THE MUNICIPALITY A FACTOR IN SOCIALISM

Evening Star, Issue 9771, 30 July 1895, Page 4

THE MUNICIPALITY A FACTOR IN SOCIALISM

lii au article in the 1 Fortnightly Review’ for April, entitled ‘ Glasgow: A Model Municipality,’ “the Corporation,” we are told. “ recognise these duties as being laid upon them To fulfil their trust by economical administration of the city’s finances ; to improve public health, both physical and moral ; and to give brightness and the possibility of happiness to civic life.” The City Council consist of seventy-seven members, and include the Town Council, the City Improvement Trust, the Markets Trust, and the Water Trust. The Town Council, among other things, supply gas and electric light, and manage the parks and picture galleries, the public baths and washhouses, a id the tramways. The Police Commission have charge of “ the work of the policemen proper, of the lamplighter and the fireman —watching and lighting, in short; further, the whole of the very important sanitary department, the repair and cleansing of the streets, and the purification of sewage before it is sent into, the Clyde, a work that is as yet only done in part.” The water supply is brought from Loch Katrine. It is practically unlimited, and the rate has been reduced from Is 2d to (id in the £. It cost nearly two and a-half millions. Tuere is a sinking fund, through which about three-quarters of a million has been paid off. The gasworks are now owned by the Corporation, and they supply the gas at a much cheaper rate. They also supply electric light for the streets and private consumers. They took over the tramways from a company, improved the service, introduced the halfpenny fare, previously unknown, and made twopence the maximum fare, gave their servants their Sundays, and diminished the hours of labor. The fares were reduced on some routes by one-third; but, nevertheless, after six months’ working, when all possible charges had been provided for, they had a balance to credit. The debt on this account will he paid ofl by means of the sinking fund in thirty-one years. The City Improvement Trust have spent nearly two millions sterling in the purchase of insanitary property and in building workmen’s dwellings of one and two rooms each, and model lodging-houses. The return on the buildings was at the rate of nearly 5 per cent, per annum, the money being borrowed at 3J per cent, or less. The effect is that “ the old style of cheap and nasty lodgings is practically extinct,” and private enterprise has been stimulated, so that the standard of comfort has been raised. The Committee who manage the lodging-houses provide a free entertainment every Srturday night in each of them, thereby helping to keep the lodgers out of the public-houses. The Corporation are now building a family home for widows and widowers (the lodging-houses being for single men) with 176 dormitories. The children are to be fed and taken entirely in charge during the day at an expected cost to the parents of Is fid per head per week. They are also building workmen’s dwellings for about 300 families, at rents from £7 5s to £ll ss, and others at lower rents. For

amusement and recreation they have provided museums, half a,dozen parks, and a really good art gallery, lectures upon art and other subjects, and a concert every Saturday in the winter in the City Hall, at prices of 3d and Id; and, it is added, “ they make it pay.” To stop drunkenness they are now building a People’s Palace in the East End. They are also providing playgrounds for children in the congested parts of the city, where gymnastic apparatus and games of all kinds are at the disposal of every child in the neighborhood.