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Show CHASING RAINBOWS In times of degression everyone is so busy trying to make a living that agitation and interference with indutsry is discontinued. In times of prosperity the reverse is the rule. There is always a theoretical dreamer, agitator or politician who feels that the government gov-ernment could take over a prosperous industry and operate it to better advantage than the owners who build it up. In Europe where conditions have been bad, a movement seems to be gaining headway to turn government operated utlities back toprivate enterprise and management, this is undoubtedly in order to relieve the taxpayers of enormous deficits piled up under political politi-cal management. Mussolini in Italy is reported as having laid off 40,000 men on the railways of that country without interfering with the service and he has come out definitely for the return of public utilities to private management. In this country where prosperity reigns and where taxes are not quite so high as in European countries, we have a decided agitation agita-tion at the present time in state legislatures and in our national Congress for enlargement of government functions in the public utility utili-ty and transportation field. Our people had some costly object lessons in government management and, with European countries and Russia returning to private control of industries in order to secure efficiency and reduce taxation, it is rediculous for this nation to strl in experimenting with either government operation or ownership of industries. Our next-door neighbor, Canada, offers us an illustration close at home in the development of hydro-electric power by the promet of Ontario. This development has been hailed as a great boor, to the farmer and the last word in progressive public ownership. But when one reads over the reports of the progress of this project he marvels that an enlightened people so long remain ignorant of the skeleton in their own closet. The O ntario development is the old story. The people were told the cost would be a certain amount which has been greatly exceeded. ex-ceeded. They were told that the projects would be self-supporting from rates paid by the users of the power, and they are not. Port Arthur is an illustration. It was originally securing power from a priv-ate company at $20 per h.p. That private company was, receiving from the hy.dro-electric commission $14 per h.p. for "power the commission in turn sold to Fort Williams. It is fair to presume that the private company was making money. The two municipalities referred to contracted with the government for development de-velopment of power that was to cost them substantially less than $20. Fort Henry has been taking the government-produced pow-! er for over a year at a cost of $25, a part of which she refuses and has a legally collectible balance of $44,000 due the government and the government can hold her to a cost of $60 per h.p., which is necessary to be paid if the enterprise is to become self-supporting, j In discussing the situation, a report which' is the result of an investigation instituted by Fort Williams, a town which is under contract to take thi3 same government-developed power in 1926, says : "If the terms of the agreement between the hydro-electric commission com-mission and the city of Port Arthur were carried out, Port Arthur would have to pay the entire deficit in the form of higher rates for power but if it do so, its rates would be more than $60 per h.p., a rate which it is clear it could not pay. Mr. G. T. Clarkson, the auditor of the hydro-electric commission, states that the ccrmrnissior. has no funds out of which to meet the deficit. "Sir Adam Beck in reply to our inquiry as to how the deficit should be met said: I think the government is morally bound to assume that out and out all together.' 'Question: 'Assume it and pay it out of what?' Answer: Out of the treasury of the province of Ontario.' It is no wonder that Fort Williams i3 worrying about its contract con-tract for power under such an arrangement. If the project is self-supporting, self-supporting, as the taxpayers were told it would be, rates will have' to be higher than the municipalities can bear. If it is not self-supporting and the deficits are paid out of the general treasury, as Sir Adam Beck suggests, it means that taxpayers tax-payers who have absolutely no benefits from the power must assume the burden for a privileged few. The moral that can be drawn from these simple illustrations' is clenr there is no doubt but what political management does the best it can and government power development is much heller than r.o power development at all,, but it has been clearly dcinou .raled time and again that private management under proper government govern-ment regulation is far superior to government operation and control. con-trol. VI hy load our own r,tuntry with dcad-horte propositions ihat have proven a financial failure vhercver they have been tried? |