The Seattle Republican. [volume], June 02, 1905, Image 1

About The Seattle Republican. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1???-1915

Image provided by: Washington State Library; Olympia, WA

                
REPUBLICAN
VOL. XII. NO. 1
SEATTLE CITIZENS ROBBED BY THE CORPORATIONS
"The following statistics with relation to the rates paid for water
by Illinois cities will convince the most skeptical that the rates charged
by private companies for water are much in excess of those charged
by publically owned and operated companies :
Private water Total revenue Public water Total revenue
supply own- per family supply and per family
ers hip. per year. ownership. per year.
Lincoln, 111 $18.00 Moline, 111 $4.50
Mount Vernou, 111 10.00 Taylorsville, 111 4.50
Effingham, 111 5.50 Savanna, 111 2-00
Alton, 111 4.33 1-3 Lexington, 111 3.00
Sterling, 111 8.70 Elgin, 111 " 3.00
Kankakee, 111 7.90 LaSalle, 111 4.50
Chiloothe, 111 9.80 Evanston, 111 6.40
Cairo, 111 10.66 2-3 Rock Island, 111 5.33
Oak Park, 111 10.00 Aurora, 111 4.00
General average $10.54 General average $4.13
(Dunne.)
Seattle, with its splendid water system furnished by mountain
streams, can furnish to consumers water at less cost than any of the
eastern cities. Why does it not do it 1
Telephone charges in the United States are three times the gov
ernment tariff in England, and also three times the charges permitted
by the government in France.
In Trondhjem, Norway, with 780 exchange lines, the average
rental was $13.25 a year per phone. Subscribers speak to eleven towns,
within a radius of fifty miles, for five minutes for five cents.
•Stockholm has an average of $20 per phone, and communication
within a radius of forty-three miles. The Bell Company, bought out
by the government, charged $44 for the same service. The public tele
phone of the Duchy of Luxemburg (forty-four by thirty miles) makes
a uniform yearly charge of $16 fo reach phone and each subscriber can
talk all over the duchy.
In Switzerland, which has an excellent system (metallic circuit),
the cities make a moderate charge of $8, plus one cent for each call. In
Zurich and other cities the average total rate is $15 per phone per year.
In Sweden there are 160 co-operative telephone exchanges, and
the average of their charges is $10 per phone per year. (Dunn.)
Why should any resident of Seattle, outside of those directly un
der the employ of the Boston syndicate, oppose municipal ownership i
If the Boston syndicate can make immense profits off of the opera
tion of the street car system of this city, why is it the people can
not keep these profits at home by operating the system themselves?
The people have to pay the money to the street car company, and by
operating it like the city of Glasgow, at cost price, the profits could
be saved to the citizens. As the matter now stands, every family in
this city pays from fifty to one hundred dollars street car fare per
year; some pay two or three times that sum. If operated under mu
nicipal ownership at not to exceed three-cent fare, from one-third to
one-half can be saved to the families. In Glasgow, the fare does not
average two cents. The expense of operating the system will not
come off of the taxpayers by direct taxation. It is the system that
will be mortgaged and certificates or bonds issued payable out of the
income from the system the same as is done with the Cedar River
water plant and the Cedar River electric light plant. By municipal
ownership of the public utilities, the street car system, the water sys
tem, the electric light system and the telephone system can be mort
gaged to pay their own expenses of operation, improvement and con
trol, and the services will be furnished to the citizens at cost. Why
shoiild one argue to a consumer that the proper thing was to furnish him
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1905
WATER WORKS.
TELEPHONES.
SEATTLE SHOULD OWN IT'S PUBLIC UTILITIES
The street car fare paid in the United States, where private own-
ership prevails, we all know to be five cents a ride, whether it be short
or long, which is more than double what is paid to municipal street
car companies in Europe, as will be apparent from the following table:
Town, Population. Fare. Average Fare.
Milan, 440,000, 1 and 2 cents 1.8 cents
Berlin, 1,800,000 3.0 cents
Budapest, 500,000 2.7 cents
London, 4,000.000 2.5 cents
Belfast, 256,000 2.2 cents
Glasgow, 840,000 1,78 cents
(Dunne.)
What is true of gas and water is also true of electric light. While
private corporations in Chicago are charging from $105 to $125 per
annum per arc light, the following cities have municipal plants and
are furnishing the same light for the same period at the following
prices:
Bangor, Me 60°
Lewiston, Me 52-00
Dunkirk, N. V 53-50
West Troy, X. V 75.00
Allegheny, Pa 57-°°
Easton, Pa 95-00
Bay City, Mich 52.00
Detroit, Mich 61-5()
South Park Plant, in Chicago 57.00
Aurora, 111 50.00
Topeka, Kan 51.00
Little Rock, Ark 4i)su
Wheeling, W. Va 57.50
Peabody, Mass 61.50
Braintree, Mass 61.50
Danyers, Mass 56.50
Jamestown, N. V 49-00
South Xorwalk, Conn 47.50
(Dunne.)
Seattle, with the natural mountain streams and water falls, can
furnish the power over and over again, and can furnish electricity for
electric lines anct for propelling street cars cheaper than any of the
above named cities. Every citizen should be in favor of getting his
electric light bill cut down 50 per cent.
services at cost, when the mere statement of the proposition should
be sufficient to convince? Municipal ownership is not new in the
older countries. Numbers of cities are taking advantage of cheap pub
lic utilities and operating their own tramway systems; among which
are Bradford, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, New Castle,
Nottingham, Salford, Sheffield and Glasgow; in the United States,
there is the city of West Seattle.
On page 151 of the special report of the Bureau of Census of the
United States, upon street railways, it is said: "Generally speaking,
those cities which have introduced electric traction upon an exten
sive scale seem to show favorable results. In Glasgow, which was the
first city in Great Britain to undertake the municipal operation of
street railways, the ratio of operating expenses, including a consid
erable amount of taxes, to operating earnings is 47.7 per cent. It is
difficult to escape the conclusion, however, that many of the municipal
railways are operated efficiently and economically."
On page 153 it is said: "During the past few years there has
been a marked tendency toward municipal ownership of street rail
ways in Germany. The total number of municipal plants in 1902 was
34; and the most important cities in which they exist are Cologne,
Dusseldorf, Munich, Frankfort, Mannheim, Aix La Chappele, Mulhau
sen and Halle. The city of Berlin owns one of the less important sys
tems, about eleven miles in length. The large city of Nuremberg has
PRICE FIVE CENTS
STREET RAILWAYS.
ELECTRIC LIGHT.