Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/252

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

the slums and thus acquired the ground at a cost of about $8,000,000, and upon this ground it has built modern houses which it rents, and the death rate in the section has been reduced from an average of eighty to the thousand per- sons down to an average of twenty, and it has now been demonstrated that in the end this property will pay for itself and thereafter go far toward defraying the annual expenses of the city.

Not going further into detail, let me say there are at present in the United Kingdom 185 mu- nicipalities that supply their inhabitants with water, with gas and electric light, and one-third of the street railway mileage of Great Britain is owned by the municipalities. Leaving out Lon- don, it amounts to two-thirds. And in most in- stances in which they do not own the street rail- ways, they have compelled the companies to grant low fares and divide profits.

While these things are taking place in Europe the private corporations in America are bribing legislatures and city councils, reducing wages, charging higher rates, and collecting dividends on millions and millions of watered stock. Ac- cording to legislative investigation, the stock in the Boston Street Railroad is over half water; in New York, in Brooklyn and in Philadelphia the ratio is 4 to 1.

Every business reason applicable to the mu- nicipalities and governments of Europe is ap- plicable here. We want as pure water, as good 218

�� �