ve Rae 
 _ OHIO STAT JNIVERSE 
 
AN OPEN LETTER 
 
 TO THE REPUBLICANS AND INDEPENDENT CITIZENS 
 _ OF OHIO. 
 
 —- 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OHIO 
 
 NEEDED REFORMS 
 
 IN TAXATION, 
 IN LETTING OF PUBLIC FRANCHISES, 
 IN CITY ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 UNITED STATES SENATOR, COXISM, AND 
 : MACHINE DICTATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 PTI 
 
 CINOINNATI: 
 ELM STREET PRINTING CO. 
 1895. 
 
¥ 
 
 To the Republicans and Independent 
 | Citizens of Ohio. | 
 
 ; ether. 
 
 " winter 
 
 N 
 
 Let us talk together over public 
 affairs for a little while. It is our 
 
 privilege, our right, and sometimes. 
 
 our duty to talk to each other. This 
 is a good time for. us to talk to each 
 We have no campaign in 
 progress, no candidates have been 
 nominated, and we have the leisure of 
 in which to consider the 
 questions which vitally affect us. 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF STATE AFFAIRS. 
 For a number of years past the 
 public mind has been so absorbed 
 with National affairs, the schemes of 
 politicians and the rivalries of con- 
 tending factions in the respective 
 parties, and the importance of Na- 
 tional issues, that little, if any atten- 
 tion has been given to the equally if 
 not more important matters of State 
 affairs. The time has come for the 
 people of the State of Ohio to give 
 serious attention to State and munici- 
 pal affairs, and their attention is not to 
 be diverted, and ought not to be, by 
 the persenal ambition of candidates 
 for office even though they may be 
 such high offices as the Presidency of 
 the United States or the United States 
 Senate. 
 
 REASONS AND SUBJECTS FOR CON- 
 
 SIDERATION, 
 The extraordinary financial and 
 
 business depression of the past two 
 years has created a condition of affairs 
 
 that merits the highest order of states- 
 manship to meet it and to provide 
 
 Alt — aie ih 
 
 against its evils. It is undoubtedly 
 true that the country just now is pro- 
 foundly disgusted’ and dissatisfied 
 with the incompetency of the Demo- 
 
 ‘cratic party in national affairs, and 
 
 that the prospects of the return of the 
 Republican party to power in Na- 
 tional affairs are very bright, and that 
 our party is likely in 1896 to enter 
 upon the control of National affairs 
 and to have given to it a long lease 
 of power. Power brings responsi- 
 bility. Power often brings a misuse 
 of power and attracts to the party in 
 power that class of men who are in 
 politics every minute for all there isin 
 it to them personally. It brings to the 
 front that obnoxious and abhorrent 
 machine which recognizes no interests 
 but its own; whose wishes, desires 
 and ambitions control absolutely 
 reason, conscience, and public in- 
 terest; which is remorseless, selfish and 
 satanic in its tactics, methods, and 
 warfare on everything that interferes 
 with its personal interests; that uses 
 or misuses the public press in every 
 form to keep itself before the public 
 and to disguise its real objects, while 
 at the same time it utterly fails to 
 work out beneficial reforms. 
 
 There are three directions in which 
 this State needs reform. These are, 
 taxation, the administration of justice, 
 and the government or administration 
 of cities. Let me call your attention 
 to at least two of these : 
 
 eno 4 At 
 
REFORMS IN TAXATION. 
 
 First :—Needed reforms in taxa- 
 tion: The tax duplicate of the State 
 of Ohio for the year 1893 aggregated 
 $1, 752,999,939, of which $1, 184,- 
 423,675 was realty and $568,567,255 
 was personalty; in round figures it 
 was $1, 750,000,000, of which $1, 200,- 
 000,000 were realty and the balance 
 $550,000,000 in personalty. Itis safe 
 to say that the real estate of the State 
 of Ohio to-day,—take the entire real 
 estate of the State in the aggregate, —is 
 not worth any more than it was 
 twenty years ago. It is equally safe to 
 say that the net income from that real 
 estate is as small if notsmaller than at 
 any time in the past twenty years, 
 and it is equally safe to say that the 
 burden of taxation thereon is as great, 
 if not greater than at any time in the 
 history of the State. The actual value 
 of the real estate of the State of Ohio, 
 city and country, is not any greater 
 to-day than it was in 1870, notwith- 
 standing the increase in certain por- 
 tions of the State. This has been more 
 than offset in the decrease in other 
 parts of the State, especially in the 
 value of farm realty. And yet the real 
 estate of Ohio carries more than two- 
 thirds of the total burden of taxation. 
 It is undoubtedly true that the aggre- 
 gate wealth of the State of Ohio is at 
 least twice greater to-day than it was 
 twenty-five years ago, and that the 
 increased wealth of the State is not 
 in real estate proper, and on the whole 
 produces, in what it is invested, a very 
 much larger net income than real 
 estate does. The great proportion of 
 that increased wealth is not onthe tax 
 duplicate; is not contributing to the 
 burdens of State and municipal gov- 
 ernment, and yet is enjoying a net 
 income at least twice as great as the 
 real estate, which is thus burdened. 
 
 BURDENS OF FARM PROPERTY, 
 It is also to be noted that more 
 
 than half of the real estate of the State 
 of Ohio is farm property, and that the . 
 
 farm property, real and personal of ~ 
 this State, carries a greater burden of 
 taxation in proportion to its selling 
 value, and produces a smaller net in- 
 come than any other property in the 
 State. General Grosvenor, in a com- 
 munication made a few days ago to 
 the Athens County Farmers’ Institute, 
 says: 
 
 ‘‘We have gone on heaping up 
 taxation upen farms and houses and 
 horses and cattle, and things which 
 are in sight, until the burden has be- 
 come a grievous one and hard to 
 bear. The depreciation in the prices 
 of farm products has more than kept 
 pace with the appreciation of public 
 expenditures, and we find that not 
 only taxes in the aggregate are be- 
 coming higher, but the sources of 
 revenue are shrinking.” 
 
