Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1907 — Report on City Ownership. [ARTICLE]

Report on City Ownership.

The investigation of public ownership of public utilities in Europe and this country by the National Civic Federation’s commission has resulted in two reports, one by Prof. John R. Commons of Wisconsin proposition and the other by J. W. Sulli--van--of the Clothing-Tradek Bulletin disapproving. Prof. Commons says they found the privately owned utilities in England dividing surplus for civic betterments because of the prevailing tendency .toward public ownership and its example in cities where it had been adopted. Many havp shrewdly arranged copartnership plans and have recognized the labor unions. He is convinced that the recognition of the unions is the safeguard against political corruption in public ownership and that private ownership offers no escape from politics. Editor Sullivan says that in all but the most poorly paid forms of labor public ownership has not raised or improved conditions of work. He contends that in England no street car business has ever been a private enterprise, in the sense that the word is used in this country, thus making comparison with American conditions unTaking Syracuse, Allegheny and Wheeling as the best samples of American municipalization offered, they found conclusive evidence of political rottenness in each case. He regards it as “a project to restrict men in their activities by methods foreign to the American genius.”