Salt Lake Tribune | 1901-03-10 | Page 21 | A Hopeful View

HOPEFUL VIEW Richard T Ely professor of political economy In the University of Wisconsin Wiscon-sin contributes to the Alarch number of the North American Review a strong article In advocacy of Municipal Ownership Own-ership of Natural Monopolies The public utilities to which Prof Ely refers re-fers are water light and transponta thai which are called monopolies becaUse be-caUse In their case we cannot have effective ef-fective and permanent competition In respect to these utilities there are only two alternatives Public control of private corporations on the one hand and public owinirship with the consequent conse-quent public control on thc other Ether alternative presents immense diiuciiltles but all things taken Into account Prof Ely insists that public ownership with public control promises in the long run the best results Prof Uiy does not anticipate evil results from increasing municipal functions lie says As we travel over this country and observe the course of local government govern-ment do we not find that on time whole It has Improved as Its functions have Increased and as it appeals directly di-rectly and effectively to larger and larger numbers Thc case of England is a very clear one Tf we go Uack lif ty years we shall probably find that thc government of English cities was quite au bad as ours is now During the past fifty years there has been a continuous Improvement and this has accompanied continual expansion of municipal activity while at the same time through an extension of the suf frabe English municipal government has become Increasingly democratic In character We must hesitate about establishing es-tablishing a casual connection between these two movements but is It unnatural unnat-ural lo suppose that there may be such a connection When there Is a great deal at stake when thc city has much to do good government of the cities appeals to all rightminded persona and If there Is no division of Interests through private ownership we ought In a civilized community to expect to hint all honest and Intelligent people working together for good government A tangible basis is afforded the masses for an appeal for higher interests and reliance Is placed upon municipal solf help Instead of asking other people to do things for them namely great private corporations the people are told lo help themselves