Arizona republican., 1914-11-27
THE SERVICE 0F THE PEOPLE
 CHIEF THING
Late Mayors Meeting at Philadelphia Brought To- gether Strong Sentiment in Favor of Public Owner ship of Public Utilities
(By F. A, Jones)

| WASHINGTON, Nov. 2O-The striking feature of the Mayors con vention recently concluded in Phil adelphia was the unanimous ex-
 pression of executives of the leading
 American and Canadian cities that public ownership of public utilities
 is an imperative necessity. No less
 startling was the general expressed | opinion based upon experience, that state regulation of city utilities had been. generally speaking, failure;
 that city regulation had proven more satisfactory although finally cities would be compelled to own and operate their water supply, gas and electric utilities, their telephone and
 street railways
 Every state in the union and sev-
 eral Canadian provinces were repre-
 scented. Mayors of New York City, Chicago, Boston on down to cities of l Ififteen or twenty thousand popula-
 tion were present State and city
 utility commissioners were in evi-
 dcnce and some of the larger gas.
 electric, street railway and telephone
 companies were observers and par
 ticipants in the proceedings 1 The many papers read and ad-
 dresses made all went to the sub
 ject of public utilities. As result of
 the meeting a permanent bureau will
 be maintained for the interchange of
 ideas and information, and for help ! 11l in
 common to all cities.
 Quoting one of the speakers: l This utilities bureau will be at the disposal of every city in the union that wishes to use it. We will col | lect facts and information which we believe will be of use to municipali-
 ties and assist them in every possi-
 ble way to solve their problems. We
 are in no sense a political body and will not permit ourselves to be used
 as such"
 | member of the public utilities commission of the city of Washing
 ton, D. C.. aroused much enthusi- asm when he stated that the capital of the nation would. before long, own
 and operate it's utilities.
 He said that the present commits
 sion was unanimously in favor of ] this policy and that this fact was known when the president appointed
 them
 It has been interesting to note the
 editorial comments of eastern news papers on the subject of public own
 ership since the Philadelphia con-
 vention. One in the Washington
 Times published by Frank Munsey
 closes with the following significant paragraph:
 Indeed, experience abundantly jus tifies the assertion that public ser vice should never be left to private agencies to perform. and political history furnishes repeated evidences of the inevitable abuses that flourish whenever the people are unwise enough to place the management of their public affairs in the hands of those whose chief motive to attend to them is the profit they can make
 out of them Whether it is a king s favorite. like Buckingham, enjoying a monopoly in the production of lace; a farmer of the revenue collecting taxes for his own profit; star router. carrying the mail for his pro- fit; or street railroad magnate, running street cars for his profit the result is the same-Mammon, not
 the People, is served
 Reports of cities operating under
 the commission form of government not managerial-pronounc them successful The opinion was express
 ed that cities of about 10000 popu
 lation or less would find this form of government advantageous Reports from a number of cities operating electric light and power
 plants showed reduction in rates over privately owned plants of from
 30 to 50 per cent with profit to the
 cities There was no opposition to
 the proposition that cities ought to
 own their water works and electric
 plants because they could in a mea
 sure. be operated jointly and for the further reason that the cities them selves are the largest consumers of
 water and electric energy. Chili con carnie at McKee'S Delica