The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04
CIVIC FEDERATION
 MAKES ITS REPORT
Warns Against Difficulties of
 Municipal Ownership
A MINORITY REPORT
Majority Report Condemns competi- ton In the Supply of Public SerV- ice Government of Brit
 ish Municipalities.

| Chicago, August 3.-The municipal ownership investigation committee of the National Civic federation will pub i fish a majority report and a minority report. The majority report is signed by each member of the committee pres ent al the meeting at which it was adopted, except Walton Clark, president of Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania and vice president of the United Gas i Improvement company of Philadelphia, who presented q minority report In statement and suggestion the ma jorty report consits mainly of reeom i mendaiions of various details of i system of control of public service cor porations and of warnings against the difficulties and dangers attending mu- nicipal ownership which it does not, in set terms condemn or commend.
 The following paragraphs are the product of an effort to properly analyze i the majority report.
 l The opening paragraphs of the report ! contain a statement of the procedure i of the committee, thanks to the people in charge of the public utilities inYesti- i gated, and reasons for the failure to i give a positive answer to the question i at issue.
 The first statement having a direct | bearing on the main question is to the l effect that municipal plants have had struggle to exist In the face of un- sympath etic public opinion" This state ! ment that tn ese municipal plants nave had to struggle for continued existence, because of an unsympath etic public i opinion, appears to condemn municipal ownersh ip--if condemnation may come from those most immediately affected by unicipalzation-the citizens of the towns in which it has been tried
 .nf- flaaf tO must not judge between the effects of municipal and company operation in Great Britain without taking into con sideration the fact that the companies are unnecessarily handicapped by the short terms of the franchises granted them. the municipalities having neces- sarily the advantage of perpetual rights.
 The majority report also says allow ance must be made for difference in social and political conditions when arguing from the results of municipali- zation in Great Britain to what might be expected in this country. The exact language of the report is as follows:
 Tn other words, a measure of success in the municipal management of public utilities in England should not be re- garded as necessarily indicating that the municipal management of the same util- tiles in this country would be followed by '
 The majority report condemns compe- titlon in the supply of public service, and states that the question is wether it is better for the public to operate or to regulate public service industries as mo- nopolies.
 The report records the opinion of the majority that undertakings in which the sanitary motive largely enters'-mean- ing water works and sewerS-should. as concerning the health of the citizens be operated by the public. careful read ing of what of it's investigations into the water works of the United States has been printed by the committee, leads in- evtably to the conclusion that this opin- ion of the majority is the expression of its belief that water supply has to do with the police powers of the munici- pality, and therefore should not be left to private enterprise, or regarded as legitimate field for money making ven- lures.
 The majority report next states "Fhere are no particular reasons why the fnan- cal results from private or public opra- tions should be different, If the condi- tions are the same.' As conditions are fundamentally different this statement of the majority appears innocuous whether viewed from the standpoint of the mu- nicipalizer or from that of the anti-mu- niclpaliZer.
 The report, which mp to this point con-
  ship of any industry, except water sup ply, next classifies certain services that should not. in any event, be undertaken by a city. and states that no municipal ownership should be undertaken solely for profit.
 The report next recommends that mu- nicipalities be given the right to enter into municipal ownership upon popular vote under reasonable regulation It rec ommends that municipalities be gwen thiS right in order that the public may be put in a condition to trade with the compa- nies SC elSing franchises. and contains the further statement that the provision It thus recommends will tend to prevent municipal ownership.
 The report then, after recommending regulation and proflt-sharing, takes up the difficulties of municipal ownership, stating certain conditions to be essen nal to success--conditions recognized by the commission as not generally eX- isting and as difficult to secure.
 The remainder of the report Is large ly a eulogy of the governments or British municipalities comparing them with the municipal governments in the United States, unfavorably to the lat ter. and a summing up that reiter- ates the points previously made' warns against the danger of munl- cipal ownership under such govern mental conditions as the majority says exist in the United states, ana against the danger of creating larger body of municipal employees. and, at the last' says: 'We take no position on the ques- ton of general expediency of public or private ownership
 The report contains no endorsement of municipal ownership, even under the conditions claimed to exist Tn Glas- gow Manch tester and Birmlnghah, whose local governmental conditions are particularly commended. and stated to be "distinctfy favorable to munich pal ownership;" no statement that II IS wise, under such favorable govern INDIAN SALVE WORKS WONDERS.