The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-13
A CONSPIRACY OF THIEVES
Sinister Influence of Public Service Corporations in
 Grabbing for Special Privileges
MUNIcIPAL GOVERNMENT HAS BECOME
Notable Book in Which Author Holds that Conservation of Water Power is an Issue that Foretells the
 Unity of National and Local Politics

system that will keep the control of Fsne country's money supply in the
 hands of small clique of magnates. why wouldn't you expect him to look
 with disfavor upon issues of nunicipal bonds in small denominations for pop- I ular subscription? Anyway. having
 mentioned the tariff and the currency. one cannot point to another important
 national issue that is not intimately
 connected with state and municipal questions Even the local educational policy of San Francisco recently led
 to interference by the Federal govern ment to avoid international difficult
 ties. Indeed, San Francisco Is noth-
 ing but a bundle of national issues ! Hetch Hetchy. the Japanese school boy. Chinatown. the Plague. Union
 Labor, the graft Prosecutions, and what not
 What is it that has made American city government a by-word? What IS 1t that links municipal politics ey- anywhere with state and national poH- tlcsE Let Walter L. Fisher, Chicago's s great franchise lawyer, answer The attempt to control and regulate street
 railways. gas, electric light and tele- phone companies" says he. sshas. on
 the whole. been successful, because of
 tne powerful special interests which
 have either controlled or strongly in-
 fiuenced the governing party in pow CT in the community. The chief sources of corruption in American cities a necessarily public contracts and the granting of special privileges or exemptions. As a matter of fact
 the latter has been the most import ant contributory cause. There have been many and great abuses in con- nection with public contracts. but the
 most serious scandals have almost al- ways been connected with, or centered around special privileges, and chiefly public utilities Those who seek spe- cial privileges have been most likely frd public official who has power to grant these privileges. They have been the most obvious and alluring victims of the predatory grafter. They create ana maintain a continuing lobby-al- ways defensive and frequently ofren- sive- because they have a constant incentive through their necessary re- lations with the public authorities A contract or the securing of a contract on unfair terms invites occasional cor ruption: a franchise usually involves the continuous maintenance of sphere of influence in the city gov ernment."
 Mir Fishers public activities have been almost exclusively identified with the municipal affairs of Chicago. Not by reason of any change of in- terests, but AS a logical result of this he has now been foremost in the or ton Association of which Dr. Eliot is president The inevitable linking together of national and municipal issues is seen by other keen observers. Says Dr. Delos F. Wilcox, chief of the Franchise Bureau of the New York Public Service Commission. in his new work on Municipal Franchises" Crhe Engineering News Pub. Co.,, New Yorl):
 Ut should be noted fhat the policy of conservation of natural resources including the withdrawal of public lands containing water power sites, inauguarted by President Roosevelt in accordance with the advise of Gif- ford Pinchot, has an intimte bearing upon the future development of the electric light and power industry h. deed. this utility and the franchise governing 1t, are coming to have not only statewide. but nationwide com plications. Here is being welded one of the links in the chain of interests that seems destined to bind together municipal, state and national politics at no very distant date"
 Indeed. believing that ignorance and corruption in the granting of fran chises form one of the principal caus- es of the bad conditions prevailing in American cities and forseeing that the city problem in all its phases and es- pecially in it's relations to public util- ity monopolies. is forging to the front as a great national issue. Mir Wilcox has undertaken the task. hitherto un- attempted. of bringing together in a buok lilt pTOhlSlOHS OL the most im- portant municipal franchises granted by American cities. With keen ana lysis and accurte description. he DOT trays the various classes of public utility franchises so that any honest and intelligent citizen or public of ficial may with reasonable effort see through the intricacies of any pro- posed franchise grant and measure it up against the best standards yet at tained in this country. Franchises nftnn raNh every intelligent citizen should get busy and learn about them. for the is-