 We have been confronted with this 
 condition of affairs for years; but the 
 public mind has been so diverted 
 from that condition by the clamor of 
 contending political factions, by the 
 ambitions of men for public office, by 
 national issues, etc., that the evil has 
 remained unremedied. 
 
 CONSTITUTION NEEDS NO CHANGE, 
 
 As we view it, no change is needed 
 in the Constitution of the State of 
 Ohio on the subject of taxation. The 
 legislative power of the State of Ohio 
 is co-extensive with the subjects of 
 taxation. It may tax under the 
 present constitution every subject of 
 taxation in the form of property and 
 business. Reform is not needed so 
 much in the subjects of taxation as it 
 is in the method of valuing and assess- 
 ing those subjects. If the property 
 of the State, pursuant to the man- 
 date of the constitution, were taxed 
 according to its true value in money, 
 measured by its selling value, the rev- 
 enues of the State would be abund- 
 antly increased, and gross injustice 
 
would be remedied and the tax rate 
 largely reduced. 
 
 THE NICHOLS LAW. 
 
 In 1889 a bill was introduced into 
 the legislature of Ohio providing for 
 the taxation of Telegraph, Telephone 
 ‘and Express companies, which was 
 based on the just, equitable and con- 
 stitutional principle, that the property 
 of these quasi-public corporations 
 should be assessed, for the purposes 
 of taxation, at its true value as evi- 
 denced by the selling value of their 
 capital stock and other evidence. 
 That bill failed to pass. It reappeared 
 in the Legislature of 1890, and again 
 failed to pass. In 1893 it passed and 
 was known as the Nichols bill, It 
 included, prior to its passage, Street 
 Railways, Gas Companies and Elec- 
 tric Light Companies. As it passed 
 the Senate, it included Express, Tele- 
 graph, Telephone and Street Railway 
 Companies. In the House it was 
 amended by including, in addition to 
 
 these companies, Transfer, Freight 
 Line, Pipe Line Gas and Electric 
 
 Light Companies. In conference, all 
 
 the companies were eliminated from. 
 
 it save Express, Telegraph and Tele- 
 phone Companies, and in that form 
 the bill was passed. 
 
 THE LOSS TO THE STATE. 
 
 If the bill as it passed the House 
 had been enacted into a law, so that 
 
 Street Railways, Gas and Electric 
 Light Companies had been included 
 in its provision, the tax duplicate of 
 the State of Ohio would have been 
 from fifty to one hundred millions of 
 dollars greater than it is to day, and no 
 injustice of any kind would have been 
 done these companies. How, and 
 by whom and by what influence were 
 the Street Railroads, the Gas Com- 
 panies and the Electric Light Com- 
 ' panies stricken from the bill? Whose 
 political influence was employed by 
 
 these companies? Measured by the 
 selling value of the capital stock of 
 these companies, that property is not 
 assessed for taxation at an average of 
 over ten per cent. while the real estate, 
 including the farms of Ohio, averages, 
 the State over, not less than sixty per 
 cent. of its selling value as assessed 
 
 for taxation; and the net income of 
 that real estate is not one-half the 
 
 income of Street Railways, Gas and 
 Electric Light Companies. 
 
 HOW AND WHO? 
 
 I repeat: Why did the Legislature 
 of the State of Ohio, under the con- 
 trol of our party, strike out of the bill 
 Street Railways, Gas and Electric 
 Light companies? What influences 
 were used by those companies, politi- 
 cal or otherwise, to accomplish this 
 result and to escape this just share of 
 taxation, which in the past has been 
 borne and is now borne by the over- 
 taxed real and personal property of 
 the State. 
 
 Let us examine into the history of 
 this legislation in these past few years. 
 Let us not forget that our party is re- 
 sponsible for the failure to enact into 
 legislation this needed reform in the 
 valuation of property, and let us hold 
 to strict accountability the members 
 of the Legislature who contributed to 
 the defeat of these measures, and also 
 those whose political influence was at 
 the service of these corporations to 
 that end. 
 
 THE SUPREME COURT AND THE LAW. 
 
 The Supreme Court of Ohio has 
 upheld by unanimous decision the 
 constitutionality of the rule of valua- 
 
 * tion embedied in the Nichols law. It 
 
 has said : 
 
 ‘“«The market value of property is 
 what it will bring when sold as such 
 property is ordinarily sold in the com- 
 munity where it is situated; and the 
 fact that it is its market value cannot 
 
be questioned because attributed some- 
 what to good will, franchise, skillful’ 
 management of the property, or any 
 other legitimate agency. 
 
 It will, we think, be conceded that 
 the earning capacity of real estate 
 owned by individuals may be con- 
 sidered in fixing its value for taxation. 
 Take an office-building on a promi- 
 nent street in one of our large cities. 
 It will not be doubted, that by care 
 in the selection of tenants, and in the 
 preservation of the reputation of the 
 building, by superior elevator service, 
 by vigilance in guarding and protect- 
 ing the property, by the exercise o 
 skill and knowledge in the general 
 management of the premises, a good 
 will of the establishment will be pro- 
 moted which will tend to an extra in- 
 crease in the earning capacity and 
 value of the building. For the pur- 
 pose of taxation, it would be none 
 the less true value in money of the 
 building, because contributed to by 
 the operative causes that gave rise to 
 the good will. We discover no satis- 
 factory reason why the same rule 
 should not apply to the valuation of 
 corporate property—why the selling 
 value of the capital stock, as affected 
 by the good will of the business, 
 should be excluded from the consid- 
 eration of the board of appraisers 
 and assessors under the Nichols Law, 
 charged with the valuation of cor- 
 porate property in this State, espec- 
 ially as the capital stock when paid 
 up, practically represents, at least, an 
 equal value of the corporate property.” 
 
 . THE COMING RULE OF VALUING COR- 
 PORATE PROPERTY. 
 
