a The relief of the tax rates from the profits of the enterprise. b Institution of all-night service. c Workmen's cars. d Rate reductions upon many lines. But, above all, they insist upon the advantages obtained by employees from: e Establishment of the 10-hour day for all employees. f One day's rest in seven. g Increase of salaries. h Furnishing free uniforms. i Annual vacations of six days with full pay. j Since 1909 the establishment of a conciliation board. Whence we may legitimately draw the following conclusion: Municipal service must, above all, confer advantages on its employees. Such undertakings of right belong to them. The Municipal Year Book, of 1912, publishes the following summary of the situation of the tramways and light railways in the United Kingdom, according to the latest reports of the Board of Trade: The losses reported on tramways operated by local governments in 1910-1911 affected the following 27 municipalities: Birkenhead, Blackburn, Bournemouth, Colchester, Darlington, Dover, East Ham, Edith, Ilkeston, Ipswich, Kilmarnock, Lancaster, Leith, Lincoln, Lowestoft, Maidstone, Nelson, Oldham, Perth, Pontypridd, Rawtenstall, Southport, Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley, Dukinfield, Widen. The above tables do not give the rates of depreciation. It is a pity that The Municipal Year Book has not included them. But, besides the 27 local governments which have reported their losses, there are no amounts recorded for depreciation and reserve for Derby, Halifax, Walthamstow, West Ham (in 19091910), Yarmouth. In one of the best administered municipalities, Birmingham, the amount set aside for depreciation and reserve is £24,413 out of total receipts of £318,882, which is a little more than 7.6 per cent.1 At Glasgow it is £202,579 out of receipts amounting to £949,488, or more than 21 per cent. This difference between the two figures proves that the first is too small. The advocates of municipalization will not fail to point out the Glasgow figure, because it looks well and increases the average, but it is altogether exceptional. 17.6 per cent. on revenue is approximately equivalent to 1.5 per cent. on capital investment. CHAPTER XIII HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES AND PUBLIC OWNERSHIP IN GREAT BRITAIN Condemnation for Sanitary Reasons.-Expropriation and Sanitation.-Dispossessing and Housing.-Gross Receipts Apparently Concealed.-Bookkeeping Artifices.Miraculous Results.-Comparative Figures.-The Accounts of Birmingham.-Glasgow.-Liverpool.-Manchester. Sheffield. Salford. - Selecting Tenants. — Weakness of Group and Strength of Individual Initiative.-Edwin Cannon.-Lord Rosebery.-"You Dispossess More Than You House."-Bernard Shaw. - In a bill introduced by M. Siegfried, and passed by the French Chamber of Deputies, on the 22nd of April, 1912, as also in a similar bill providing for the condemnation of property for sanitary reasons, introduced by M. Honnorat, reference was duly made to the example of England by a citation of the Housing of the Working Classes Act of August 18, 1890. By this act local governments are authorized to demolish houses adjudged unsanitary, providing compensation therefor, it is true, but with deductions in the amounts allowed, based upon the different degrees of existing overcrowding and lack of sanitation. Later the legislators made up their minds that they were not doing their duty by simply putting the |