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Jury Trials in Alaska

SATURDAY,

The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the provision of the Constitution that "in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed," involves a right to a trial by a jury of twelve men, and applies to the Territory of Alaska. Our readers will remember that the same Court has decided that the Constitution does not control in the Philippine Islands; that Congress, in dealing with those islands, is unhindered by the Constitution; and that that decision was based on previous decisions of the Court that territory acquired by the United States is not ipso facto incorporated into the United States, but such incorporation must be effected by some action of Congress, either by explicit terms or by necessary implication. In the treaty with Spain it was expressly provided that "the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined by the Congress." This treaty was therefore held by the Supreme Court to give to Congress "a free hand in dealing with these newly acquired possessions," and there was nothing in subsequent legislation which implied any intention on the part of Congress to incorporate the Philippines into the United States. Per contra, the treaty with Russia by which Alaska was acquired provided that the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States; and shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion." This treaty, in the opinion of the Court, and the legislation following thereupon, “clearly contemplated the incorporation of Alaska in the United

MAY 6, 1905

States as a part thereof," and therefore involves the extension of the Constitution over Alaska. The decision of the Court, therefore, that in Alaska a trial before a jury of six men is unconstitutional, and the decision of the Court that in the Philippines a trial without any jury is not unconstitutional, are parts of one coherent interpretation, the basic principle of which is that Congress is unhindered by the Constitution in dealing with territory acquired by but not incorporated into the United States, but is controlled by the Constitution in all dealing with territory which by express terms or necessary implication has been so incorporated.

Franchises in the City of New York

The New York Legislature has passed an act transferring the power

of granting franchises in the city of New York from the Board of Aldermen to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. The Mayor has vetoed this bill. Under the charter of the city it goes back to the Legislature, which has power to pass the bill by a majority vote over his veto— a power which it will probably have exercised before this issue reaches our readers. The grounds of the Mayor's veto, as reported in the daily papers, are twofold: first, that if the Board of Aldermen are at fault in their exercise of the power committed to them, the remedy is in replacing them with more faithful public servants; second, that the change in the charter is in the interest of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which, to quote the Mayor's language, "seems determined to exercise its power over public officials here, as it has elsewhere." There are two differences be tween the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment: The Board of Aldermen is elected by wards, each Alderman representing, there

fore, a special local district of the city, and it consists of seventy-three members. The members of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment are elected--three of them, the Mayor, the Comptroller, and the President of the Board of Aldermen, by the entire city; five of them, the Presidents of the respective Boroughs, by the Boroughs. To enable them to represent proportionally their respective constituencies, the three representatives of the entire city are each entitled to cast three votes, the Presidents of the Boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn two votes, and the Presidents of the Boroughs of Bronx, Queens, and Richmond one vote each. Thus both bodies represent the city of New York, and both bodies are chosen to represent them by the people of the city of New York; but one body is larger than the other, and one body is locally elected, the other by a general suffrage. No question of home rule, therefore, is involved in this case. The question before the public is, Should franchises which affect the interest of the entire city be voted on by men who are elected to represent local districts in the city, or by men who are elected by the general vote of the city to represent the city as a totality? It appears to The Outlook that the latter is the more rational and the more democratic method; that the bill which the Mayor has vetoed finds its reason not in a particular misuse of power by the Board of Aldermen, but in the essential constitution of the two bodies, the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. The failure of the bill to provide for public notice and public hearings in the case of any application for franchise is corrected by a supplementary measure which has been passed and is now before the Mayor. It should be added that Comptroller Grout has proposed a bill for the abolition of the Board of Aldermen altogether and the transfer of their powers, with one or two unimportant exceptions, to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, to which are added two members elected by the voters of the entire city and having the same number of votes as the Mayor. This measure is in line with the judgment of the best experts on municipal reform. But the question

is not likely to come before the people either of the city or the State at the present juncture, and we postpone further consideration of it to the future.

A Wise Measure

The

They

One of the most important bills before the New York Legislature has passed both houses without attracting much attention. It is the bill, prepared by the State Charities Aid Association, re-establishing boards of managers for the State Hospitals for the Insane, as suggested by Governor Higgins in his inaugural message. boards of managers were abolished three years ago at Governor Odell's suggestion, and entire control of the thirteen State Hospitals for the Insane was placed in the central Commission in Lunacy with three members. A board of visitors for each hospital, with no authority whatever except that of inspection, was established. The present bill, which will probably have received the Governor's approval before this is read, abolishes the boards of visitors and provides for a board of managers of seven members, two of whom shall be women, for each hospital. are appointed for a term of seven years, the term of office of one manager expiring each year. The boards of managers are to have general direction and control of the internal affairs and administration of the hospitals. The financial administration remains, as has been the case for the past ten years, in the hands of the central Commission. Superintendents are to be appointed from civil service eligible lists by the Commission in Lunacy, subject to the approval of the board of managers of the hospital concerned. A superintendent may be suspended or removed by the board of managers, but a removal must be approved by the central Commission. A majority of the managers are required to inspect the hospital monthly, and submit a report to the Commission in Lunacy and to the Governor. All complaints against any officer or employee of the hospital are to be investigated by the managers. All proposed plans and specifications for buildings must be considered by the boards of managers, though the final decision on them rests with the central authorities.

The per capita expenditure permitted for the construction of new buildings is raised from $450 to $550. As our readers know, The Outlook earnestly opposed the abolition of these local boards, and it heartily approves their re-establishment. The plan as worked out in this bill provides both a central authority and a local administration; and both are needed. Central authority is needed to prevent inequitable and unjust variations in different parts of the State; local administration is needed to secure proper attention to details, protection from political favoritism and from the even greater danger of a mere officialism, and to keep alive that public interest which is absolutely essential to a humane administra tion of public charities.