 Sooner or later this rule of valua- 
 tion ought to be applied to all of the 
 corporate property in this State, and 
 when so applied, no injustice will be 
 done to that class of property, and 
 the grand duplicate ot the State of 
 
 Ohio will be, or ought to be under a 
 fair and just administration of the 
 law, double what it now is, and the 
 rate of taxation correspondingly re- 
 duced, and the burden removed from — 
 the property which for so long a time 
 has been unjustly assessed. : 
 
 THE LAST LEGISLATURE AND TAXATION. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that the last 
 legislature endeavored to find sources 
 of revenue to increase the revenue of 
 the State by passing laws to subject 
 certain properties and rights te taxation 
 which had hitherto, in their judgment, 
 escaped their fair share of the burden. 
 They were driven to this by the neces- 
 sities of the State, but they failed to 
 select subjects which would have madé 
 a more substantial contribution to the 
 revenue, and at the same time benefit 
 the State government. Why did they 
 not increase the tax on saloons from 
 $250 to $500? The sum of five hun- 
 dred dollars would neither be unjust 
 nor oppressive. It would undoubt- 
 edly close from three to five thou- 
 sand saloons in the State of Ohio. 
 A five hundred dollar tax would 
 not only have been beneficial in its 
 effects in the matter of good govern- 
 ment, but it would have produced all 
 the needed revenue to the State. Why 
 do the political leaders in both parties 
 refuse to increase the tax on saloons? 
 
 SALOONS FAVORED—-FARMS BURDENED, 
 
 Why is it that the property of the 
 State that produces the least income is 
 assessed with the largest burden of | 
 taxation? What is to be thought of 
 the leadership that thus cares for public - 
 interests ; that uses its political influ- 
 ence to keep corporate property from 
 bearing its fair share of taxation, and . 
 to save the saloons from an increase 
 in the present tax which they ought to 
 bear, and which if they did pay 
 would not compensate for one-half of 
 the burdens which they impose on 
 
the State, and their evils from which 
 the people suffer ? 
 
 BANQUETS AND SPEECHES. 
 
 7 
 
 We have had two banquets in our - 
 
 city, one of certain members of the 
 legislature, the other of certain leaders 
 in our party. You will look in vain 
 in the speeches at either banquet for 
 -asingle suggestion, practical_or defi- 
 nite for the relief of the over-taxed 
 property of this State, and in the direc- 
 tion of needed reform in taxation— 
 glittering generalities alone. 
 harmony, in order to facilitate the per- 
 _ sonal ambitions of certain leaders, is 
 called for, but the best interests of the 
 people, needed reform in taxation, 
 needed reforms in the administration 
 of justice and our municipalities, are 
 absent from all of these addresses. 
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES, MACHINES AND 
 e PURPOSES. 
 
 Can it be that parties exist solely 
 for the purpose of the so-called har- 
 mony that means absolute submission 
 to one faction or war to the knife if 
 its demands are not acceded to? Can 
 it be that the Republican party, which 
 ought to be the leader in all needed 
 reforms, exists solely for the purpose 
 of serving the personal ambition of 
 certain leaders? There are thousands 
 and tens of thousands of men who are 
 as loyal Republicans as are to be 
 found, who are not the property of 
 any man, who belong to the Repub- 
 lican party because they believe it 
 best serves the interests of the coun- 
 try. It ceases to serve those interests 
 when those in control of its machinery 
 and policy are more concerned with 
 their personal ambitions than with the 
 highest welfare of the people and 
 needed reforms in State government. 
 The people will retire our party from 
 power and seek some other agents if 
 we fail to work outthe reform needed, 
 
 Party 
 
 ing the Street Railway system 
 
 PUBLIC FRANCHISES. HOW WE ARE 
 
 ROBBED. . 
 
 This brings me to consider another 
 source of public revenue which be- 
 longs to the people, but of which the 
 people have been robbed; and that is 
 the matter of public franchises. I re- 
 peat: This State and the citizens of 
 this State are systematically, I might 
 say daily, robbed of the value of pub- 
 lic franchises that belong to them. I 
 affirm that if the City of Cincinnati de- 
 rived her legitimate share of the value 
 of the public franchises she grants in 
 her streets to Street Railways, Tel- 
 egraph, Telephone, Gas and Electric 
 Light and Power Companies that her 
 net annual revenue from these sources 
 would not be less than $1,000,000, 
 and that our tax rate ought not to be 
 over one per cent. In the matter of 
 these franchises, to use a common 
 phrase, we are not ‘‘in it” with other . 
 cities in other countries. 
 
 COMPARISONS WITH OTHER CITIES. 
 
 Let me take what the Review of Re- 
 views of August, 1894, called an Ob- 
 ject Lesson in Municipal Government 
 in the City of Toronto, Canada. She 
 
 has a Street Railway system. By the 
 
 kindness of her Mayor, I recently 
 received a copy of the contract be- 
 tween the City of Toronto and the 
 purchaser of her Street Railway fran- 
 chise, which was entered into Sep- 
 tember 1st, 1891. Toronto is a city 
 of two hundred thousand people. She 
 has one system of Street Railroads 
 operated by one company. What 
 are the terms of the grant? What 
 does the City of Toronto receive, 
 and what does the Company operat- 
 re- 
 ceive? In 1891 the then existing 
 Street Railway franchise expired. It 
 was a horse-car system. The City by 
 the terms of the old franchise had the 
 right to purchase the entire plant of 
 
that Street Railway Company, which 
 she did at a price fixed by arbitration, 
 in round figures $1,500,000. The 
 property consisted of the roadbed, 
 the horses, cars, barns, and other 
 property. The city then advertised 
 for bids at public auction for a twenty 
 year grant,—with a ten year exten- 
 sion in addition if the Legislature 
 should authorize the city to grant it,— 
 for the exclusive right to operate her 
 Street Railway system ; and these are 
 the terms that she advertised : 
 
 1st. The purchaser was to pay the 
 million and a half dollars that the 
 city had agreed to pay to the old 
 company. 
 
