Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/627

 THE PHILADELPHIA GAS WORKS 613

rich and powerful corporations are able in legislative bodies to defy public sentiment and overcome official judgment. Sur- rounding the committee rooms and council chambers, at all the meetings when the United Gas Improvement Company's ordi- nance was under consideration, was a band of the shrewdest and most skillful lobbyists, and at one time some of them even had the audacity to enter upon the floor of councils and direct their fight for the ordinance from that point of vantage. This state of affairs became so offensive that even the most defiant mem- bers of councils voted to exclude all but members and ex-mem- bers from the floor, but this did not prevent the lobbyists and legislative agents of the company from carrying on their work in the adjoining committee and cloakrooms.

When the vote in common council was announced, the audience in the galleries greeted the result with groans and hisses and cries of "robbers" and "perjurers," and at a public indignation meeting held on the evening of November 12, the day Mayor Warwick signed the bill, the mention of every man who had voted for the ordinance was received with hisses and the most marked evidences of disapproval ; and political and semi-political clubs have since been busy dropping from mem- bership those who voted for the lease. I mention these instances to show the feeling of the people on the subject ; and yet, despite the public protests, and despite the public indigna- tion, and despite the very much better offers of competing com- panies, the United Gas Improvement Company, controlled as it is by those who have already secured the street railway, electric lighting, and gasoline franchises and privileges, was able to carry the day. And yet there are some people who wonder at the prevailing discontent among the poorer classes and the growth of that sentiment for which Mr. Bryan stands.

CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF. PHILADELPHIA.