Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/820

 804 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

And this does not tell the entire story. The company fur- nishes the city with gas for street-lamps and public buildings, free of expense, and is required to increase the number of street- lamps to the extent of 300 per year, as ordered by the City Coun- cil. At the same time, the average candle-power of the light sup- plied has increased from a range of from 19.04 to 19.47 in the four years preceding the lease, to a range of from 22.72 to 23 in the six years after the lease. The price per 1,000 feet is $i, of which 10 cents goes to the city treasury. The city has the power to reduce the price to 90 cents, if it chooses to forego its own revenue of 10 cents ; after 1907 it may reduce the rate to 85 cents ; after 1912, to 80 cents; and after 1917, until the end of the lease, to 75 cents.

In addition, the item of making service connection and installing meters, part of which was formerly charged to the con- sumers, is now borne entirely by the private company. The city has the option of resuming possession of the plant January i, 1908, but only upon condition of reimbursing the private company for all betterments made in the meantime. At the expiration of the lease the entire plant is to be turned over to the city, with all the betterments, free and clear. The issue of returning to city management or executing a new lease will then come before the city of Philadelphia, and if those who endured the service as it was before 1898 were to be the ones to do the deciding in 1927, there is little doubt what the verdict would be.

The experience of Boston a few years ago throws additional light on the difficulties of municipal ownership in this country. Under Mayor Quincy, a number of new municipal bureaus or departments were created, through which the city undertook to do its own printing, electrical construction, carpentering, and repairing, furnish its own ice, and so on. Under the succeeding administration of Mayor Hart, an experienced business man, it was found that, instead of proving sources of economy, these bureaus were veritable waste-pipes leading from the city treasury, and they were closed up as fast as possible, with the excep- tion of the printing-plant, for which a satisfactory offer could n"t be obtained. Among other things, it was found, for example,