 2nd. The purchaser should pay 
 an annual rental of $800.00 per mile 
 for every mile of single track and 
 $1,600 per mile for every mile of 
 double track during the existence of 
 the grant? 
 
 3rd. The rate of cash fare should 
 be five cents; twenty-five tickets 
 should be sold for one dollar, making 
 a four cent fare; eight tickets should 
 be sold for twenty-five cents, to be 
 
 used from the time the cars started in 
 the morning until 8 a. m., and be- 
 
 tween 5 and 6:30 p. m., called Work- 
 ing Men’s ticket. This ts a three cent 
 fare. School children should be car- 
 ried on tickets ten for twenty-five cents, 
 being a ¢wo and one-half cent fare be- 
 tween 8 o’clock in the morning and 
 5 in the evening; and the Com- 
 pany should sell six tickets for a quar- 
 ter, good at any time. Also a com- 
 plete system of transfers. 
 
 4th. The Company was to change 
 the entire horse car system to trolley. 
 
 I will not enumerate the other pro- 
 visions of this contract except to say, 
 that the company in acquiring the 
 franchise was prohibited from running 
 cars on Sunday, so that it was a six 
 and not a seven day franchise that 
 was sold. The following was the bid 
 
 of the highest bidder, which was ac- 
 
 cepted, and under it the system is 
 
 being operated to-day : 
 ‘¢« TORONTO, June 25th, 1891. 
 
 To the Corporation of the City of 
 Toronto and to Alfred McDougall, 
 Esq., Chairman of the Street Railway 
 Committee : 
 
 We, George W. Kiely, William Mc- . 
 Kenzie and Henry A. Everett, offer 
 to buy the privilege of operating sur- 
 face street railways in the City of 
 Toronto on the basis of the amended 
 conditions and to pay the following 
 rates of percentages of annual gross 
 receipts, namely: 
 
 (2) From 1,000,000 to $1,500,000. ....10 - ° 
 
 (3) ~——-1,500,000 to 2,000,000.....12 “  — 
 
 (4)  “ 22000000 to _3,000,000.....15 “ 
 All over $3,000,000...... 20 «6 
 
 And we make this offer on condi- 
 tion that it shall be disposed of with- 
 out any unnecessary delay. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 (Signed) G. W. Krgty, 
 Won. McKENZIE, 
 H. A. Everett.” 
 
 CINCINNATI VS. TORONTO. 
 
 ‘Compare this with the grant made 
 to the Cincinnati Street Railway Com- 
 pany in 1893, and under which the 
 greater portion of the Street Railway 
 System of this city is being operated. 
 The Toronto grant was a six-day 
 grant; the grant here is for seven 
 days. The Toronto grant was cash, 
 five cents; tickets, four cents; morn- 
 ing and evening, three cents; school 
 children, two and one-half cents. 
 The grant here is a uniform cash fare 
 of five cents. The total revenue de- 
 rived by the City of Cincinnati from 
 all of her street railways for the year 
 1894 was less than sixty thousand dol- 
 lars. The total mileage in the City of 
 Cincinnati of street car lines is one 
 hundred and fifty (150) miles. At 
 eight hundred ($800) dollars per mile 
 annual rental, as in the City of To- 
 ronto, this would yield the City -of 
 Cincinnati one hundred and twenty 
 
thousand ($120,000) dollars. Assum- 
 ing the annual gross receipts of all 
 the street railw-ys to be three million 
 ($3,000,000) dollars in the City of Cin- 
 cinnati, the total annual income of the 
 city from gross receipts alone on the 
 Toronto basis would be three hundred 
 and forty thousand ($340,000) dol- 
 lars. Add to this the annual mileage 
 rental and the difference which the 
 people pay—of at least one-fifth—-being 
 the difference between a five cent 
 cash fare and a four, three, and two 
 and one-half cent ticket, and the differ- 
 ence between the value of the grants 
 in the City of Cincinnati, so far as 
 the income derived from the city and 
 the people is concerned, and that of 
 the City of Toronto on the same 
 basis, is over seven hundred thousand 
 ($700,000) dollars per annum. 
 
 HOW SUCH VALUABLE GRANTS ARE 
 ACQUIRED. 
 
 Let the citizens of Ohio investigate 
 how these companies acquire such 
 valuable grants in the respective cities 
 of the State. Franchises are granted 
 to companies almost daily in the re- 
 speetive Ohio cities without the slight- 
 est compensation being derived by 
 the city or by the State. How are 
 these franchises secured? From whom 
 are they secured? Who do the com- 
 panies employ, and what influences do 
 they use for the purpose of securing 
 from the State and its cities, practi- 
 cally without compensation, such val- 
 uable grants. 
 
 TELEPHONE FRANCHISES. 
 
 Let me call attention to another 
 class of franchises. About the same 
 time that the City of Toronto entered 
 into her contract for the operation of 
 her street railway system, she made 
 on the 17th of September, 1891, a 
 contract with the Bell Telephone 
 Company to give them an exclusive 
 franchise in Toronto for the use of 
 
 the telephone for five years, from 
 Sep. 1, 1891. By that contract the 
 Bell Telephone Company,—which is 
 the same so far as instruments, ser- 
 vice and the control of the parent 
 company are concerned, as we have 
 in all our Ohio cities,—agreed to put 
 all her lines in the center of the city 
 in sub-ways and to provide free of 
 cost to the city, sufficient room in the 
 sub-ways for the city fire alarm. She 
 agreed to pay to the city annually 
 five (5) per cent. of her gross re- 
 ceipts, and that the annual rate for 
 telephones in dwelling houses should 
 be twenty-five ($25) dollars, and in 
 business houses forty-five ($45) dollars; 
 and that the service shouldbe on me- 
 tallic circuits. 
 
 CINCINNATI RATES. 
 
