The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-15
Street Railway Companies Throw Sop to the Voters in the Hope of Getting Possession of the Streets
 for Forty Years
KANSAS CITYs BIRTHRIGHT ON THE BARGAIN
 COUNTER
Forfeiture Clause that Would Make Horse LaughRef erendum on Franchise Will Test Voters
 Intelligence

that the powers of regulation of which the city could not be deprived in any case appear to be reserved to the
 public authorities in the most explicit
 terms, and this reservation is pointed
 out to prove how liberal to the city the company's proposition Is. When pub
 He opinion has reached such a state that the corporation asking for a
 franchise foresees the necessity of
 making concessions on points concern
 ing which franchises are usually si-
 lent, the expert attorney introduces clauses making extraordinary reserva-
 tions to the city, which further on
 in the franchise are so limited chcked
 and modified as to be in reality worth
 less from the public standpoint A
 few weasel words Judiciously distri-
 buted at strategic points. a few omis- stons easily overlooked in the ensem-
 ble of technical phrases, aAfew fair
 sounding reservations upon which
 law suits in the Federal Courts may
 be based, are likely to- vitiate any
 franchise ordinance or contract draft ed by lawyers who are paid to outwit
 the city,
 Dr. WIlcox's book Municipal Fran chise." The Engineering News Pub.
 Co, New York, is a mine of infor- fnation in regard to municipal fran chises. It contains abstracts of a very large number of grants of many different kinds. with provisions good,
 bad and in different. These fran- chises are described so that any in tellieent reader can detect the pitfalls. It is inconcelvable that an honest city attorney and body of aldermen could have let the Kansas City proposition pass them in its present form if they had first read this book Where the city attorney and the aldermen are not honest servants of the people, the case Is quite different. dn that case they do not care to learn anything out of books.
 When companies need to issue new bonds fer reconstruction or ex- tensions writes Wilcox almost as if he had the Kansas City case in mind. they sometimes feel the need of new franchises, even though the one they have does not expire for ten Or fifteen years Or 1t may be that without any necessity except the de- sire to secure themselves and their property as far as possible. they be- gin maneuvering for renewals. It is. at such opportune times that the companies enter politics by the back door and endeavor secretly to elect friendly people. Then the city wakes up some morning to find that its pos- ition has been untenable by a flank movement"
 The people of Kansas City are fortunate in having the right to pass themselves. But the experience of Denver. Oklahoma City and Portland. Oregon. goes to show that even where the Referendum is in force. the com panies may be able to get through undesirable ordinances by reason of the lack of intelligent leadership on the peoples side. WiIcox's book Jis a good omen. It points to an organiza- ton of intelligence on the side of public rights. The companies have long been organized with their special journals. their bureaus of publicity and their subsidized agents. It is to be hoped that the time will soon come when a misshapen franchise ordinance cannot raise its head in any import ant city of the country without a of high-grade experts taking a crack at It. The day of collective in franchise matters is al- ready past due. The need of 1t in the case of Kansas City is especially mapped because here the pending franchise attempts to fix transit con ditions in three or four outside cities and towns most of which are in an- other state.