by starting municipal electric light works, which hold the private gas companies in check. Throughout the country municipal gas is sold at 10 per cent. less than corporation gas, the quality is 14 per cent. better and free meters are supplied oftener. The smaller price represents a reward of $3,300,000 a year to the consumers for their civic sense and enterprise, in addition to the annual net profits, that help to pay for schools, parks, concerts, etc.*

Glasgow has owned its gas supply since 1869, because it knew a company would not make the light cheap enough to encourage the majority of the people to use it lavishly. It hires out different kinds of stoves, gas heating and cooking appliances, and sells the gas at 54 cents, so as to give the consumer every inducement to make his home brilliant at night.

Berlin and over 374 other cities in Germany own their gas works, and throughout the Empire the principle of municipal ownership and operation of this service is coming to be generally accepted. In all countries, wherever it has been tried, the people are content. Municipal Electric Light.

Progressive cities in the old world are running their own electric lighting plants also. In London the district of Shoreditch, a working-class quarter with no wealthy streets, sells the cheapest electric light in the metropolis, and yet makes a profit of $35,000 after paying interest on bonds and all other charges. Islington, Hammersmith, Hampstead and Saint Pancras all have successful municipal works, and eight other districts have plants in course of construction.

Throughout Great Britain the supply of electricity for light and power is fast becoming one of the leading municipal industries in the country. During the last few years its growth has been phenomenal. At the end of 1900, 198 works were in operation in cities, 130 under municipal management and only 68 in private hands. Out of 212 installations in course of construction, 99 belonged to public bodies, while 113 others had obtained the requisite authority from Parliament to establish municipal plants, and presumably will begin work very shortly Altogether, therefore, 343 districts have adopted the principle of public ownership and working of electric light plants. This rapid extension of city working results from the *Maltbie, "Gas Lighting in Great Britain," Municipal Affairs, Sept., 1901.

striking social and financial success wherever public works have been established.

It should be noticed that these British towns do not simply light the streets. They supply all the power and illumination demanded by consumers, and run the business as vigorously and extensively as a private company would.

If a municipal plant for lighting the streets and public buildings only is contemplated, the results in other American cities are encouraging. In the State of New York alone there are at least twelve municipal plants, and there are over 300 in the States.

With a reform administration actually in power and a good civil service law actually in operation the old terror of official incompetence and laziness which has been the main argument against productive municipal enterprise is no longer excusable. If the administrators cannot trust their own competence and uprightness they are self-condemned and will naturally be dismissed with shame two years hence.

us.

Street Railways.

(7) The Metropolitan Street Railway is so wealthy and powerful that some reformers fear to approach it lest a worse evil befall But the close alliance of Mr. Wm. C. Whitney, its chief owner, to Tammany Hall and its notoriously huge subsidies to Tammany's exchequer are sufficient indications that it is vulnerable to attacks by the city departments and that it is always hoping for more fa

vors.

Though the Low government will, of course, not threaten it in a blackmailing or simply malevolent spirit, plain duty demands that no iota of favor be granted, no jot of concession be made without exacting every cent of compensation for the public. The Elm Street franchise, which comes up first for consideration, should rather be allowed to lie dormant than be awarded except on perfectly satisfactory terms. Changes of motive power, the permission to keep stationary cars on the streets near transfer points or power houses, the privilege of keeping their tracks open when all other traffic on a street is stopped by the Rapid Transit tunnellingall should be made dependent upon some quid pro quo for the public.

Further, and more important, the city should make a close, official examination into all the franchises of this and other com

panies to ascertain finally whether any of them have expired or can legally be revoked because they were not granted for any stated period, and to detect any city rights not being exercised which could be used as a club in fighting for fairer returns. Any private person that had even a suspicion that flaws in their titles gave him a legal chance to share at the treasury of a multi-millionaire corporation would push the investigation keenly. The city should be just as alert after its interests.

If these measures should yield only a poor return, the "resources of civilization are not exhausted." In their hostility to the public and to reform causes, the street railway magnates are frank and determined; a city administration has all to win and nothing to lose by reciprocating their sentiments.

AMEND THE DEBT LIMIT.

BY BIRD S. Coler.

The demands made to-day upon the public purse for public improvements in the great modern cities of the world would astound the publicists of past generations. The ever increasing cost and complexity of urban life is nowhere better exemplified than in the demand for increased assumption of public utilities by government. A city that does not respond to this demand is provincial; it is not a metropolis. Paris has been regarded as the typical modern city. It certainly was the first to make widely extended use of its credit. for public improvements. And this fact has, by most observers, been cited with approval, and as a cause of its greatness.

How does the bonded debt of the city of Paris compare with that of New York?

The present net funded debt of the city of New York is $263,000,000; and in addition an indebtedness of $50,000,000 has been incurred for contracts and lands acquired for which bonds will have to be issued. The bonded debt of Paris is in round figures two billions of francs, or, say, $400,000,000. Yet New York of to-day is incomparably the richer city and better able to sustain the larger debt.

Some Limitations Advisable.

In the argument I am about to make for a more liberal policy affecting the city's power to issue bonds I wish to state clearly my appreciation of an adherence to the wisdom of constitutional restrictions on the indebtedness of cities. These restrictions are to be found in the constitutions of nearly all our states and have been upheld both in letter and in spirit by the decisions of our courts. They have undoubtedly served to prevent the financial ruin of many small cities, which in the hands of unscrupulous political adventurers would otherwise have undergone the same disastrous experiences as befell the city of Elizabeth in days gone by. Yet this constitutional limitation has itself its limitations. It should not be made a fetich

to be worshipped blindly at the expense of really necessary progress. In the competition which exists to-day between nations and cities as well as between individuals, to stand still means to retrograde, and if it should happen that a choice must be made between stopping the modernization of New York and amending the constitution, I am in favor of the latter course, provided no real danger to the city's credit and solvency be threatened thereby.

Two Classes of Debts.

I believe the clause in the constitution limiting the indebtedness of the city-wholly admirable at the time it was written—is not altogether adapted to modern requirements in that it does not discriminate sufficiently between two classes of city debts of a wholly different character.*

A city issues bonds only for permanent improvements, the benefits of which inure to posterity. But there are two classes of these improvements, easily distinguishable from one another, and between which a sharp distinction should be drawn.

In one of these classes are improvements, which while adding to the attractiveness, beauty and healthfulness of a city, to its economical administration, or to the better conduct of its governmental function, bring in no direct financial returns. This is by far the more numerous class and includes such ordinary works as the erection of public buildings, including schools, the acquisition of parks and the repaving of streets. No matter how great the material benefits may be that are derived from such improvements, the expense incurred is unquestionably a financial burden upon the taxpayers. In regard to such expenditures there can be no doubt as to the wisdom of establishing an arbitrary constitutional limit; since

*Article VIII, Section 10. * * * No county or city shall be allowed to become indebted for any purpose or in any manner to an amount which, including existing indebtedness, shall exceed ten per centum of the assessed valuation of the real estate of such county or city subject to taxation, as it appears by the assessment-rolls of said county or city on the last assessment for State or county taxes prior to the incurring of such indebtedness; and all indebtedness in excess of such limitation, except such as may now exist, shall be absolutely void, except as herein otherwise provided. * * * Nor shall this section be construed to prevent the issue of bonds to provide for the supply of water; but the terms of the bonds issued to provide the supply of water shall not exceed twenty years, and a sinking fund shall be created on the issuing of the said bonds for their redemption, by raising annually a sum which will produce an amount equal to the sum of the principal and interest of said bonds at their maturity.