 The average rate in the City of 
 Cincinnati for residences is about 
 sixty-five ($65.) dollars, and for busi- 
 ness houses one hundred ($100.) dol- 
 lars, so that in a city one-third larger 
 than Toronto, the telephone rates are 
 more than double, and the annual in- 
 come of the telephone company 
 is correspondingly doubled. Why 
 should the City of Toronto be able to 
 obtain telephone service at almost 
 one-third the rate that is paid in Ohio 
 cities, and at the same time 
 derive five (5) per cent. on gross 
 receipts while, the City of Cincinnati, 
 and other cities of Ohio do not derive 
 one cent? And all this from practi- 
 cally the same telephone company. 
 
 No amendment is needed to the 
 constitution of Ohio to reach the sub- 
 ject of public franchises. 
 
 HOW FRANCHISES SHOULD BE _ DIS- 
 
 POSED OF. 
 
 All public franchises ought to be 
 awarded to the highest bidder at pub- 
 lic letting ; the duration of the fran- 
 chise, and the terms upon which the 
 franchise is to be operated should be 
 
fixed, and the bidder limited to the 
 payment of a certain sum per annum 
 for the right to exercise the franchise. 
 At the last legislature a bill was intro- 
 duced, providing for the letting of all 
 franchises at public auction. Why 
 was it not passed? Who secured its 
 defeat? What political and other in- 
 fluences were employed to defeat it? 
 Who were the men that arrayed them- 
 selves against the public interests and 
 killed that bill ? 
 and independant citizens, see to it that 
 the men who are sent to the next Leg- 
 islature are men who will be loyal to 
 the interests of the people and not 
 susceptible to other influences.« Why 
 are the people of Ohio daily and sys- 
 tematically robbed of the value of 
 these franchises? Why do other cities 
 in other countries pursue the wise busi- 
 ness policy of securing to the people 
 the value of the franchises which 
 they grant? Why is it that our legis- 
 latures are so susceptible to the influ- 
 ences that work against the people? 
 Will you place in office, either in State 
 or Federal legislatures, men whose 
 political influence can be _ hired or 
 used against the public welfare and 
 in the interest of private corpora- 
 tions? 
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE MEETING. 
 
 It would have been an interesting 
 banquet of the members of the Legis- 
 lature, if they had converted it into 
 an experience meeting and told us 
 how and why, and by what means 
 street railway, gas and electric light 
 companies were kept out under the 
 operation of the Nichols Law, and 
 why the bill providing for the letting 
 of all franchises at public auction 
 never saw the light of day. 
 
 RATE OF TAXATION IN OHIO. 
 
 There is no good reason why the 
 rate of taxation in Ohio should exceed 
 one per cent. 
 
 Republicans of Ohio 
 
 The legitimate sources 
 
 10 
 
 of revenue, especially the franchises, 
 of the State and the minor agencies — 
 of the State should provide abundant 
 revenue for all public expenditures if 
 they were not squandered — given 
 away to private corporations, who, in 
 order to secure them, employ the nec-. 
 essary political influences te accom- 
 plish their purpose. Can any reason- 
 able man tell us why the cities of Cin- 
 cinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, 
 Dayton and Springfield, should not 
 enjoy what the City of Toronto, Can- 
 ada, has done in the matter of street 
 railway and telephone service? Why 
 should not our cities receive as great 
 an income from their franchises as 
 the City of Toronto? ‘Take the case 
 of Gas, Telegraph, Telephone, and 
 Electric Light & Power Com- 
 panies. They use the streets of the 
 city as the premises on which they do 
 business, and they do not pay rent 
 for the premises thus used. Why 
 should the public streets be occupied 
 by any corporation fer profit, as the 
 premises on which these corporations 
 do their business, and the public not 
 receive the benefit of the occupancy? 
 Why should capital invested in these 
 quasi public corperations double and 
 quadruple itself without effort, energy 
 or skill, and pay a handsome income 
 on the increased value, simply by 
 reason of the franchises given by the 
 power creating the grant, while the 
 city is deprived of her just share of 
 revenue? Money invested in manu- 
 facturing, in banking, or in any other 
 business does not increase in capital 
 or income as does money invested in 
 public franchises in this country, and 
 why? Simply because the value that 
 belongs to the state and to the people 
 is given to private individuals without 
 any compensation to the state. 
 
 This communication is likely to be 
 lengthy, otherwise I could cite numer- 
 ous other instances to demonstrate the 
 
- absolute folly that has pervaded the 
 
 business management of this state, and 
 her cities'in the matter of public fran- 
 chises. How long will the real estate 
 interests of the state, which are bur- 
 dened beyond endurance with taxa- 
 tion, permit these sources of revenue 
 to escape? How long will the farm 
 interests of this state permit the mem- 
 bers of the legislature to barter away 
 these franchises ? 
 
 It is enough now to say that the 
 fireworks of candidates for office, 
 whether for the Presidency, United 
 
 States Senate, or the Legislature, and - 
 
 the clamor cf the machine for har- 
 mony, should not obscure the neces- 
 sity for reform in taxation and the let- 
 ting of public franchises. 
 
 -REFORM IN CITY GOVERNMENT. 
 
 In the matter of needed reforms in 
 municipal government, let me take 
 this City of Cincinnati as an object 
 lesson. I have already called atten- 
 tion to the value of the public fran- 
 chises, especially those granted to cor- 
 porations that occupy the streets of the 
 city as the premises on which they do 
 their business, such as Street Rail- 
 ways, Gas, Telegraph, Telephone and 
 Electric Light and Power Companies. 
 The reckless manner in which these 
 franchises are granted, and the great 
 loss to the state and to the Cities is 
 already manifest by the comparison 
 with what is derived from similar 
 grants in other cities. 
 
