THE BONDAGE OF CITIES - The Community Environmental Legal ...

THE BONDAGE OF CITIEStracks and running of cars thereon along any street, for thesole purpose of excavating and filling in a street, 'and forsuch limited time asmay be necessary for the purpose aforesaidand no longer." The only power such cities have undergeneral law to construct and operate lines for the transfer ofintelligence by wire, is to maintain fire alarm and police telegraphsin the city or city and county.We find, therefore, that in California, municipalities under15,000 have unrestricted power to build and operate telegraphand telephone systems, but for larger places there is no generalprovision authorizing anything more than a fire alarm andpolice telegraph. The law so exactly mirrors the interests ofthe corporations that one cannot help having a suspicion thatmunicipalization of the telephone is not permitted in the largecities because the private companies want to keep those citiesfor themselves, while municipalization is permitted in smallplaces because there is little or no inducement for the bigcorporations to go there they can use their money "to betteradvantage" in the larger cities.In Minnesota, any city or village, on a 2/3 referendumvote, may buy and own and operate a telephone plant.Andin Indiana, a general law provides that any city of more than35,000 inhabitants may build or buy and operate telegraphor telephone lines to serve the city and its inhabitants, or maypurchase and hold a majority of the stock of any corporationorganized for such purpose.(For Wise, see Appendix II, U.)MUNICIPAL LIGHTING LAWS.We come now to municipal ownership of lighting-plantsand will then consider local control of franchises. In dealingwith gas and electric light, we shall try to give an idea of theso that they may beprovisions that go with the light laws;seen in true relations to their surroundings. We shall findthat this method will lead us by almost insensible gradationsto the study of local consent and powers of grant.In Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Delaicare, Maryland,South Dakota, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana,Arkansas, Nevada and Wyoming, there appearsto be