The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1908-06-10
Municipal Ownership in Practice.
NGshil gtOn Herald.


Grafton commission who have been
investigating the subject of municipal
ownership for nearly two years. One
of these, written by Prof. John r.
Commons, dealing with the relation
Of labor and politics to government
controlled utilities, is rather favora-
BILE to municipal ownership; while
the other, whose author, ]. w. Sulli-
van, describes the conditions Of en-
ployment by municipal authorities,
takes a much less pleasing view of
municipalized public service. Both
reports present unhappy pictures of
political corruption arising out OF the
relations of public service corpora
tions with local authorities, and also
in the conduct of municipalized pub
lie utilities. Prof. Commons main
tains that political corruption is no
greater under public than under pri-
vate ownership, but it seems to be es-
tablished by both reports that muni-
cipal ownership is no panacea for
corporate corruption of local politics.
In Wheeling, w. Va, for example,
Prof. Commons found the municipal
gas works as deep in the mud Of pol
itics as the privately owned street car
lines were in the mire. 1.-The council
and aldermen" he says. control the
municipal gas works, and they con-
troll the franchises and contracts of
the private companies. The "city
hall ring is just as much a ring of
the political tools Of the private cor
porations as it is ring Of municipal
politicians. The capable politician,
Prof Commons remarks, can build
up his organization just as effectively
under municipal as under private
ownership.
Perhaps the most striking feature
of the reports is the mass of evidence
brought out that municipal ownership
SO far has not greatly improved the
condition of government employees
Only the common laborer seems to
have been especially benefited by ex-
changing private for a public en-
plcyer. This was found to be true
both in the United States and Great
Britain. The tendency is for the To-
cal authorities to pay the going rate
OF wages, unless political pressure
forces them to do otherwise Mr.. Sui
livan appears to think the employe Of
private concern is really better off
than the municipal employe, in spite
Of the fact that the latter often gets
soft berth, for he concludes that
under private employment good men
are more certain Of retaining their
places, they pay no political assess
ments. and are politically free. and
they work under better conditions as
to comfort and future prospects.
Moreover, Mr.. Sullivan observes mu-
nicipal ownership spells the ruin Of
trade and labor organizations, whose
purpose is to secure better wages and
conditions of employment. Politics is
the municipal employers substitute
for the union. On this point Mr..
Suliivan's remarks are worth quoting
in full:
''The wage worker who reads the
labor report cannot but perceive that
municipalization in various ways car
ries perils to the trade union. In the
first place the field for the labor vote
manipulation enlarges with municipal
employment. But many unionists re-
fuse to be moved about like pawns,
and the lukewarm union member, de-
clining either to support or to fight
the growing strength of pernicious la
Dor politicians, has one more reason
to drop out Of the union, should oc-
casion arise. Again, individual union
lists at work for municipalities learn
to look to politics for help; whole
unions do so, as in the case Of the
British electrical workers, and in so
far they are out Of the real union
movement. They are engrafted po-
litical clubs, not trade unions. They
cary pervision into the ranks Of
genuine unionism."
In view of the labor union senti-
ment for municipal ownership, the
experience Of British unions is sig
nificant. They cannot retain their
members who drift into municipal
employment, nor can they tolerate
separate organizations of public en-
ployees, for such an organization was
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