 CINCINNATI BOARD OF ADMINIS- 
 
 TRATION. 
 In this city we have what is called 
 a Board of Administration, whose 
 
 ‘members are appointed by the Mayor 
 
 of the city, nominally two Republi- 
 cans and two Democrats; actually 
 and absolutely in the service of the 
 dominant Cox machine in_ politics. 
 This Board of Administration has 
 more extraordinary legislative and ad- 
 
 ay 
 
 ministrative powers than any Board 
 that has ever existed in the State of 
 Ohio, and without restriction, limita- 
 tion or accountability. All of its acts 
 within the limit of its powers are free 
 from supervision by the City Board of 
 Legislation or the Mayor of the City, 
 or any other authority. The extent 
 of its power and patronage may be 
 
 ‘ measured by the actual amount of 
 
 money which it has the sole authority 
 to expend. According to the report 
 of its president for the year 1894, the 
 actual amount of money expended by 
 it in street cleaning, repairs, City In- 
 firmary, parks, sewers, sanitary, en- 
 gineering, Water-works, and its own 
 affairs, exceeded one and a half mil- 
 lions ($1,500,000) of dollars; and the 
 actual amount of money in work 
 ordered on new streets, sewers and 
 sidewaiks exceeded two million ($2,- 
 000,000) dollars; the city’s portion 
 of which latter expenditure of over 
 two millions exceeded seven hun- 
 dred and: fifty thousand ($750,000) 
 dollars, which amount is paid by issu- 
 ing bonds, thus increasing the bonded 
 debt of the city for these matters alone 
 to that extent. In this Board is vested 
 the granting of the Street Railroad 
 franchises by extensions of grants 
 without any supervision, limitation or 
 control. In 1893 it made certain 
 grants to the controlling Street Rail- 
 road Company in this city, which 
 were worth to the company receiving 
 them, millions of dollars; from which 
 the city ought to receive, on the basis 
 of the Toronto grant, an annual in- 
 come of at least half a million dollars, 
 but from which the city did not re- 
 ceive in 1894 one-tenth of that sum. 
 The City of Cincinnati will not receive 
 from its entire Street Railway system, 
 from all the companies using its streets 
 in 1895, a revenue to exceed one 
 hundred thousand ($100,000) dollars. 
 She has in the city proper not less than 
 
one hundred and fifty (150) miles of 
 single line. At an annual rental of 
 eight hundred ($800) dollars per mile 
 paid by the Toronto Street Railway 
 Company, this would yield on the 
 mileage rental alone one hundred and 
 twenty thousand ($120,000) dollars 
 per annum. The gross receipts of the 
 Street Railway Companies of this city 
 cannot be less than three million 
 ($3,000,000) dollars. On the basis of 
 the Toronto grant of the percentage of 
 gross receipts; the annual payment 
 would be three hundred and _ forty 
 thousand ($340,000) ‘dollars, making 
 a total of mileage rental and gross re- 
 ceipts of four hundred and sixty thous- 
 and ($460,000) dollars per annum. 
 The companies here receive a-uniform 
 fare of five cents cash, whereas the 
 Toronto company sells tickets twenty- 
 five (25) for one dollar ($1.00), which 
 is a four (4) cent fare, and in the 
 morning and evening a three (3) cent 
 fare; so that the people of this city 
 pay at least one-fifth more to the com- 
 panies here, which is a contribution 
 by them of not less than two hundred 
 and fifty thousand ($250,000) dollars 
 per annum, which isto be added to 
 the sum of four hundred and sixty 
 thousand ($460,000) dollars of rental 
 and receipts. It is to be borne in 
 mind also, that this is a city one-third 
 larger than Toronto; and further, that 
 the Toronto franchise was for six days 
 in the week, whereas the Cincinnati 
 franchises are for seven days in the 
 week. This Board of Administration, 
 although fully advised as to the value 
 of these grants, and although under 
 no compulsion to make the grants, 
 and although appealed to, to refer the 
 whole matter to the legislature of 
 Ohio, so as to provide for competition 
 by making these grants matters of 
 public letting, made these grants to 
 the existing private corporations, and 
 the people were powerless to prevent 
 
 12 
 
 their action. Instead of a revenue of 
 a half million dollars, per annum from 
 these grants, which the City of Cin- 
 cinnati ought to enjoy, the city will not 
 receive during the life of the grants to 
 exceed one hundred thousand ($100, | 
 ooo) dollars per annum, measured by 
 her experience for 1894, and her esti- 
 mate for 1895. | 
 
 FRANCHISES GIVEN AWAY. 
 
 Franchises have been granted to 
 Long Distance Telephone Companies, 
 and Electric Light and Power Com- 
 panies to use the streets without the 
 slightest compensation being provided 
 for to the city or to the state; and 
 now that the city might derive the 
 benefit of competition in its telephone 
 and other service, this Board has the . 
 power to lay such restrictions on new 
 companies as to practically give exist- 
 ing companies the exclusive monopoly 
 of the city. The Legislature of the 
 State of Ohio should, at its next 
 session, take this whole subject of 
 franchises under consideration, to the 
 end that these practically irresponsible 
 boards, not elected by the people, 
 should be deprived of the exclusive 
 power to throw away valuable grants, 
 and the city and the State should be 
 secured the full value of the fran- 
 chises she awards at public letting 
 within her bounds. 
 
 NEW IMPROVEMENTS EXCESSIVE. 
 
 Notwithstanding the extraordinary 
 financial depression of 1893 and 1894, 
 and notwithstanding the fact that the 
 real estate of the city is less produc- 
 tive than at any time in the past 
 twenty years, this Board continues 
 improvements in streets, sewers and 
 sidewalks on a scale utterly unwar- 
 ranted, and without the slightest re- 
 gard to the burden imposed upon those 
 specially assessed for these improve- 
 ments, and the increased bonded debt 
 of the city. Over two millions of 
 
work done or ordered by this Board 
 in’ 1894 on streets, sewers and 
 sidewalks, every dollar of which must 
 be paid by the tax-payers, and that at 
 a time when the tax rate of the city is 
 about as high as it has ever been in 
 its history, and when property has 
 been less productive than at any time 
 within the last twenty years, And 
 yet the powers of this Board are so 
 unlimited, so free from restriction, 
 that those who are affected by its 
 action are powerless to prevent it. 
 Ineed not say that a Board with 
 the power to expend from three mil- 
 lion to five million dollars per annum, 
 without restriction or limitation, and 
 not elected by the *people, appointed 
 solely by the Mayor of the city, is not 
 the best method of promoting purity 
 in city government and economical 
 and efficient administration of affairs. 
 It becomes in the hands of unscrupu- 
 
