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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 12, 1903)
Franchise Question in Cities By Prof. Edward liemis of Cleveland IT THE franchise question In f" I cities Is meant the relation that -i ., .J Htlna vir or should bear, to . .'iffi'l "treet milways, 1 ghUng. water, letepiwurB that receive rights from the city to lay pipes or conduits under the streets or to occupy rights-of-way upon them or over them. It Is recognised that these enter prises are vital to the development of the .modern elty ami tho welfare of its citizens. The health as well as the conn fort of a corosiunHy depends upon the extent to which cheap and convenient transporta tion is furnished to suburbs, and nn abundance of light, pure water, etc., are supplied to the streets end building. The larger the city grows, the larger even the per capita use of such public utilities, Which have become public necessities and are in tbeir nature monopolies. The fart that they must took to the city for rights In the streets, and that in cities of much size they are able to earn a much larger return on the cost of their physical prop erty than is the caae in other business In volving similar slight risk, places these monopolies In most Intimate relations with the city governments and taxing bodies. The owners may be our best, as they are often oa: ablest, citizens, but they have a tremendously larger temptation to secure weak and inefficient city govern ments than have physic! ins, merchant'", manufacturers, wage earners or other social classes. No other business, unless it be saloons, or school text bo.iks, is at onco so profitable and so dependant for Us continued success upon the favor of all city governments as are public utilities. Every one is familiar with the scandals that have attended these, enterprise, in nearly all our large cities, although In few cases has so much publicity attended the.-n as In the recent cases of St Louis and Philadelphia. But It Is more Important to consider some ways of Improving the situ ation than to further unfold the grewsomo tale of existing demoralization. It may be caid in passing, however, that the fault of this condition has not always lain In tho management of these companies, but often with unscrupulous city councils. The fault seems to be rather In the nature of tho case than in any particular badness of character in the men in charge or lhj;e public necessities. Turning to remedies, there U much to loarn from the recommendations a this subject of the National Municipal league, in Its famous Municipal Program, or Mdel I MONO the royalties, ex-royalties and other people of title who are expected to visit America next year during the Louisiana Fur chase exposition Is the Mahara nee Jar Mahomed Rao, a shrewd, little woman of sixty-two, with keen, bright yen, who lives In Orenburg, Russia, where she holds Oriental court In the biggest bouse in Iowa and is treated with Immense respect by the officials of the czar. The story of her life is a veritable fairy tale. Once she was pretty Alice Clifton, the daughter of a British soldier who served "John Company" in the cantonments at Delhi, in the old pro-mutiny days. Now sha Is a dethroned queen, a queen of exile, a monarch without a crown, like her brothers and sifters la the right divine, the French Bourbons, the Hanoverian Guelphs, the Bonaparte, and Ranavalona of the more ancient house of Madagascar. A hundred romances rolled into one would not make up the life of AUc Clifton. As a child she played, half-clad, la the mad of the barrack yard ha many an In dian station, while all around her men lay lead of the cholera or the plague, or were brought la dead from battle with the fierce hill tribes. Then, one day, a bearded mon arch, covered with jewels, reached down and lifted her from the mud to a shining throne and took her away beyond the Indus and over The Roof ef the World" to be a qoeea In a strange country. That little, old woman has reigned, an absolute mon arch, over a turbulent people and carried life and death rn her nod. Bite has led thousands te battle and inspired them tn the heat of the conflict with her own Indomitable courage. Now tne czar, who holds an her lands and people beneath the lash of the Cossack -knout, sends her all the money she needs, from his treasury tn St. Petersburg. And ahe receives the money, spending It right royally and "playing" that It Is tribute from a conquered prince. So it Is, In one sense, for, though she could not aland against the armies of Russia when they broke into her territory, she conquered from the conqueror, by her wit and tntelli . ganco, most advantageous terms of ca pitulation. The turbulent romance of Alice Clifton's life, which is now ending aa peacefully, be gan away back la 1841, when the East Iadia company ruled India and bad un army of its own. Her father was an en listed rasa in that army ami was