The Morning examiner. [volume] (Ogden, Utah) 1904-1910, 1909-03-14
DIVORCE IMPOSSIBLE.
Municipal Ownership and Politics
Thoroughly CongeniaI.
Long conponionship Has Created a
Bond Not to 30 Broken-An Ex-
travagant Pair.

Long conponionship Has crented a
Bond Not to 30 Brokon-An Ex-
travasant Pair.
The city of Boston hns experimental
with various phases OF municipal own
erShIp and Is forced to confess disap-
poIntment and failure. Its latest un-
dertaking In this line was the estab-
lishment OF Il municipal printing Of
flcc. which proved to be so expensive
and 80 altogether unsatisfactory that
1t is about to be abandoned The at
tempt to operate such an establish
ment as a means of freeing the city Of
evils arising from collusion among bid
ders on contract work Is admitted to
be dismal failure from every point of
view
Municipal ownership is a very beau
tiful theory In perspective. but In reali-
ty 1t falls so far short of what Is prom
ised by overzealous advocates that
there Is small prospect that 1T viii
ever make much substantial headway.
Divorced from politics, 1t might posi-
DIV DE I1uQt W ptl w bb III
substitute for the methods to which
the people have become accustomed
But there is tho rub. Experience has
shown that they can be no moro CT
fectually separated than 1t Is possible
for human ingenuity to change the
course Of the heavenly bodies. No
matter how high the ideal at the out
set. politics Is ceFain to creep In by
degrees until eventually the enterprise
thus established in good faith and for
we'll intended purpose becomes q
botbed OF extravagance. mismanoge-
mept and scandal.
That has been the rule and result
wherever the experiment hns been
tried; that will be the consequence
wherever 1t may be undertaken here
after. Whatever need of popularity
II has attained as on alternative for
existing forms Of municipal govern
ment Ia doubtless due to the overanL-
isty Of taxpayers TO be relieved OF
pressing burdens, ignoring the snge
advice that 1t were better to bear the
Ills we have than fee to others We
know not of"
To say that the government Of cities
is unnecessarily expensive and burden
some IL but to repeat truism that Is
on all hands admitted New York, be
ing the largest, Ia the most conspicu-
Gus offender. Only a few days ago
the comptroller Of that city showed
how 1t he'd cost the people $1,000 for
viewers and others concerned In con-
domination proceedings relating to
piece Of lnnd valued at S75, and hun
dreds of similar instances are cited IN
proof Of unbrid,ed extravaganza.
But the metropolis ls by no means
the sole offopder, The trail OF the ser
pent is over them all, each hoping to
justify itself by precedent and in 9th
erwlse endeavoring to shift RESPONSE
bility for q condition Of affairs that Is
iuexcusNble.
Instead of cnlarglng the present
scheme of municipal government tho
thing that Is most urgently needed Is
simpliocotion, which would. OF course,
mean retrenchment also. There Ia no
eXaggeration In saying that expenses
could be reduced at least oue-half and
probably three-fonrths without detri-
ment to efficiency by the Introduction
OF common sense business methods I'm
the management of municipal affairs,
but the way ont OF the dilemma is not
through the discredlted theory of own
ersbip Of public utilities, but through
the medium OF remedial legislation de-
vised In n praiseworthy spirit of eco
Domical government. shorn of useless
appendages which tend to thoughtless
or reckless extravngance.-Lafay
Qnd) Courier