 _ lous partisans who are in politics for 
 
 personal ends, a huge mdchine, and 
 sooner or later3destroys the party in 
 whose interest it is said to be wielded, 
 and becomes obnoxious and abhorrent 
 to every good citizen. The franchises 
 granted to the Street Railroad of this 
 city, of such value and for which the 
 city receives such a miserable pittance, 
 were granted under a system that 
 ought to be reformed. It would be 
 an interesting inquiry to know why 
 the Board granted these} franchises 
 to a private corporation for profit, and 
 to know whose services and abilities 
 were persuasive in securing to that 
 cerporation these grants, in the light 
 of the information before the Board 
 as to the value of the grants and in 
 view of the appeal to refer the entire 
 matter to the legislature of Ohio for 
 power to make these grants matters 
 of public letting to the highest bidder. 
 
 THE NEXT LEGISLATURE, 
 
 The greatest care is needed by the 
 
 13 
 
 citizens of Ohio in the selection of 
 members to the legislature, whether 
 in Democratic or Republican coun- 
 ties. The time has come for the 
 people of this state to arrest the pro- 
 cess of throwing away valuable fran- 
 chises to private corporations, secured 
 through political influence or other- 
 wise. The revenues of this State do 
 not keep pace with its legitimate ex- 
 penditures, and the reason is that 
 legitimate sources of revenue in the 
 matter of public franchises and other- 
 wise, are disposed of on the principle 
 that what is everybody’s business is 
 nobody’s business, and those selected 
 to represent the public interest are too 
 often persuaded in other directions. 
 
 A notable illustration of this was 
 the grant, without competition, by the 
 last legislature of forty-two miles of 
 public canal to a private corporation 
 without public letting. 
 
 I have limited my suggestions touch- 
 ing reforms in municipal government 
 to the matter of public franchises and 
 the expenditure of public moneys in 
 other directions. . 
 
 POLITICS—U. S. SENATOR, 
 
 Let me speak now touching a mat- 
 ter purely political, The campaign of 
 1895 will be distinctively a state and 
 not a national campaign. The only 
 thing to give it a national character 
 will be the election of a United States 
 Senator to be chosen by the Legisla- 
 ture. That duty, by the federal con- 
 stitution as well as by the state, is cast 
 upon the legislature that will be 
 elected in November, 1895. To the 
 ordinary mind it would seem wise and 
 good politics to leave the selection of 
 the United States Senator to the body 
 charged with that selection, and that 
 its duties should not be foreclosed by 
 a political machine for its personal 
 ends, or by the ambition of political 
 aspirants to that and other offices. It 
 
14 
 
 would seem to be wise politics to have 
 no specific candidate on the part of 
 either party for that office in advance 
 of the election of the legislature. To 
 have such a candidate is to carry the 
 burden of his record in the campaign, 
 is to put the party that selects him on 
 the defensive. It is to invite the other 
 party to discuss his past record and 
 career; whom he has served—himself, 
 or the public; his fitness for that high 
 office, his character, his associates in 
 political management; his relation to 
 the machine in his party; his abili- 
 ties, his temper, his wisdom; his con- 
 servative qualties that would entitle 
 him to sit in the Senate of the United 
 States as a fit successor to a Wade, a 
 Garfield, a Matthews, a Thurman ora 
 Pendleton. Each party will have the 
 right in the event of such a foreclosure 
 of the position, to inquire what are the 
 views of the candidate as to the silver 
 question, as to the tariff question, as to 
 the other great questions at issue in 
 national affairs; and the party thus 
 foreclosing would be compelled to take 
 on itself the risk of all the animosities, 
 dislikes and objections which voters 
 had to the specific candidate thus 
 selected, and of their expression by 
 refusing to support legislative candi- 
 dates so pledged. 
 
 THE CONDITION OF OUR PARTY. 
 
 An extraordinary condition of affairs 
 seems to prevail in the Republican 
 party. Weare told by a number of 
 newspapers, and a number ef so-called 
 leaders who have had themselves inter- 
 viewed, or have been interviewed, 
 that three-fourths of the Republican 
 party at least are in favor of a certain 
 candidate. Who authorized these 
 papers and these men—some of them 
 terrorized or hypnotized cuckoos of an 
 obnoxious machine—to speak for 
 three-fourths of the Republican Party 
 in Ohio, and how and when did they 
 
 ay 
 ascertain the views of three-fourths of — 
 
 the people? Neither the newspapers 
 nor the gentlemen themselves have 
 furnished the information. 
 
 But we are further told that unless 
 the Governor of this state shall not 
 
 only say that he is not a candidate for — 
 
 the Senatorship, but is in favor of this 
 
 other candidate, he cannot have a_ 
 
 united delegation from Ohio for him:as 
 a candidate for President before the 
 national convention in ’96. This is a 
 most extraordinary position, and 
 sounds like the threat of the political 
 highwayman, and even to a child in 
 politics seems to be consummate folly. 
 The child might ask, why not reverse 
 the position and say—unless this can- 
 
 didate for U. S. Senator and his” 
 
 friends will declare they are for the 
 Governor, for the Presidency, then 
 this candidate cannot be U. S. Sena- 
 tor. Are declarations and preferences 
 to be all on one side? 
 summate folly to have declarations or 
 preferences, with threats, on either 
 side? | 
 
 THE TERRORISM AND HYPNOTISM OF 
 COXISM. 
 Some of us who have declined to. 
 
 be terrorized and hypnotized into the 
 support of such a policy, have been 
 
 assailed by the cuckoos of the machine 
 
 and their part of the press as ‘ mis- 
 chief makers.” We are told that the 
 test of loyalty to the Republican party 
 in Ohio for the year 1895, is the pref- 
 erence for, and the determination to 
 support a certain candidate for the 
 United States Senate, and unless he 
 is so supported to the exclusion of all 
 others in advance of the election of 
 the legislature, whose duty it is to 
 elect the candidate, then we are to 
 have a rupture in the party ; and those 
 of us who may have other preferences 
 are traitors to and disturbers of the-so- 
 called harmony of the party. Coxism 
 
