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The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, March 28, 1917, NOON EDITION, Image 2

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Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1917-03-28/ed-1/seq-2/

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the evening's program from the
standpoint of the public was that op
ponents of the 50-year franchise bill
could not force a roll call to bring
the friends of traction finance hogs
into the light and place them on
record.
Merriam, Richert, Kennedy -and
Byrne led the fight against council
endorsement of the grab. Capitain,
Michaelson, Toman, Lipps, Watson
and Fisher shined in their efforts to
do just what the street car barons
would probably have wanted had
they been on the floor of the coun
cil and actively in touch with the ar
gument. The part the - Chicago Tribune
plays in traction affairs was exposed
by Aid. Kennedy during his argu
ment against the 50-year franchise
which helped to upset the measure.
"In 1907 when the municipal own
ership battle was at its height and
the peoplehad voted nine times in
favor of taking the car lines from the
traction hogs, the Tribune came out
strongly for the infamous ordinances
of 1907 which fooled the people com
pletely, so carefully were they hid
den behind a cloak of municipal
ownership," he declared.
"The Tribune said that a vote for
the 1907 ordinances means a comfor-.
table seat for you and your family
every time you get into a street car.
"They are trying to do the same
thing now. They offer the people
municipal ownership and say the
Fisher bill will give it to them. Under
the decisions of the supreme court
the Fisher bill will not give the people
municipal ownership as they claim.
"The people want municipal own
ership and operation and they don't
want to hand a 50-year franchise to
the same bunch of financiers which
has treated them the way the Sur
face Line crowd did.
"The Fisher bill is founded on the
$250,000 report of the traction and
subway commission. In no place did
! engineers of this commission
a provision for the pay or t
hours of the employes of the Surface
Lines.
"They have it all planned out, how
the financiers shall get a big interest
rate and how the money they pay
into the properties shall be given
back, but not a word was said in the
report which cost the people a quar
ter of a million about what the work
ers would get.
"Under the ordinances of 1907, W
which were bad enough, the traction
millionaires are getting 5 per cent on
their money. Under the Fisher bill
we are guaranteeing them at least 6
per cent return and probably 7. We
can sell municipal bonds which will
cost us only 4y2 per cent and get all
the money we need ourselves with a
change in the state constitution."
It was the assault of Aid. Charles
E. Merriam that scared the "30-20"
bunch into the high woqds. In a. talk
lasting nearly an hour, Merriam drew
a parallel showing how the same
stunt was being attempted as' had
been put over before.
Among the high lights of his
speech were:
"When the Chicago Surface Lines
began to advertise in the papers and
tell you that you must accept the
Fisher bill as a step toward home
rule it's time to begin to get suspi
cious. "I have been down to Springfield
every year for nine years trying to
get home rule for the city of Chicago.
I saw the crowning climax of cor
poration politics put over in ,1913
when control of the public utilities
was wrested from the city and hand
ed to a state commission in no way
responsible to the people. The same
crowd of financiers and their; friends
engineered that.
"If the time and money spent by jfe
the transportation committee o nthe
traction and subway report and the
Fisher bills had been applied to serv
ice betterment ordinances, conditions
would not have been so bad.
"The friends of the 50-year fran
chise hoped to get by in the .thunder

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