A Description of the Terms and Conditions upon which in the Streets of American Cities BY DELOS F. WILCOX, PH.D. CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF FRANCHISES OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION FOR 66 AND AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN CITY"; THE STUDY OF CITY GOVERNMENT "GREAT CITIES IN AMERICA." IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME TWO TRANSPORTATION FRANCHISES TAXATION AND CONTROL OF PUBLIC UTILITIES NEW YORK THE ENGINEERING NEWS PUBLISHING COMPANY Copyright, 1911, by DELOS F. WILCOX. Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, E. C., 1911. PREFACE TO VOLUME TWO. WHATEVER may be the merits of this book, it is a product of great labor. Volume One, published a year ago, contained a brief introductory part devoted to a general analysis of the nature and significance of public utility franchises, the ways in which they are acquired and the various means adopted at different times and in different places, to protect the public interests in connection with the operation of public utilities by private corporations. Volume One also contained a much. larger part devoted to a description of typical franchises actually in operation in various cities of the United States, covering those utilities which are distributed by pipes or wires in the public streets, namely: electric light and power, the telephone, the telegraph, messenger and signal service, electrical conduits, water supply, sewerage, central heating, refrigeration, transmission of mail and merchandise by pneumatic power, pipe line distribution of oil and artificial and natural gas. Some interesting things have happened in the franchise line since Volume One was published. The most important of these, so far as the classes of franchises treated in that volume are concerned, is the Minneapolis gas settlement of February and March, 1910. This settlement is so noteworthy, especially in view of the conditions contained in the old gas franchises of which mention was made in Volume One, that I have reprinted, substantially in full, as an appendix in Volume Two, the Minneapolis gas franchise passed February 23rd, 1910, and the Minneapolis gas regulation ordinance passed March 24, 1910. The present volume includes a part devoted to a description of local transportation franchises in a large number of American cities. The utilities considered are street railways, elevated railroads, subways, interurban railways, bridges, viaducts, toll roads, depots, belt line railroads, spur tracks, docks, markets, ferries and omnibus lines. The immense importance of these utilities coupled with the wealth of documentary materials available in regard to many of them, especially street railways, has made this part of the book more bulky than was originally intended. It is hoped that with the help of the carefully prepared index those readers who desire to refer to a particular city or a particular subject will have no difficulty in finding everything there is in the book bearing on the matter in which they are especially interested. I have also taken the precaution to place early in the volume a chapter on "Elements of a Model Street Railway Franchise," which I desire especially to commend to the attention of my readers, as it contains constructive suggestions which are deemed to be important. I am particularly anxious that every one who consults this volume should get the author's point of view as respects the public nature of the street railway and the imperative necessity of gradually amortizing the capital now invested in the business instead of continuing the policy of reckless finance which has been characteristic, in large measure, of street railway companies. In the last part of the book the discussion relates to a number of interesting and important items in the general franchise problem, such as the constitutional and statutory safe-guarding of franchise procedure, the regulation of public utilities by state and local commissions, franchise taxation, capitalization and municipal ownership. These subjects are so broad and so complex as to deserve extended discussion in a separate volume. All that has been attempted in the concluding chapters of this book is a brief and somewhat rough statement of what I consider to be the more important gencral principles that should govern public activities in relation to the public utility problems there considered. Franchises are often thought to be difficult and technical, fit only for the consideration of experts. Yet, as a matter of fact, they are about the most interesting of all the things with which municipal government has to deal. The very extremities of the body politic,-the individual households and the individual people, men, women and children,—are daily touched and controlled by the vital forces set in motion by franchise grants. Light, heat, communication, transit, and sometimes water itself, the prime necessity of urban life, are brought into the people's homes or past their doors by fran |