Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1907-09-12
AEDM0USE
National Civic Federation Report
Is Disappointing.

After Two Years of Labor the Com
mittee Brings Forth q Report Which
Proves little-lnvestisa Allow
Their Prejudioes to Blind Them to
the Facts-Labor Unions Are Warned
of Danger.
For two years a committee Of the
National Civic federation has been
making study OF municipal owner
ship In the United States ana Eng
land. the investigators having been
selected impartially from the advo
Gates and opponents Of munAcipa own
ership. The report embodying the
findings OF this committee Will be pub
lished this month In two parts. one
of which viii be devoted to the opAn-
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 or the mu-
nicipal ownership members OF the com
mittee have not considered 1t neces-
sary to make their opinions square
with the facts. For instance. Mr..
Bemis holds up the Wheeling CIV. Va
gas plant as an example or SUCCESSIVE
municipal ownership because Its net
rate IS rs cents, while 81 h 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 GO 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 Homo.
Where MIR. Bemis does use figures
he uses them shrewdly. AS stperin-
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 1900
was 81 per 100000. SO he uses
for comparison with cities that have
private waterworks only the years
19O5-O6, when the typhoid death rate
in Cleveland averaged only lT6 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 1t was In
1868, while Cleveland dropped from
III in 1903 to 10 in 1905.
Hope Versus Experience.
Professor Parsons, another OF the M.
o. members Of the committee. seems
to prefer the future to the past as a
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 he promptly side
steps the issue by declaring that rhila-
delphia did not have public owner
ship. but only ownership by political
grafters. The humor of this is ap-
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 q predilectioR
for municipal ownership, be evidently
assumed that II 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
ject. Professor Commons admits that
some municipal plants are POLITICALLY
honeycombed" and adds;
''The appointment, promotion and dis
missal of employees aud the wages to
be paid offer peculiar opportunities for
political and personal influence incon-
sistent with efficiency"
Professor Commons finds that II Ia
not unusual for public service CON-
panies to appoint employees at the
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 I'm the case OF city plants
the politicians influence is expected to
keep the man in the position even IL
he is Incompetent or negligent.
Municipal Employees Pull Together.
In Great Britain Professor Commons
finds that municipalization has pro-
duced "a spurious form OF trades union
ISM" which was repudiated by a prac-
tically unanimous vote OF the trades |
union congress In 1906 On the ground |
that the Municipal Employees associa-
ton is a class rather than trade or |
Speaking of the advocacy |
by some councillors OF the disfran- |
chisement Of municipal employees be-
cause Of their tendency to support can
didates who will concede their de- |
Professor Commons says that |
This is not the true remedy, though |