stationed at Delhi, where tha grand mogul sUll sat n the peacock throne In his ancient cap ital He was sUH grand mogul In narao. Charter and Froposals of Necessary State legislation. It was there proposed that the lUt should have very little e mi trot of the subject ouUrtde of a limitation ot tha life of franchises to twenty or twenty re years, but It should throw tha re sponsibility upon tha communities con cerned. They should have the light en tirely untrammelled by state legls a:ion to either own and operate or leiaj any of these utilities, and In case of a lease to fix such terms as they may wish and bs able to secure from the operating com panies. Carrying out this thought somewhat further than the league has dona, the writer would urge that all cities should arrange so soon as possible to have all their franchises of a certain type, such as street railways, expire at the same time, and should therefore refuse to grant any franchises for any definite term, but should provide that at sny tune, or soon as state legislation should be secured rendering It legal, cities might have the right to boy these enterprises on paying the structural value plus some fair percentage, perhaps S per cent, to cover net monopoly value, hot such value as might accrue to such business merely from its being a "going concern." Bach power of purchase, how over, and such leases and renewals, should always be referred to a popular vote by the council, or should be subject to such s vote whenever 10 or 15 per cent of the voters might slsrn a petition demanding such a referendum. It is not here meant that all cities should at once proceed to the ownership and operation of such public necessities; in fact, it Is believed that the time Is not yet ripe for this, in many places, and that the people would not vote for K. A somewhat general belief In civil service reform, or the merit system, and the ability of the people to own their own government, and not submit it to be "boss-ridden" la the prime requisite for any large success In municipal ownership. AH that is 'here con tended is that every community shoold have the right to determine its own policy in these matters, and In taxation for local purposes of such public necessities. When communities once possess that right It will not be Important In many cases to actually exercise it, as It now sppears to be. When Nashville thus secured the right to Issue $fioe.OO of bonds to construct a gas plant in 1SDJ the price of gas fell from JX1Q to Jlo. and has subsequently been reduced to a much lower figure. A similar decline Dinah Shadd's Daughter, Who Became oyaltlcs. ex-royalties but to m that 41. ... , but to see that be did not try to be so In fact "John Company" keDt a srarrlson r Delhi. Private Clifton lived In the "married men's quarters," and bis wife was the Dinah Shadd of the cantonment, known all over Delhi for her sprightliness, her good humor and her good looks. But Clifton was not Jealous of her. He had no cause to be. With all her attractions the wife was a proper woman and sho could send the presumptuous young recru'ts to the right about with a ringing box sn the ear that they remembered. She even knew how to snub tha native princes when they leered at her from their gilded howdahs moving through the streets on the backs of their gorgeously caparisoned elephants, and she likewise knew how to make the wild young officers keep their proper distance. Mrs. Clifton was not only beautiful and sprightly, she was also very discreet. When Private CHfto., got drunk she could handle him better than the whole guard, and she gave hfm strong tea the morning after along with her curtain lecture. Little Alice, her daughter, played about with the other soldiers children, an ordinary looking ehlld, little re garded, until one day, when she was barely If, the whole cantonment discovered all at once that Private Clifton's girl was beautiful. And every day her beauty seemed to grow, until all the good looks of her mother were as noth ing compared with the marvelous perfection of the beauty of the child. She had not only Inherited good looks and Intelligence from her mother, but she had added to them ambition and a certain refinement of manner. Private Clifton and his wife were trou bled. It Is not good for a private so'.dier, stationed In a far-away place, to have a daughter too beautiful and too ambitious. Trouble is apt to come of It. So Private CHfton kept his daughter much in the house and hoped that she would get over her notions, marry a sergeant, or at least a corporal, and settle down. Then one day all Delhi put on its gala attire to welcome Jar Mahomed Rao Khan, the ruler of the central Asian Khanate far away beyond the mountains to the north west, who was te visit the grand mogul. The entrance of the rao khan Into the cap ital of the Moguls and his passage from the Caehmere Oat up to the splendid pa! ace of flhah Jehan was a scene of splendor