Show LOCAL SB1FGOVEENMENT D CHICAGO Her election being over Chicago Is aroused over a terrible Infamy that the Illinois legislature proposes to put upon her This Infamy is known a the Humphrey bills These bills for which the street railway companies of Chicago are fighting and against which the people and press of Chicago are protesting create a board of street and elevated railroad commissioners the board to consist of three members who are to be appointed by the governor These commissioners are to hold office for four years They are empowered to regulate the time of running cars to prescribe the greatest time or distance dis-tance which may intervene between the running of cars or trains to see that the cars are suitable comfortable and properly heated to fix the maximum fx maxmum rate of fare to report to the city council coun-cil or board of trustees when a new line or an extension is proposed whether the proposed line is necessary for the convenience of the public to authorize a change of motive power or the use of a particular power to fix the maximum rate of speed at which cars may travel and to do several other less Important things They also provide that every street railway ordinance or-dinance which is nqwin force or which may hereafter be enacted shall be regarded re-garded as a contract and shall be I treated as such in all the courts of the state and that every ordinance in I force on the first in forc frst Tuesday September I Septem-ber 1897 shall be extended for 40 years from that dale I is further provided in these bills that no railway situated in a county with a population of 100000 or more shall enjoy this 40year extension unless I un-less I has paid to the proper officers on or before the first Tuesday in next September a sum of money that shall be equal to two thousand dollars I per mile or a proportionate sum for every fraction of a mile for each and every mile and fraction of a I mile in length of street or highway occupied oc-cupied by the said railroad under the said ordinance so extended The provisions pro-visions in regard to railroads situated In counties having less than 100000 in naulants are the same except tnat the rate to be paid is 50 per mile instead in-stead of 2000 The bills impose upon street railways a ta of 3 per cent annually nually on their gross receipts and relieve re-lieve these railways from l other taxes with the proviso that the corporate cor-porate authorities of any city town or I village granted permission for the construction con-struction of any street railway shall I have the power to Impose a reasonable license fee for every car operated and Impose such other terms as may be stipulated and agreed upon in the ordinance or-dinance granting such permission Such in the main are the provisions of these Humphrey bills that have stirred the people of Chicago to their very depths and that caused leading citizens irrespective of party to come together in an indignation meeting last Sunday afternoon to protest against the contemplated outrage On the stage I were Mayor Harrison Alderman Har lan who ran against him Franklin H Head and others equally eminent in Chicago public life Mayor Harrison I sounded the keynote of the meeting and echoed the sentiments of that great I gathering when he said i The American people believe in home rule The Democratic party of which I I am proud to say I am a representative represent-ative applause believes in home rule The Republican party believes in home I rule The Independent party of Chicago Chi-cago represented here today believes I in home rule Applause All good citizens I citi-zens of Chicago believe in I Yvre believe i be-lieve that these matters should remain I with us to settle We are the people I who are Interested We are thepeople whose pocketbooks will be touched We are the people who will suffer becaus of bad transportation in the future I t nwewmt i and as we are the people who will suffer suf-fer we believe that we should not only I have the right to legislate for ourselves our-selves but if I is necessary to appoint a commission that that commission should be appointed by Chicago people who know what Chicago needs These bills will deprive the people of Chicago of a most valuable and important im-portant right of local selfgovernment This law naturally puts all the streets in Chicago into the hands of a commission commis-sion of three men said 11 Head And thess three men are to be appointed by the governor He may select them from any part of the state he desires and he may he governed by any motives j he chooses in their selection Already i the bills have passed one branch of the legislature and may pass the other i j That they would receive the governors approval there Is not the least doubt i the power to be placed in his hands is I too great and too seductive for him to I veto them I AH over the country there is a very I strong tendency on the part of legis i latures to deprive the people of the j larger cities of the nynt of local self government It ha hen l > the curse of i New York City and now Chicago is threatened with the same curse Even j the people of this city witnessed last winter an attempt to have a police and fire commission law passed by the legislature leg-islature that would empower the governor gov-ernor to appoint the members thereof Fortunately for the peiple of this city it failed to pass the legislature Though the author of it was dieted as a Democrat I Demo-crat it was about the most unDemocratic unDemo-cratic measure introduced in the legislature legis-lature The people of Chicago are making a fight for the maintenance of local self government May they triumph I |