error in estimating financial re- suits.
 The ownership and operation of utilities are matters of pure economics. They arc most emphatcally not moral questions, despite the efforts to make it apepar so. Who O xns and operates public utilities is trivial compared to how they are oper ated
 In finding that the success of munich pal operation of public utilities depends upon the existence in the city of high capacity for municipal government the investigating committee of the National Civic Federation, in it's nearly unanimous report, stated d great truth. This high capacity for municipal government mas yet to be established in America. The fault Is not in the public officials, but In the people too much concerned In per son-al affairs to give public officials prop CT attention, support and encourage ment.
 Fairly successful municipal operation IS possible when all conditions are favor able and public interest in the subject IS fresh, vigorous and wholesome. Sucn in- tercst, however, soon wears out in actual practice.
 Public utilities represent T real prob lem. If other methods than municipal ownership can solve the problem more satisfactory, 1t is nothing less than absurd to contend for the theory as mere doc trine, since in it's very best guise 1t has obvious weakness and disqualfcatons.
 1t is only recently that we have dis covered some of the latent powers of our forms of popular government. Ten years ago laws like the public utilities acts of New York and Wisconsin would have been regarded impossible
 Good and Evil
 True, countless efforts have been made before to regulate and control corpora tons of different kinds. Failures to get good results caused these attempts to become objects of derision Under these conditions the theory of municipal own ership waxed fat and hearty.
 That municipal ownership has done good SIS q punishment and a warning is not to be denied. Perhaps the greatest evil remaining lies in the widespread and assiduously nurtured impression that the scheme Is potentially mertorious and susceptible to universal application. There may be places-a very few-where 1t is good thing to hold in reserve over holding longtime franchises or perpetual rights, or where the ad- mission of other corporations of the same kind is not feasible But the American public should be rescued from the idea that municipal ownership is an automatic remedy for various municipal ills Gas the civic federations committee insists it is noD, and taugh the truth. The truth is nothing more or less than that success ful municipal ownership under d form of popular government is extremely hard to attain. It must be the product of conditions not found in the average Amer ican city and rightly classed as abnor- mal.
 We are entering on an era, I believe, when the former derislon of our govern mental efforts to regulate corporations will be forgotten by the successful and regulation of these corpora tions by properly constituted authorities. Backed by well-defned and earnest sen tlment there is no ground to fear that any law or set of laws will not be rig idly enforced.
 Crude Methods In Past.
 In the past the methods towards reg ulation have been crude and ineffective because both officials and people recog nized the crudeness. New methods are being perfected and the support of the body polite assures thorough execution.
 A public service corporation under stat utes such as exist in New York and Wis consn is absolutely at the mercy of agents of the law, equipped with ade- quate devices to secure obedience. The capital invested In these corporations