 Is it not con- . 
 
knows no right of preference save 
 ‘submission to its will. All who thus 
 differ are to be assailed, belittled and 
 lied about, and those who will not sup- 
 port this candidate, cannot be nom- 
 inated for the legislature. The insan- 
 ity and selfishness of such political 
 folly are only paralleled by the insan- 
 ity and selfishness of the political folly 
 that peddled the ballot box forgery in 
 1889, on the unsupported evidence of 
 a confessed criminal, as the means by 
 which the Republicans were to elect 
 their Governor, and defeat the Demo- 
 cratic candidate in that year. 
 
 TO WHOM DOES OUR PARTY BELONG? 
 
 When did the great Republican 
 party of Ohio become the property of 
 any manor any machine? There are 
 thousands and tens of thousands of 
 Republicans in Ohio without whose 
 support the Republican party never 
 did win, and never will win, who are 
 not the property of any man, and to 
 whom the policy of the machine, that 
 in the fireworks of so-called harmeny, 
 seeks to foreclose the action of the 
 
 15 
 
 Legislature, and to dominate and con- 
 
 ‘trol the intelligent judgment of the 
 State, is obnoxious and abhorrent. 
 This machine, which uses and misuses 
 the press, by fake interviews and false 
 stories, which is irresponsible, re- 
 morseless and conscienceless in many 
 of its methods, has on several occa 
 sions brought the party into sore 
 Straits, and in 1889, lost the state to 
 the party, including the Governship 
 and the United States Senatorship. 
 It is a machine that knows no har- 
 mony save and except absolute sub- 
 mission to its demands. It cries, 
 ““peace, peace,” when there is no 
 peace. It destroys the liberty of ac- 
 ‘tion, and independence and self. 
 respect which has made the Republi- 
 _ can party hitherto the party of the 
 
 majority of the conscience and the 
 intelligence of the country. 
 
 Coxism has selected this rallying 
 cry of a certain candidate for the 
 Senatorship of the United States, for 
 the purpose of securing to itself the 
 control of the legislature in the inter- 
 est of its schemes. It sought to do 
 this in. 1891 and was defeated. Give 
 it the control of the legislature in 
 1895, and the control of the party 
 machinery, and it will inevitably lead 
 the Republican party to defeat, as it 
 has done in the past. 
 
 SPRING ELECTION OF 1894. 
 
 In the Spring of 1894, this machine 
 had become so obnoxious to the intel- 
 ligence of this city that it invited its 
 own defeat, and an appeal was made 
 to some of us to save our party from 
 the consequences of the folly of the 
 machine. We responded to that ap- 
 peal, not because we did not consider 
 the machine and its methods abhor- 
 rent, but we considered the method 
 selected for its defeat as only pre- 
 senting a choice of machines, as the 
 mere substitution of an irresponsible 
 and more obnoxious machine for one 
 that might be controlled to some ex- 
 tent, and eventually destroyed by our 
 party. 
 
 The twenty thousand votes that were 
 cast for Theodore Horstman for May- 
 or, in this city in the Spring of 1894, 
 were not cast for Horstman person- 
 ally, but as a protest against that ma- 
 chine. The views of these twenty 
 thousand citizens have not changed as 
 to Coxism, and the Republicans of 
 Ohio might as well understand now 
 as at any other time, that thousands 
 and tens of thousands of Republicans 
 of this city and this state regard 
 the Cox machine that under the 
 guise of this candidate for the U. S. 
 Senate is seeking to extend its opera- 
 
tions over the entire state, as fatal to 
 the party. 
 
 HOW WE MAY MERIT DEFEAT. 
 
 One hundred and thirty thousand 
 Democrats in Ohio, it is said, stayed 
 at home last fall because of dissatis- 
 faction with their party. Will the so- 
 called leaders of the Republican party 
 terrorized by the threats and hypno- 
 tized by the promises of Coxism— 
 the Indian in politics—invite a like 
 stay-at-home vote in our party in’95? 
 Will we repeat 1889 in 1895? ‘The 
 machine has no use for any man who 
 refuses to kiss its feet and endorse all 
 of its methods. Its policy is to rule or 
 ruin. Its terrorism and hypnotism 
 are appalling. What claims do any 
 of its men possess on the Republican 
 party in Ohio, that warrants it in 
 carrying the party to probable defeat? 
 
 It is possible that the deep-seated dis- ° 
 
 gust of the people with the ineffic- 
 iency and incompetency of the Dem- 
 ocratic party in national affairs may 
 enable the Republican party in Ohio 
 in 1895, to run the risk of carrying 
 this machine, obnoxious as it is with 
 
 16 
 
 its candidates and methods. Person- 
 ally, I am opposed to that risk. 
 
 I know that some of the papers of 
 my party in this state will assail me 
 as a disturber and a mischief maker, 
 while either refusing to give my rea- 
 sons or mis-stating them. I care for 
 none of these things, nor for the 
 cuckoos and tactics of Coxism. This 
 letter is written without consultation 
 with any person. No man except my- 
 self is directly or indirectly, in any 
 sense, resposible for its sentiments. It 
 is the utterance of one who believes 
 in the Republican party, but who re- 
 fuses, under the cry of harmony, which 
 means submission to an obnoxious and 
 abhorrent machine, under the cry of 
 ‘““peace,’? when there is no peace, 
 to sacrifice his independence and self- 
 respect in endorsing, approving or 
 consenting to the machinery of the 
 Republican party in the State of Ohio, 
 becoming what it is in the City of 
 Cincinnati, an unadulterated, obnox- 
 ious COXISM. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 THos. McDouGALt. 
 Cincinnati, Feb. 15, 1895. 
 
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