Nappanee High School - Napanet Yearbook (Nappanee, IN)

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instances might be given where municipal ownership lias reduced the price to a level of from fifty-two to seventy-five cents per thousand cubic feet as against twice that rate by private companies. What Is true of gas Is true of electric light. Chicago can give its own experience In this particular manner. The city’s municipal electric lighting plant was started eight years ago. lie-fore this plant was established the private companies exacted as high as one hundred and twenty-five dollars per arc lamp a year. At the latest and most modern municipal lighting station street lamps are operated at a cost of thirty-eight dollars per lamp. In many foreign cities the people own and control their electric lighting plants and find it cheaper and far more profitable than to have private corporations own them. The extent ion of municipal ownership has been stubbornly resisted in t lie I 'lilted States by the wealthy private corporations. Kvery important A merican city lias been within the last few years, and most of them are at this time, afflicted with the “traction problem” and franchise has nowhere proved to l e more than a temporary abatement of municipal ills. The only cities where the “traction problem” has entirely disappeared an the Kuropean cities which have municipalized their tramway services. One hundred and sixty-six cities In Great Britain own and operate their street car systems. Berlin lias given the municipal system a trial and reports are now so favorable that only recently one million dollars has been set aside for the extension of the municipal system. The London County Council Is reaching out to Incorporate all the tramways in the municipal system. There municipal ownership lias given relief to the tax-payers, reduced fares: Increased wages and other equally important results. In Glasgow results as good as those just mentioned were obtained. The city of Manchester owns and operates its own street cars and does it, too, on a paying basis. Street care fare is two cents in Manchester. 2li At this rate the municipal tramways last year paid all expenses and cleared ♦247,350 net. Everyone who has given the question any attention at all knows that gas in our cities is one-third too high: that if justice were done a three cent car fare would come as a matter of course?, and that electric light ciiarges would drop one-half were the evil union between the respectable director and the corrupted boss rent in twain. A demand is being made of the corporations for reduced charges for all public services and for better education, more libraries, tlie addition of public bdtlis, gymnasiums, music and amusements in addition to all the city now provides, and not far away in the near future the old age pension. Chicago about a year ago opened a so-called municipal museum and It is a success, (treat benefits are being realized from the public play-grounds. Eight vacation schools were successfully conducted in Chicago during the summer of 1WM. There was a special camp for crippled children and a department for the blind. The healte of the city and Its cleanliness are interests of all citizens and the beauty of the city should be a common ideal. The success of municipal ownership in the cities of some of our eastern countries has sounded the knell of private ownership of public utilities in the countries across the sea and has produced satisfactory results in nearly every Instance. Municipal ownership has come to our country as to others and it has come to stay. The American | eople are thinking people. What Europeans have done Americans can do. As some one has already stated: “The people of the I’nlted States are determined that their exploitation by private utility corporations shall cease. They are determined that the property and power held for the good of all shall ’be conducted for all. Ana the certain fate of thuse officials w ho continue to defy the people's w ill can easily Is read. They are composing their own political obituaries.

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Falls are two thousand seven hundred feet high. The first Fall is sixteen hundred feet: the second, seven hundred feet; the lower one. four hundred feet. The valley is on the Pacitic slope of the Sierra Nevada. In some places its steep sides are about half a mile in height. There is also another place made up of nature’s wonders, in 1872 Congress reserved a strip of land sixty-ttve miles long and fifty-live miles broad in the Rocky Mountains, known as Yellowstone Park, for the enjoyment and bene-tit of the people. It has most all the wild animals, beautiful trees and foliage. hot springs, lakes, mountains, falls, and rivers. The whole forming a beautiful place for the lovers of nature. Near Louisville, Kentucky, there is a world renowned cave. This covers eight thousand square miles. The natural arch that admits one to Mammoth cave has a span of seventy feet, and above it there is a cascade which leaps fifty feet and then disappears. It was first discovered in Ihoi» by a hunter named Hutchins while hunting fora wounded l ear. it shows few tract's of dynamic disturbances but has been changed since Into many caverns of which Mammoth is the greatest. Thus these wonders of nature and many othere are distributed over America. so that every man may enjoy the same pleasures, practically by only stepping out of his door. This Mi nicipal Problem in The Unitkd States By IDA P1PPENCER jMt has been demonstrated in both national and municipal experiences that W the greatest abuses of corporate power have been in connection with public utilities. And since nearly all these public utilities excepting the steam-railway systems, express companies and telegraplis are found within the limits of our cities, they are proper subjects for municipal control. Hut for years these have been owned and controlled by private companies. Money-making lias been the sole aim of the private operators of public utilities. Private corporations owning and operating these public conveniences and necessities conveniences that represent the property and power held by all for the good of all have been conducted for the single object of gathering in the greatest possible profit and have clung to the principle that the most effective way of gaining the largest dividends for the stockholders is to give the cheapest service for as high a charge as can lie extracted from a community. Throughout our country people have encountered and suffered the abuses which have arisen from tills monopoly by private parties. If one wishes to purchase gas or elect ric-light, or to utilize the street-ears, the steam-cars, the telegraph or telephone lie finds himself deprived of tlie right of free contract. He must accept such service as is offered and pay the price demanded. There is no other way. He finds himself face to face with a monopoly and is compelled to meet their demands or do without. The question arises, What can be done to remedy tlie evil?” The only remedy Is, Municipalize them. Municipal ownership is not only a matter of justice but of expediency. It has not “money-grabbing as its object. It has been shown repeatedly that wherever fairly tried municipal ownership has given better results than private ownership. Its one aim Is to give the best possible service at the least possible cost. rsually the lirst purchase made by cities desiring to try municipal ownership is that of the water system, and It has Invariably given good service. Chicago like many other American cities owns its own water-systems and supplies its citizens at a rate of from four to ten cents per thousand cubic feet and from twenty-five to seventy-five percent lower than the rates exacted by private companies and gives service fairly satisfactory. New York must soon solve the problem which confronts her or in a few years a water famine will lie the result. From the telephone and telegraph monopolies the people of our cities have experienced excessive charges and unsatisfactory service, that the dividends of the few in control of these conveniences and necessities might be the greater. In Sweden the government conducts its own telephone systems and in Stockholm ami other Swedish cities good telephone service may lie had in some cases, as low as six dollars a year. Those who have paid the high rates exacted in Chicago and other large cities in the I'nited States will readily understand conditions to Ik somewhat different. In Switzerland the government owns and operates its own telegraph system, as do many progressive European cities. Why then could not the same thing be done in the United States? The people in our cities also pay an extravagant price for gas. Numerous

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