Municipal Ownership in the West

The spring municipal elections in Colorado show a striking independence of party lines and a decided tendency toward municipal ownership and operation. The strong Republican cities of Colorado Springs and Pueblo for the first time in years defeated the Republican candidates. The Democrats elected the Mayors of Leadville, Greeley, Durango, Grand Junction, and numerous smaller places. The unprecedented defeats of the Republicans are interpreted by Colorado observers "as the first echo of the popular disapproval of the startling results of the recent gubernatorial contest." Another interesting feature of the elections was the success of women candidates. In Greeley, Colorado City, Fairplay, Ouray, and Idaho Springs, women were elected to the office of treasurer. Manitou elected a woman as Clerk, and Aspen and Montrose elected women to the offices of Treasurer and Clerk. Boulder approved an expenditure of $80,000 for additions to the water main, and declined to give a franchise to a private electric-lighting company. Greeley voted $250,000 to improve the water supply, and Gunnison $100,000 for water and light plants. The municipal ownership movement is manifesting itself in other parts of the State of Illinois besides Chicago. On April 18 Peoria, the second largest city in the

State, elected a Democrat Mayor on this issue. Elgin on the same day elected Carl E. Botsford Mayor on a municipal ownership platform, which demanded the return to the city of the leased electric-lighting plant. La Grange, another city near Chicago, chose a chief executive and a board of trustees because of their attitude on the municipal ownership of the water and lighting plants. Andrew Carnegie is reported by the Chicago papers to be favorable to municipal ownership. According to the Chicago "Journal," Maxwell Edgar, candidate for Alderman in the Third Ward, took the following message to the new Mayor from Mr. Carnegie:

Tell Judge Dunne not to stop until every public utility that can be made the subject of private monopoly has been placed under the control and operation of the city. Chicago is still in its infancy, It has scarcely yet begun to grow. Some of these days I am going to take a car and go clear through to the Coast to see how the country has grown up. I take it as a great compliment to Scotchmen and to Glasgow that Mayor Dunne should select a Glasgow expert to tell the people about the operation of municipal ownership.

Machine Ownership in Philadelphia

All of this is in marked contrast to the new proposition of the United Gas Improvement Company to extend its present lease of the Philadelphia Gas Works from thirty years to fifty. Without warning or an antecedent demand or negotiations, the news was proclaimed that for $25,000,000 the present lease was to be extended twenty years, or practically thirty years, as it is proposed that the fifty years shall begin to run from January 1, 1908, when the first ten years of the present lease shall have expired. The city is to receive a lump sum of $25,000,000, and the city will not receive any income from the United Gas Improvement Company during the term of the lease, it being contended that the city will receive or save a million dollars a year on the $25,000,000. The Philadelphia " Ledger" is authority for the statement that, the machine having looted the city, it is at the end of its resources. "No more loans can be made. All the quick assets

of the city have been sold. While the tax rate has ostensibly been lowered, the orders have gone to increase the taxable value of all property, until now the limit has been reached. And the people will not stand for more." If this new lease is allowed to go through, this latter statement will have to be revised, because there seems to be no limit to the endurance of the voters of Philadelphia. ten years there has been a succession of events any one of which would seem to have been sufficient to create a revolution, and would in any other city than Philadelphia; but there the result has been simply more audacious attacks by the machine upon the interests of the people.

Public Utilities Abroad

For

So much is being said now about the municipalization of street railroads, gas plants, and other forms of what may be called public utilities, and so various and conflicting have been the accounts of its success and of the benefits to the dwellers of cities adopting it, that a recent report of what has been accomplished in Hull, England, is of pertinent interest. The first feature to be noted, and one that will be regarded with universal envy here, is the fact that the construction of a municipal telephone system has resulted in an immediate reduction of rates. The city corporation fixed prices for an unlimited service over an exclusive line at £5 ($24.23) per annum for private houses, and £6 6s. ($30.65) for business premises. This was followed by a large increase in the number of subscribers, and compelled the existing telephone company to reduce its charges to the same level as the municipal one. Such a range of prices, if possible here, would result in every business concern and almost every household establishing telephone connection. We get, too, from this report some valuable information as to the working of some other corporation enterprises of which the city has taken charge. A recent statement of the city comptroller shows that the crematory it maintains cost for the year $530, and took in $306.58. Public baths cost $1,110 above receipts. In the gas department there was a profit of $15,380, and the water-works showed a net gain

of $71,162. The revenue account of electric lighting shows a working profit of $88,696, which various deductions reduce to $7,976 net profit. The working profit on street-cars was $185,000, reduced also by deductions to $57,500. In every case except the crematory and the baths Hull has found municipal ownership profitable, on the one hand, to the corporation, and, on the other, beneficial to the citizens, for the prices for everything furnished have been kept very low. A ride on the street-cars in any direction to the end of the line can be had for two cents, and exclusive telephone service for $25 a year. Gas costs only 48 cents per thousand feet, electricity 9 cents per unit. The object kept in view in Hull has been not so much to make money as to be of use to the public and give it the best service at the lowest price, and this seems to have been accomplished. In considering these results and contemplating the feasibility of undertaking the same methods here, it must be remembered that English cities have honest government, while new revelations almost every day indicate that ours, without exception, are tainted with "graft." In the opinion of The Outlook, however, the most effective way to arouse civic pride and opposition to municipal corruption is to make it react directly upon the pockets of the taxpayer. Hull is a flourishing port and manufacturing town, with varied industries, having a population of about 250,000, and doubtless presents about the same problems, except for our heterogeneous population, as do our cities.

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