Los Angeles herald., 1907-07-08

united states ana IcSluGAlo Va NAS
cality. The common labor of the pri-
vate companies, except in Indianapolis
and the southern cities, where they are
colored, is composed largely of imml-
grants and no attention is paid as 10
whether they have secured citizenship
papers or not.
'In the matter of wages and hours
the principal effect of municipal owner
ship is seen in the unskilled and unor-
ganized labor in both countries, In that
of street railway employees in Great
Britain and in that of gas workers ana
electric workers in the United States
Mr.. Sullivan sums up his observations
with the conclusion that in all but the
most poorly paid forms of labor ana
for tramway employees, municipalization
has not raised the wage or improved
working conditions of the employees
above conditions in the private UNDER
takings. With respect to common,
unorganized labor" however, the, in
vestigatorS found a difference somewhat
favorable to British municipal en-
ployes. The report cites two causes for
this condition; first, that the municipal
laborer is a picked man, and second,
that this class of labor is capable of
exerting on city councils a combined
pressure which obtains for them better
terms than the employing councillors
accord to the men they hire in their
private capacity for similar work. mo
street car undertaking in Great Britain
has ever been private enterprise in
the sense in. which the word is applied
in this country says Mr.. Sullivan.
"The twenty-one years term of the
franchise, the veto of company petl-
tions by village authorities, the enor-
nous cost of parliamentary powers and
local assents, and various other re-
ctr Y,nn-cSiGtant in the Tinted
States, shackle and impoverish British
tramway company management and
consequently forbid an intelligent in
vestigator to employ British example
to illustrate possibilities in America
through change from private to mu-
nicipal ownership. British tramways
have been semi-municipal. AS by the
terms of their franchises all English
tramway undertakings may be taken
over by the municipalities. directors
manage their properties with that end
in view. Compared with the remarkable
changes for the better in wages and
hours in the American street car IN
dustry under companies, the best OF
the British municipal labor improve
ments seem hardly more than trivial.
Conditions in England
Little attention has been given in
nicipalizers who would carry municlpal
ownership into fields wherever they
imagine promise of a speedy remedy for
civic abuses or economic betterment Tor
the masses IF any of the utoplan
schemes of these municipalizers had
still bid fair to be fulfilled the report
continues, 1.-The facts would have been
given passing recognition and the nope
full outlook touched upon. Rather are
- lnf
tical municipalization is turned. Where
advocates once looked for a. constant
expansion, this has been arrested by
disillusion Government ownership OF
undertakings of electricity and light
railways covering supra-munlclpatI
areas may be called for, but there the
practical political leaders show dls-
position to halt. With regard to mu-
nicipal lodgings, steamboats, and ms
cellaneous supplies, there has been re-
action. Platform demands may be
more numerous than ever with ex-
tremely radical theorists who have the
ear of the clamorous among the hungry
masses, but the recent elections nave
gone against the radical sentiment ana
appropriations from councils and par
lament are commonly expected to
cease or follow slowly.
"In America the municipalized enter
prises visited by our labor investigators
have been rich mines for sign1f1cant
facts relating to politics rather tnan
to labor. These facts are not usually
among those heretofore emphaslzeu py
the American advocates of municipal
ownership. The testimony as to po-
litical rottenness, root and branch, IN
Syracuse, Allegheny and Wheeling Is
conclusive, The municipal plants ex-
amined in these cities, it is TO De re-
membered, were selected as models by
representative municipalizers of the
commission. Nor is the polltlco-iapor
situation in Detroit, Cleveland, Chlcago
or Richmond at all settled as well as IL
might be. In Cleveland, the present
mayor in the beginning increased his
reform forces in the public water de-
nartment so as to strengthen his vote
in the primaries-an act possible at all
times also under the next and succeed
ing administrat tions, which may De pau
where the present is good. The degree
of purity attained by the present ad-
ministration is attributed TO the ON
cials and the public sentiment aroused
and not to municipal1zatlon. IN Gh!-
cago. where civil service Is ironclad,
the appointment by the mayor of de-
nartment heads and even of the civil
service commission itself, has more than
once proved a vulnerable point In the
civic armor, with sad results. In De
troit. Cleveland or Chicago, the stability
of the municipality operated enterprises
rests largely on the mayor, who' how
ever personally estimable and states
manlike, necessarily becomes as can
didate a relatively good or bad politi-
clan. representing for brief term
policy that may change with his sue
cessor. 1t is plain that in this po-
Iitical situation the. resultant labor
problem is most difficult. An employe
can only hold office in uncertainty, with
it's consequent evils. This form OF DIS
Quiet is not usual in private employ
ment. AS to Richmond, its exclusion
of black men suggests a burning race
question indeed, north and south, were
municipalization generally adopted ana
Richmond's example in that respect fol-
lowed
"Any advantage in wages or hours
to be figured out for the municipal en-
terprises investigated IN America over
the private ones compared with them
look much like stale illustrations OF the
soft berths to be found in @ublic en-
ployment. To what extent the jobs are
political for the employees, single or col
iectively, or a bid for the labor vote