Arizona republican., 1910-02-13


 tric lighting company to supply street
 lamps at, a cost far below the operating
 cost shown by the yearly reports of the municipal plant. The municipal plant. upon which s36.O00 had been expended in construction, was valued by q board of Appraisers at s15,000 or a depreciation Of s21.0o0. with no fund | to provide for it.
 I Management a Vital Matter.
 l l might go on and cite numerous cases of disastrous mnnicipa! electric
 light plant ventures and might also [ cite some cases of we'll managed and
 successful municipal plants. If 2 proper depreciation account is
 not, kept and a municipal plaat is not | insured for its actual value. it,is the ! whole body of taxpayers who suffer when the plant isi destroyed by acci- | dent. When n company gives poor
 service ar charges high rates. the pub
 lie at large will be much more bene- l fitted by taking measures .o secure adequate control of the offending com- pany than they will by trying to take
 over the sbusiness of the company, the ' | known. y
 In the ease of both private and mnni- l eipai plants. the margin of profit is
 small enough for good or bad manage ment to throw the balance one way or
 the other. But with this difference: 1 If the private plant is mismanaged IL i is no concern of the taxpayer: it. con cerns only stockholders. Under q con- 1 tract with q private company for street 1 lighting at d reasonably low rate, the taxpayer takes no risk save a possi- 1 bility of paying q small percentage ! more for given services than he would l pay if the city ran the plant. Ii the 1 city owns the plant. he may get his , street lighting for q little less than he would pay the private company. ; but with the tolerable certainty that if there is grating or incompetency in the management of the plant. he will pay q good deal more. In fact. 1t is [ a kind of one-sided speculation except. of course where reasonable rates can not be obtained from a private com pany. The taxpayers of city usually. therefore. should think several times before embarking in such enterprises. The Energy of Private Management. As the management of municipal electric light plants is such an import ant factor in determining whether it is losing proposition or not, let us inquire into the possibilities for good or bad management in connection with it. l am not ore of those. who believe that municipal management is neces- sarily and invariably incompetent. This is disproved by number Of cases where municipal enterprises were well managed. But there are certain things in American municipal af- fairs to which we can not shut our eyes. however much we may hope to change them within the next twenty five years. The war against graft in municipal politics has been making considerable headway the past ten years, and We may hope to see it make even better headway the coming ten years; nevertheless graft is factor to he considered.
 The fact is that the present time it is as a rule difficult to get the best class of men for the management of municipal enterprises. Why? In the first place. man of ability and am bition will usually prefer to work for private corporation where opportuni- 1 ties for advancement and appreciation ! of ability are better than in municipal 1 service, and where he is more certain l of his position. The man working for l q municipality is altogether uncertain | of his future ar as to the competency | or incompetency of the council com mittees to which he may be r.sponsi- 1 ble. As he is working for the public. l he is subject to all sorts of criticisms | to which an officer in q private cor | portion is not subject, and may even | be suspected of grating because he is ci;y employe and for no other req i son. These things. no doubt. account i for the fact that comparatively few | men of promise in the electric lighting i industry of the country are to be found ] in municipal plants. In my personal | experience on the editorial staff of | paper devoted tO the electric lighting | industry and in travelling among such | plants. I almost invariably find that | the up-to-date. progressive and | aggressive management which con | tributes to the general progress of the | art is to he found in priva.t rather | than municipal plants.
 Graft and Public Ownership.
 The advocates of municipal owner