The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-09-20
NOT A TRUE REMEDY
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP is
SHARPLY CRITICISED.
Declared to Be Result of Emotional
Prejudice" and Not Nearly as Desir-
able as Government Regulation.

NORFOLK. Va, Sept. 20.-An address
on Regulation versus Municipal Owner
ship" was read before the convention of
American Municipalities here today by
H. j.. Gordon, of Chicago.
Mr.. Gordon said the advance of munich
pal ownership and operation of public
utilities In the United States and Canada
has been due in a great measure to
emotional prejudice and error in estimating
financial results. The ownership and
operation of utilities are matters of pure
economics, he claimed. They are most
emphatically not moral questions, despite
the efforts TO make it appear that they
are.
In finding that the success of municipal
operation of public utilities depends upon
the existence in the city OF a high capacity
for municipal government" the nvesti-
eating committee of the National Civic
Federation in its nearly unanimous re-
port stated a great truth, he declared. Mnis
high capacity for municipal government
has yet to be established in America, how
ever. The fault is not in the public Of
ficials. but In the people too much con-
cerned in personal affairs to give proper
attention, support and encouragement to
public officials.
That the municipal ownership wave has
lone good as a punishment and a warning
Is not to be denied, Mr.. Gordon remarked.
Perhaps the greatest evil remaining lies
in the widespread and a~ssiduously nur-
tured impression that the scheme is po-
tentially meritorious and susceptible to
universal application. There may be
| places-a very few-where it is a good
thing to hold in reserve over corporations
holding longtime franchises or 'perpet-
ual' rights. or where the admission of
| other corporations of the same kind is
not reasible. But the American public
shout be rescued from the idea that
municipal ownership 10 an automatic rem
edy for various municipal ills, and taught
the truth.
I'VE are entering OF an era he con-
tinued, when the former derfsion of Our
governmental efforts to regulate corpora
lions will be forgotten by the successful
and satisfactory regulation Of these cor
porations by properly constituted author
tiles. Backed by well-defined and earnest
sentiment there is no ground to fear that
any law or set of laws will not be rigidly
enforced. In the past the methods toward
regulation have been crude; and ineffective
because both officials and people recog-
nized the crudeness. New methods are be-
ing 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
~consin,' concluded Mr.. Gordon, lis abso-
lutely at the mercy of agents of the law
equipped with adequate devices to secure
obedience. The capital invested in These
corporations does not wish to be devoureo
in whole or in part. The only other al
tentative lies in treating the public fairly
In the matter of prices and service and liv-
ing up TO the law. This plan certainly /:
sounder and more apt to produce the re.
suits expected than the adoption of mu.
nicipal ownership with its attendant con.
fusion of direction, susceptibility TO prac-
teal politics, usual financial losses ano
not unusual inefiiciency."