The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1908-01-31

4
| of the finance committee of Woolwich,
that borough reached the verge of
bankruptcy under the management of
the NJ. o. party, which tried to show
that the electric pla3M was profitable
by the simple expedlent of not paying
bills. The new administration was
faced with floating indebtedness of
$4,000, which has to be provided for
by taxation.
| The Yorkshire Observer states that
at a meeting of the Rotterdam Dor
| ough council Alderman GUNNER OBJ
jected to the amount which the gas
undertaking contributed to the rates
on the ground that 1t had been made
possible only by raising the price of
| gas and thus making its consumers
bear an unfair proportion Of the rates.
This bore especially upon the poor,
| who use gas instead Of electricity.
| If a city is well governed munich
| pal ownership Is the most dangerous
thing imaginable and should be care
fully avoided. There is always the
danger that the public utilities the city
] is supposed TO own will become moth
| ing more or less than the private prop
erty Of the people at the head Of the
government, who will work to their
| own advantage and the enhancement
Of their private wealth.-William T..
Stead, Editor Review of Reviews.
| At the fifth annual conference Of the
| Municipal Tramways association G..
w. Hc!ford, general manager of the
| Stafford corporation tramways, stated
| that the probable average life of rails
| was twelve years. Commenting upon
| the fact that in many cities no depre
! citation or renewals fund was being
| set aside, he earnestly warned the
| gentlemen responsible that serious re-
suits would follow in ten or twelve
years time when heavy calls would
have to be made upon the ratepayers
for the purpose Of renewals"
tp
Four years ago London took over !ts
| waterworks. with the result that wa
| ter rates have increased rather than
| diminished. Referring to the operat-
| ing expenses, Sir Melvill Beachcroft,
chairman of the water board, recently
said:
$50 far it must be admitted that no
saving has been effected. / do not
| think that it was ever anticipated that
there would be any saving In the ex-
penses of administration, as the man
agement of a trading concern by
municipal body must always involve
expenditure quite outside that which
falls on a private company"
ge
In my opinion, the root Of the evil is
to be found in the too great facilities
| afforded by parliament for crazy mu-
| nicipal traders to borrow money upon
| periods of repayment out of all pro-
portion to the lifetime Of the work
upon which the money is expended.
In Huddersfield we are wearing out
our third set of tram rails, and yet
payment for the first set will not be
completed until 1867. In our capital of
| f414 900 for some thirty miles of tram
| ways there is at least 100000 for
which we cannot produce any asset
! 'whatever."-T. Ii. Moore, Esq, Alder
man, and Chairman. Huddersfeld Cor
poration Tramways.
An English correspondent writes:
1.-THE tram cars in Liverpool until
| late years were owned by private
company. whereas now they are own
| ed by the corporation. In the time OF
| private ownership overcrowding was
| unknown. now it is the rule. On In
| curing the reason of the change !
was told that II was this: The regula-
| tons as to numbers remain the same.
| but they are never enforced. The po-
| lice dare not enforce il because they
are servants of the corporation; the
corporation will not enforce it because
| its enforcement would mean a reduc-
ton in the receipts, and the borough
| bench so largely consists of justices
either members of the corporation or
| under its influence that no conviction.
IL sought for by a private person
would be obtained"
| gH
| Keir Har6ie, one OF the Socialist
members of parliament, voiced the SEN
timents of English Socialists when he
said at Bradford a year ago:
at becomes increasingly evident that
Socialism in this country Will come
through the municipalities-mun
trans, municipal water, municipal gas,
municipal electricity, municipal bread,
municipal coal and municipal land.
These things are all putting the people,
or will put then. In possession and
control of the essentials of life, and
that Is what Socialism aims at"
l. Roswell N NJ, has voted two to one