The Irish standard., 1907-03-30

and all they can collect for them is
$3.50 per thousand.
In the question of water supply the
same protest is heard. When the
metropolitan water board was formed
it was given out by the municipal
ownership advocates that the cost Of
water would be reduced. AS a matter
OF actual fact it has increased just
so per cent. 1t costs $4,000 a year
more to water London today than it
did before municipalization.
Happily for US we have solved that
problem. The dispassionate critic
will admit that the case of municipal
ownership of water works has been
established. Public ownership Of
water" says Professor j. Bullock, sis
an accomplished fact" The mistake
which is so often made lies in the
readiness with which it is argued that
because municipal water works are
successfully operated other branches
of city service can be municipalized.
With water goes it's collateral indus
tries: sewers, street cleaning and like
industries so closely connected with
public health.
With lighting, the case is very diff
ferent Indeed the experience of our
| own American cities substantiates the
experience of English and European
cities that municipal lighting plants
are Improbable. Out of $50 cities in
this country reported at the last
analysis as having gas works, only
twenty cities own their own plants.
The five largest of these were Phila-
delphia, Louisville, Richmond, Va,
Duluth and Wheeling, w. Va. Phila-
delphia, then, is the only large city
! which has taken the step, and every
body knows with what miserable re-
suits. If you don't know. ask the busy
and worried. John Weaver, mayor of
AAiAOSApAAAhS" ,VA' clluSdNO luS "
make good to some extent the incon-
veniences resulting from the works.
Electricity, and the ownership Of
electric lighting plants has followed
the trend towards municipalization
but with no very certain results. Out
of 1,471 cities in America reporting on
the problems of electric lighting only
1913 were owned by cities, and eighty
| five were owned by cities and private
concerns Jointly. Chicago is the arch
example Of municipal electric lighting
! in this country. During the first thir-
tteen years of it's. operation as public
industry (frem 1887 to 1900 Chicago
paid for it's street lighting $49,423.11
more than 1T cost the city to light the
streets under private management and
ownership. Still there were benefits
to offset that loss; the workmen en-
ployed, worked union hours and re-
ceived union pay; the city drove better
bargains with the private companies
for the electricity they did furnish,
because the city owning it's own plant
could compete to advantage. In fact,
the experience Of Chicago has decided
the case neither, way; it has raised
its finger to warn the other cities of
America that there Is no bonanza of
profit in municipalization, and that
there is an actual financial loss, offset
though it be-, by a great moral and
social gain to workinglnen and their
families.
The conclusion to be drawn from
these instances are decisive. Simply
don't; until you investigate. London
has made a mess of municipal owner
ship Of lighting, and of other indus
tries. That. however, doesn't argue in
the least against our success. But
what does argue against our success
is the fact that conditions here are
I! conditions are worse and American
cities do not lend themselves to mu-
nicipalization as do the cities of Eu-
rope. Paris and Berlin and Hamburg
and London have generated a munich
pal spirit that this country doesn't
enjoy. Our very institutions of gov
ernment are against it. In America
a man may care not snap about his
city or state, but vaunt vigorously the
fact that he is an American. So too
he may be states right man like the
southerner, and care little for city OF
a nation. Very seldom is he a city
man to the exclusion of the other sen.
timents. Localization has very little
room in the mind of the average
American. 1t would be Il good thing
If he were not so broad at times. 4
little provincialism is not dangerous
thing, and local pride would develop