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Show 1 1 Municipal Ownership No Blessing I Special to The Tribune. ,' NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 3. Tho little cjty of Jfouroc, Ln has at last awakened- fr.om a dream to tho discovery that. municipal ownership is a far- more serious problem than it thought whoa 1 ii accidentally stumbled into it; a few f years ngo. At first "everything was j' lovely.' Tho praise and advertising i Eonroc got wer.o pleasant, and it was t very proud of its municipal street rail- road, light and water plants, and of the i ', great distinction of being tho first city ju Louisiann to lead tho way on the ! ' now politico-economic path. All these j-' improvements were applauded to tho jj skies, and the most brilliant stories of their' success wero sent broadcast over ; the country. , Tho machinery has been long onough in operation, two to four j'cars, to test - it. It is now frankly admitted that it is not working as well or as smoothly as it did originally, and the taxpayers and public generally aro complaining of the increased taxation, tho heavy and greatly increased city debt, tho i 1 poor municipal service rendered, tho ; , excessive cost for such service, which have como with municipal ownership. 1 In the municipal ownership propa ganda and panegyrics with which the !; countrv has been flooded lately, Mou- j " roe (which is ono of the stock cases i cited), is given as a town of 15,000 j people. As a matter of fact, it had 542S at tho time of the last census. 1900; a majority of them woro negroes; and as it is an old and steadily growing citv, not a "boom" town, it may havo between 7500 and S000 todaj It has always boon an enterprising, energetic and prosperous town, with citizenship of a high order, and wns advancing rapidly before municipal ownership struck it. Six years ago Monroo came suddonly into a very large income which noarly doubled tlie revenues. It had been a "dry" or prohibition town, but prohibition pro-hibition had been a mockery. Whisky was drunk by tho hundreds of gnllons, but the town got no rovenue from the snle. This policy wns abandoned for high license, and in 1000 tho licenso was fixed at $1000 for each saloon. As there were twenty-two saloons tho tax yielded $22,000 a year a large amount for a town of 5500 people, and with an assessed valuation of only $1,S00,000 at, that timo. Tho high license coming suddonly enabled en-abled Monroo to make a numbor of improvements, im-provements, and these whetted its appetite ap-petite for more. Four years ago tho town bought out the water works for $60,000, bonds being issued for that purpose, of which $53,000 are outstanding. out-standing. The voters were induced to vote an extra tax for improvements, and again to authorize an issue of $153,000 of bonds, nearly 0 per cent of tho assessed value of property, also for improvements. Thore wns a temporary tem-porary rain of gold, during which the salaries of tho Mayor, Aldermen and other city officials wore raisod, electric plants wero purchasod, municipal street railways installed, and Monroo gradually drifted into an advanced policy 6f municipal ownership Its people are now beginning to count tho , loss. Tho lato Louisiana Legislature announced an-nounced a programme of lax reduction for the State, parishes and towns, rendered possible by tho recent great advance in values. Tho State tax was cut and so wero tho town taxes, the town councils prohibited from levying more than a certain maximum rate. Against this roliof Monroo was compelled to protest on tho ground that it had spent so much on improvements, improve-ments, and had issued so many bonds, that it could not come down to tho stnndard tax fixed for tho other Louisiana towns; and it had to bo excepted from this reduction. The new city budget of Monroo calls for a total expenditure of $192,880, or eight times what it was Ion years ago. This is a very heavy expenditure for a Southern town of 7500 to 8000 population, popula-tion, half of them nogroes, and with a lax valuation today of $3,770,555. It is $25.05 por capita for all, men, women and children, if the population is 7500; and $24.11 if it is 8000. As tho nogroes pay few taxes, the white heads of fannlios have to pay from $200 to $250 each for the pleasure of municipal munici-pal ownership. Tho revenue amounts to 5.3 per cent on the assessed valuation of tho town, and it is supplemented by a recent bond issue of $155,000. In anBwor to the many complaints that havo recently -been made to these conditions, tho city administration points to tho improvements the pooplo navo roceived; thanks to municipal ownership. Tho town now owns Hs own waterworks, water-works, it is snid; but, on tho other hnnd, the prices for same aro higher than those paid in other Louisiana towns of tho same size, although the water is no hotter, being unfiltcrcd nnd obtained from tho Ouachita river, which drains Monroo and a largo and populated section of Louisiana and Arkansas. It owns a municipal lighting plant, it is boasted; but the pooplo pay higher for lighting than those of otlicr Louisiana towns served by private companies. It has a municipal street railroad; but tho fare, for a very short distance, is five cents, as elsewhere, and tho service no better. On the other hand, tho town has a sewerago system, which tho Monroe Star, tho leading papof iment, and the exponent of P0Pul than declares, 'is( at tunc (?) Sciii-M StTrfhV declares, ''StmStfie Star further com-plains, com-plains, "the Monroe City ndmimfliro lion gave as an ouse whj o joo were not cut in the sheets, ioanodf ditches and gutters wore not - a; that all the available citj oot employed in unishing Street railroad. Tho nn, bon. lions exist, today as ci"sl.lonfc to Tho weeds and grass are u t to tako the sidewalks and W'"-8fq m"'Tl the gutters on the front strce la J simply filling and will on . become unbearable.' fnnrne it Municipal ownership in Mo njJ will be seen, is accompanied by .seV" inconveniences. The cleaning of trcctb and gutters, a necessary nun ; inn duty, is neglected bocnuso .the citj m borers, who ought to aitonJ worknro busy working, on the muni cipal railway and drainage and sewerage, sew-erage, among tho first, obligations of n city-are inad condition because the money needed for thorn. has been . sc for tho erection of municipal lighting plant, municipal theaters, etc. 1 The cost of the city government has been greatly increased bocauso of rau- I nicipaT ownership, for tho ad""1"1" tion claimed its share: anr J the tow" secured a new charter from tho Louisiana Louis-iana Legislature. The Mayor now receives" re-ceives" $4000, nearly a dollar .per capita, a big salary in rural Louisiana ami moro than any other Mayor gets in the Stato, except New Orlonns. Th5ro.niF in addition a Mayor pro torn paid $lnUU, I with perquisites running the salary up i nr other Louisiana to $2500, whereas no otnor city has or needs two & Aldermen, got to j shrove. whereas they roc ns n 0 a3 Mon-port, Mon-port, more than to ice ajnr Qr ; roc nm0ffic"' under municipal owner-leans. owner-leans. In nc, u m from two ship, salaries in werc before , to ton times what uu-f "the blessing' .gj what ifc has elsewhere in 9'Jn- . the appcar. lcd to noht.ca is a ce f i anco of &0C1V thn nomination of So-first So-first timo, and tho: norm cialist candidates for uic t-i 1 1 nnd Policy Jurjf I"0"1 (loctrino of further extension ofthc to ia mnnicipal owne hPnaolcctin, CBn(H. 33esnin a Town'wlSe they were never, llCrtrS0cnrfcelv to bo wondered at don.UXtt nSJ-ifca p e cr be(l for all the ?ri liC l! entire world, but, ,11s that .Hit t no nnurner- . like other soveieicn cii rf3 (1 ;ncffcct. I ab o coinpla nts , I - has n tionable vSSI S -ill show remains to.be seen if y fn!nl ownership continues that ion? wl th i improbable, as it prom-&o prom-&o c'thc leading issue in tho next ! own election and tho pcoplo will have .chance to paaTT |