like that witnessed when a predecessor of Jar Mahomed, the khaa abdalla, came over the mountains to find a bride tn Delhi. The houses were bang with priceless tapestries. took place In Baltimore within the past three years. A company that declared that it could not sell street arc lights In that city for even as low a price as $125 per year per. light without loss, found It en tirely possible to sell at a profit (or less than tin, as soon as the city had secured the right to famue bonds for a municipal plant. The so-called Massachusetts method of dealing with city monopolies is not as effective as this would be likely to be. In Massachusetts no franchises are granted to public utilities, yet H Is practically im possible for a city to take any action of any kind In dealing witn them, without the approval of the state board which is very conservative la its regard for vested Interests, wtflle the state legislature often shows still greater conservation. Where franchises are not to expire at a certain definite date In the near future, but at different times on different lines as Is specially the case with street railways In many cities, and where valuable routes for new lines have not yet oecn secured by the old company or companies. It would often be possible to do wnat Major John son has undertaken to do la Cleveland, via., secure by competitive bidding some new company to bid for the unoccupied streets where street railway facilities are desired, and bid under specifications which ch.11 for public puchase at 10 or U per cent advance over the phsicai value when ever a vote of the people shall call for It. Such a company la then In position to take over existing, expiring grants of okl com panies, as their franchises run out. and to do so under favorable terms to the city. Municipalities having successful water works plants could well afford to establish municipal electric lighting plants In con nection therewith for both street and arc lighting. In such cases It would be fair to buy out the old companies at their fair physical value plus 10 or IS per cent, If they care to sell. The trouble with existing conditions of private ownership Is that city councils and other branches of the city government are under such suspicion of undue influence that able men of high character will not accept office therein, as they will do on hospital, educational or parkvboarsJs. Hence the various branches of a city government filled up with weak If not actually oorrupt men. Such men are not only Incompetent r unwilling to deal properly with monopoly questions, but are too weak to deal ade quately with other problems, such as while through the streets "groups of beau- tiful children went tfiii - ,mw uwai uc Ilcious flowers around, till every part of th de- y was as fragrant as If a caravan of musk had passed through It." From the gardens In tho suburbs to the imperial pal ace it was one unbroken line of splendor. The gallant appearance of the rajahs and the Mogul lords, distinguished by those In signia of the emperor's favor, the feathers of the egret of Cashmere In their turbans and the small, silver-rimmed kettledrums at the bows of their saddles; the costly armor of the cavaliers, who vied with the guards of the khan In the brightness of their silver battle axes and the masslve ness of their maces of gold; the glittering or gilt pineapple, on tho tops of palan quins; the embroidered trappings of the elephants, bearing their backs gorgeous howdahs, made the picture which brought all Delhi out to see. In the procession Mahomed Rao Khnn rode alone upon a milk-white Arabian stallion, his saddle encrusted with gems and a great diamond star Bhinlng In the front of his tan Astrachan cap. He was a middle-aged man, stern of appearance and sharp of eye. As he let his glance roam over the throng which lined the street he caught sight of Alice Clifton standing with a group of other children who had come from the cantonment to see the show. He looked at her steadily and boldly as he passed, and Alice let her glance fall modestly beneath his eagle gaze. Her cheap, coarse frock and her poor little ornaments seemed so mean and squalid In the midst of all that splendor. That evening Alice had a birthday party for which her mother made tea and cakes and told the children stories of English fleids and English daisies. But A Hoe de clared that English fields and daisies did not interest her, and that it would bo tupid living In a place where one met nobody except white people all the time. She was bora in India and wanted to stay mere ana. perhaps, soma day become a Aianaranee ana ride oa aa elephant gilded tusks. nth iBvea while they talked a rumor ran through the cantonment that aa officer of me court was there with a m for Private Clifton from Mahomed Rm .