El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-01-23
THE rapid growth of cities in
America, caused by the steady


give an unusual measure OF considera-
ton to the question Of what to do with
their public utilities In this situation,
I municipal ownership has received an
1 eVer-tncreasing measure of attention.
statistics show clearly that regardless
of any differences of opinion that may
exist as to the merits of public owner
ship versus private ownership, there
has been steady increase in municipal
ownership in the United States.
Municipal ownership in broad
sense means the retention by the NUM-
! eipality Of any property, and the
amount of things actually owned by
| the cities and towns of America is Of
enormous value and covers a wonderful
range. 1t includes water. light and
power system, toll bridges. rapid
transit subways, canals, public halls,
| irrigation works, cemeteries, pOtter's
fields, morgues and pounds. Nor
should there be omitted ouch proper
ties as libraries, gymnasiums, play
grounds fair grounds harbor dredg
Ing properties, life boats, drinking
ambulance house, moth department
properties and green house.
What Some Cities Own
Richmond. Virginia has a tobacco
storage warehouse. Numerous cities
are credited with asphalt plants and
Charleston. South Carolina, has a pow
| der magazine In 1901 there were only
Is water works in the United States,
yet one of these was owned by the
municipality at Winchester. Virginia.
The first water supply for any town in
the United States was in 1852, when a
private company established a plant at
| Boston. Richmond Virginia was the
| first city in this country to own its
own gas plant, which dates from 1852
The first municipal electric light
| plant in the United States was estab-
lished by Fairfield, Iowa in 1882 This
little Iowa city was eight years ahead
| Of any town in Great Britain in this
| respect.
Involves Principally Utilities
| In practice, municipal ownership is
| applied only to the retention by the
municipality Of such public utilities as
| waterworks, electric light and power
plants. gas plants, telephone companies
and transit systems. Under the plan
| Of private ownership, such properties
| are owned by public utility corpora
| lions. In theory, the business of sup
| plying water to a city or town, of
/ supplying gas or light or power, tele-
phone service or street car transporta-
| ton, Is or tends to be a monopoly. 1t
has been found in practice. with per-
haps some exceptions, that such utili-
ties and needs Of the public can better
| be furnished from one source than
| from two or three or a half dozen.
Hence every municipality of Importance
| sooner or later has to settle whether
1t will have It's public services provided
| by private corporations or whether ii
will take hold itself and own its pub
lie utilities instead of granting fran
chises to private concerns.
Municipal socialism is q term that
has been sometimes applied in REFER
ing TO municipal ownership 1t is, how
ever. more inclusive than municipal
ownership and IN a broad sense would
comprise various activities for meet
ing the wants common TO the citizens
OF the municipality. The fact that
there is a close relationship between
municipal ownership and phase Of
socialism, however, has not served to
prevent its gaining strong foothold IN
this country.
When the census Of 1910 is COM
pleted, 1T is expected it will show much
that is valuable and interesting as TO
just what progress has been made of
late in municipal ownership in this
country But the available data suffi-
ces to show that rapid progress is be-
ing made by municipalities in the d.
rection of owning their Public utilities
and taking them over from~the private
corporations. This is especially true
of waterworks. 1t is true in less
measure of electric light and gas
plants and telephone and street rail-
way systems. In fact, municipal own
ership of street railways is extreme
ly limited in this country.
Many Cities Own Waterworks.
An exhaustive investigation into
waterwoks, gaswOrks and ELECTRIC
light plants was made by the bureau
of labor some time ago and it was
found that there were 1877 municipal
waterworks in the United States as
against 1889 private plants But there /
were only IA municipal gasworks as
against 951 private There were $50 I
municipal electric light plants as
against 1852 private Municipal own
ership is thus shown to apply much /
more frequently TO waterworkS than |
to other public utilities. Since the re- |
port of the bureau of labor much data /
has been collected by the government
on cities.
The trend of this. so far as munich |
pal ownership is concerned, is to show !
that it is becoming more common, es- I
pecially in the large cities. All but /
.3S cities having over 100000 population /
owned their own water plants at the |
beginning Of 1907.
At first blush, one might pronounce /
municipal ownership a modern devel-
opment As a matter of fact the or
tory Numerous cities of hoary an
tiquity owned their own aqueducts /
for furnishing the water supply. Own /
ership of lands, harbOr improvements, |
docks and the like was not uncommon i
In ancient cities. One of the great I
pioneers in the matter of municipal +
ownership was Roma Ovor 2.200 [.
years ago that city Quilt the Aqua /
Appia, named after Appius CIaudius. |
1t was a great aqueduct for furnishing |
water to the city from IL miles dis
tant.
Ancient ROme's Waterworks.
Eventually, nine great aqueducts
were in use. Tht city owned them and !
the water system of Rome was a I
marvellous institution, having a capac-
ity of no less than 3s.00O.O0O gallons !
a day. One OF the aqueducts drew
water from a point SO miles remote
and two Of them are still in use, so
perfect were they in construction. The /
water system OF Rome was admins
tered most carefully and 1t would tax
many a modern city to improve on 1t.
Augustus, who tackled many problems.
did not omit the Roman water system