Social advantages of parks and playgrounds. Reform of some old defects. grounds of dirty streets and dark alleys; they give room 175. Failures of American Cities. More than a quarter of a century ago the great English critic of American political institutions, the Honorable James Bryce, stated that municipal administration was the most conspicuous failure in American government. Great improvements have been made in the last quarter century, but, as stated above, we are still in the experimental period. We are making progress, but we have not solved our problems. Importance The reason why municipal government is less satisfactory of administhan other forms of American government is perfectly plain. tration in municipal First of all, our cities are supposed to enforce, within their government. localities, most of the state laws. We shall notice later that Why American ideas of liberty and government interfere with the administration of laws. one of the most distinctive characteristics of American government is legislative centralization and administrative decentralization (§ 185). Secondly, they must administer all ordinances and rules made by the city authorities for the conduct of purely local affairs. Thirdly, they must supervise or own and manage all public utilities. All these problems are administrative. The administration of law is by far the weakest part of our American system of government. No people has equaled us in comprehending and applying the general principles of government; no other nation has made so great a success of self-government in its varied forms. Yet almost all other civilized peoples administer their laws more carefully and thoroughly than we are willing to do. Poor administration of laws is probably the price which we pay for liberty, as we have wished to interpret that phrase. But the price is a high one when applied to municipal government, which consists of little more than administration. which we must not ex 176. Municipal Reform. — If, therefore, a city expects to Defects remedy what are really characteristics of American government by adopting a new form of municipal organization or pect to by awakening a greater public interest, it is very much eradicate. mistaken. We are deeply attached to our ideas of government and of liberty, and the city happens to be the scape goat. can eliminate. If we cannot adopt new principles of government for the Defects we sake of our cities, we can at least remedy some exceedingly serious evils. We can be willing not only to adopt such a form of city government as will be best suited to the needs of each municipality, but we can also be ready and willing to give more attention to municipal affairs. We can elect officials who thoroughly understand their business. We can demand a much more complete enforcement of law and a much better supervision of municipal activities than we have had in the past. It is unnecessary to enumerate the specific conditions and The past and difficulties which have made good government impossible the future. in cities. Most of these, graft, the ward politician, unscientific financiering, and disregard for the welfare of the city, are gradually disappearing. "The future is bright with promise." MUNICIPAL PUBLIC UTILITIES utilities be the city? owned by 177. The Problem. Possibly the greatest problem Shall public confronting our city governments is the question of public utilities. There are five public utilities which are needed in every city; these are water, gas, electricity, transportation, and telephone service. In cities the householders cannot furnish their own supply of water, and most of them must depend upon others for light, transportation, and tele Reasons why public utili ties are nat olies. phone service. Among a municipality's necessary duties is that of deciding whether these utilities shall be provided by private corporations or by the city, in other words, whether the city shall have municipal ownership of any or all of these utilities. These are not only public utilities because they furnish necessaries which cannot be provided by each citizen for ural monop himself, but because they are natural monopolies for several reasons. First, duplication of plants is expensive. It is much better to have on each street a single water main than to have two or three companies competing over the same area. One public service corporation can give better service than many. Secondly, it is more convenient and satisfactory to have one transportation company or telephone company (§ 183) than to have two or more companies. We have discovered from experience that competition between public utility corporations is absurd in theory and a failure in practice. Thirdly, these are monopolies because the service in most cases cannot be separated from the plant through which it is provided, e.g., we must get gas from pipes which connect us with the gas manufacturing plant. It is, therefore, wisest to accept the fact that public utilities are monopolies and to treat them accordingly. 178. Conditions Affecting the Problem. - There three reasons why our cities should find the best means of dealing with this question of public utilities. (1) Our streets are public property and should be used solely for the good of the people. If we give individuals or corporations permission to lay tracks or water pipes, or to erect poles which carry electric wires, the benefits accruing to the citizens should be in proportion to the privilege granted. (2) The cities should receive an income for the use of the streets for these purposes, whether the business is conducted by the city or by private parties. (3) The citizens should have the benefit of good service at reasonable rates. Need of protecting certain public interests. are In brief the problem is this: by what means is it possible for the city to secure for its people the best service from every solutions for differing point of view? If it is possible to have good management Different of a municipal utility, then municipal ownership would seem to be most desirable. If, on the contrary, a system of conditions. public regulation by the municipal authorities has been worked out rather fully, private ownership is stripped of many disadvantages.1 franchises granted to private corporations. 179. The Question of Franchises. If a public utility Value of is privately owned, the private corporation must secure a franchise from the city council or the state legislature, nowadays usually the former. The conditions under which a franchise may be granted by a city are often stated in general terms in the state law and further described in the city charter. Years ago it was customary to give franchises for long periods without requiring anything in return.2 Modern franchises are not as likely to be secured through the bribery of councilmen or legislatures, especially if a referendary vote may be taken before the franchise is granted. It is customary in larger cities either to sell franchises to the highest bidder or to prescribe that a minimum per cent of the annual gross receipts from the operation of the utility shall be paid into the city treasury. Franchises are no longer perpetual, but run now for a definite number of years, such as twenty, twenty-five, or thirty, or they are "indeterminate." If the granting of franchises is left solely with the city council or commission, the opportunities for bribery, and the temptation for the present administration to sacrifice the city's future for temporary gain to itself, form an appalling menace to good city government. 3 1 Wherever there are state public utility commissions well organized and really protecting public interests, regulation has been adequate. In consequence municipal ownership has made little progress in those states. 2 It is estimated that in some of our larger cities only one quarter of the present value of public utility corporations consists in the actual value of their plants, rolling stock, and other property. That is, three quarters of the present market value of their stocks and securities consist of franchises granted to them for little or nothing by our government, and represented in their stock by "water." 3 If a franchise is indeterminate, no time limit is prescribed but a definite price for the property is fixed, or a method of determining the price arranged, with the right of the city to take over the property on payment of a reasonable amount. Methods of granting modern public utility franchises. Municipal ownership due to large original costs but small ex pense of operation. Necessity for a pure and abundant supply of water. Advantages of public over private ownership. 180. The Water Supply. All but three or four of our larger cities now have municipal ownership of water or have made arrangements for public ownership of the present private plants. The business of supplying water is different from that of most other public utilities in this respect, that the cost of operating a water plant is relatively very small; and we should notice that it is in connection with operation that municipal ownership has been most defective. On the other hand, the initial cost of a water system is usually quite high.1 The real reason for municipal ownership of municipal water supply is not economic but social. Water is far more a public necessity than even light, transportation, or telephone service. The ordinary water supply is used for drinking by a very large percentage of the city dwellers. Every household needs an additional supply and every house with grounds uses a large amount. It is, therefore, necessary and desirable that the water should be not only pure, cheap, and abundant, but that it should be carried to all households within the city limits. Since epidemics of typhoid and some other diseases have been traceable to impure supplies of water, cities are willing to go great distances to get pure water 2 and to incur considerable expense in installing filtering plants, whereas private companies, interested in profits, would do neither. Moreover, many cities have been farsighted and have secured sources which will give abundant water in decades to come, whereas private companies were far more content to look after only the immediate needs of the community. Last but not least, municipal ownership and management has not only reduced the price of water in most communities, but has accumulated a surplus for improvement and 1 It is necessary to go long distances in order to find a lake or series of streams from which a supply of pure water can be obtained. The cost of getting this water supply and its watersheds, the great expense of constructing conduits for a long distance, of building large reservoirs, and of laying a network of pipes along the streets makes the original outlay very heavy. 2 For example, Los Angeles, California, has gone more than two hundred miles. |