OCR Text |
Show pay why, the city, in - its goodness, also" engage to, satisfy, all of them.' " - ':. v j- , :' ' ?The city -will not get, all told, as much as if the, .operty, ere" subject to ordinary taxation and no other V payment whatever made v to the 1 city treasury : ''""!'.;.'(,-'? .-.'"' ' vTfces?' conditions, with some alterations might ;be Biade'to apply to 'the proposition, advanced by the Utah! Light and Railway company for an ex- j tension its franchise for fifty years. ! v New York for its convenience, had a subway constructed under, the .streets for the accommodation: accommoda-tion: of r its ever-increasing population in transporting5 transport-ing5 them from place to place. The .: operation of trains in this network of tunnels-was let to a corporation cor-poration on the terms indicated in the foregoing. ' The city of , Salt Lake, for its people, owns the streets and alleys and the right to supply the people . with -transportation, light, t heat and, powers- The exploitation of these franchises is let to a private corporation. These franchises have a present -and Increasing value, V The eorporatioa. t6 -vhich haa been given thes francUses asks aa . extension, or lease of life that would give it these franchise for a period of ninety years. r : . I What does the city get out 'of' it? '.'Alleged water rights worth $25,000, and the same rate of talatioh' that now applies. ' ' , : , . , What does the corporation get? The right to raise the price" of light, heat and power, and practically prac-tically perpetual control of all the streets for transportation trans-portation of passengers at a xed fare of five cents. : . Weigh tbenrfin the balance of honest opinion and see who gets the advantage. This franchise question must remain a live one until it Is settled and settled right . I Wbo Ccti tbt Advantage? ' A recent writer, discussing the terms under I which New York's great subway is operated, says: J "Let us lee on what terms the subway is ours ! a public possession. Let us put down, like boys trading marbles, what we give in one pile and what : we get in another. . . "We 'freely give the use of the streets, a pos-- pos-- session of uncounted value, we provide all the money for building, we exempt the company from ' I all taxation, wfr permit it to charge an unchanged i able five-cent fare, no .matter how cheaply the Toad ' can be operated, and then we throw in (like the fa-. ! mous. Dutch' farmer who, when he sold the tail,1 threw In the entire hide), a contract which shuts us off from any real control of t the subway for fifty ' j-eafs and probably seventy-five years. "Oa their part, what do Mr. Belmont and his' associates give in trade for-this splendid possession? posses-sion? , '' .J'Tirst, they pay-the interest on the money wliicb we supplied, about three and one-quarter per ' cent, and they pay one-per cent sinking fund or ' much less than what they would have had to, pay had they borrowed the money in the open matket and undertaken the work as a private enterprise. ' That is all they ' pay everything. The question of equipment may be disregarded, because the city ' must purchase the equipment at the end of the con-: con-: r:ct term. A io the damage cases of adjacent j property owners which most corporations have to |