-, saying that he wanted to marry the beau tiful girl whom he had seen that day la the street as he passed along. Alice Jumped for Joy the fairy yrwiee had come Just as she had expected he would. But private Clifton and Ms wife war raot so enthusiastic Jsr Mabwsaed schools, streets, rublle buildings, parks, eta, whk-h are In no ny connected with thesa monopolies. The utter rooblnness and amus ing Incapacity of many a city government Is thus accounted for. On the other hand, the tendency under public management, as often seen In tha case of the water worts. Is more and more to exclude politics and enlist the sympathy of the taxpayer In economical, honest ad ministration. Where private management prevails, as prevail It undoubtedly will In moat places, and In respect to most monopolies save water and riot-trie light, for some years to come, efficient service and low charges should be sought by tho community rather than high taxes. Low charges by tbeso monopolies improve the standard of living of the many and even Increase the business of the companies to such an extent as to prevent any large fall of profits with re duction of charge. To make taxing bodies of gnu and street railway companies where the alternative of reducing charges Is at hand Is a great social blunder. Where, how ever, as in many cases, there are legnl difficulties In the way of public regulation of charges. It la only fair and Just to as sess and tax theso bodies In at least tho same ratio of the market value of their securities and their net earnings as pro valla in the case of city and village real estate and the estates of orphans in the probate court. Kven a further and special franchise tax would be ethically and eco nomically sound. Some state constitutions now permit this, if once public sentiment makes the demand. In most cities today however, Uie tax on the average man's home la far higher than on tho true value as a going conoern of the lighting and railroad monopolies that go by his door. Until the people are ready for a busi ness or for a merit system of administra tion of public utilities m public hands, and un-.ll they are willing to take the Urns and energy away from their money-making In order truly to own their own government, about Uie best that can be hoped for Is the securing for every city such home rule and such power te regulate and tag these utilities as has 'been above suggested. When that is done, then to some degree at least private companies will be on their good behavior, and will seek to deserve that continuance of public favor which would become absolutely necessary for their continued profitable enjoyment cf their rights of the streets. Cleveland, O. Oueen Khan was a much married man already, and It was not seemly that the daughter of a British soldier should be one of the household of an Asiatic, prince and friend of the Grand Mogul though he was. So the negotiations took some time. Finally, the khaa said that his other women were not his real wives, but hand maidens after the style of David's com forters, and, at any rate, he would put them all awny pension them off and hav but one wife, thereafter, according to the custom of the white man, If the beautiful Knglsh girl would only become his queen. The result of this declaration was ap parent a few weeks later when Alice mar ried and departed In a litter with rose colored curtains from Delhi, accompanied by her lord and a great cavalcade, pasalng across the snow mountains and beyond Bokhara into Turkestan, where she became queen. Not long afterward the great Sepoy mu tiny broke out. Private Clifton was killed in battle and the grand megul was tried in his own palace on a change of treason against the English. Mrs. Clifton ocaped after many peril and went home to liva among the i&tglish fields and duUties oa a liberal allowance sent her by her royal daughter. For ten years Queen Alice reigned as tha consort of Rao Khan and was Intrusted by him with almost an equal sliare in the gov ernment At the end of that Urn Jar Ma homed slept with his fathers and Alice Clifton had herself proclaimed sole and ab solute ruler of the khanate. There wer aspiring ministers and near rrlatioss of Jar Mahomed who tried to dispute th throne with Iter, but A Hoe bad learned tha arts of Asiatic government, and what hap pened to the ambitious one who sought to contend with her Is not reoerded In history. Hut something definite happened to them and they troubled Queen Alice wo more. Once firmly established as queen !n ber own right, Alice set about the work of a re form administration. She opened new cara vaa routes, built new baaar and repaired the old ones, and repealed bad laws and made good ones In their places. 8he in creasd her army and tried to put It on a modern footing, she was the best soldier In her dominions, for was she not a ehlld of the regiment, and of an Kngllsh regl metit at that? The ruler of a neighboring khanate went to war against her, thinking to make short work of a woman general, but Alice led ber army aguatst him In person, met Mis (ContU A mm fag jrtftosaj 1