Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/157

MUNICIPALITY. 125 MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP. where a policeman shoots a bystander wliile at- teniptin<; to kill a dog running at large. The same is true of negligence on the part of the fire department and of the health department. In all these eases the municipality is acting in its public governmental capacity as an agency of the State. In the management, however, of institu- tions not directly connected with the function of government, such as wharves, gas and water works, markets, and wash-houses, municipal cor- porations are held liable for injuries that may result therefrom, the theory being that in this capacity the corporation is engaged in private business, from which often a revenue is derived. It is also a general rule that municipal corpora- tions are responsible for the management of streets. The rule, however, docs not apply to qiMsi corporations in the management of public highways. This is due to the fact that, ixnlike pure municipal corporations, they are engaged chiefly in the performance of public govern- nientiil duties from which they do not generally derive any revenue or particular private advan- tage. The peculiar rule exists in New England that the property of any citizen of a muni- cipality against which a judgment has been re- covered may be seized in execution thereof. Else- where the remedy is execution upon the jirivate property of the municipality. Consult: Dillon, The LaiP of Muniriptil Corporations (Boston, 18(10) ; .Jones, The Xrrilirience of Municipal Cor- porations (Xew York, 1892) ; Goodnow, Com- parative Administraiirr Lair (New York, 180.3) ; id., iliiniripnl Honir Rule (New Y'ork, 1897). MUNICIPAL LAW. To the Romans, mu- nicipal law' meant the special law of the cities, other than Rome, which were included in the Roman Empire. A lex municipalis was a city charter, granting limited self-government in mat- ters of local interest. On the Continent, toward the clo.se of the Middle Ages, the phrase was sometimes used to describe any local law. whether of a city or a province, as contrasted with the general law of Christendom, i.e. the Roman law. civil and canon. Later, with the development of international law, municipal law came to de- scribe local law in contrast with international law. The term is no longer used in this way on the Continent: municipal law now means city law- ns contrasted with national law: but among English-speaking peoples national law is called nnmicipal in contrast with international law. English municipal law has thus become the ■very inappropriate description of all the law^ written or unwritten, by which England is gov- erned in matters purely English. The expression •municipal law' is sometimes, however, employed in the United States in the Continental sense above indicated, to describe the organization of municipal corporations and the local laws enacted and enforced by municipal authorities. It is under this head (municipal corporations), therefore, that information con- cerning the organization of city, county, town- ship, and village governments, the organization and jurisdiction of local courts, and police laws for the regulation and restraint of vice, may be found. See Muxicip.^litt. Consult the authori- ties referred to under .JuRlsPBUnENCE. MUNICIPAL LEAGUE, N,vnoN.T.. An or- ganization composed of associations seeking to accomplish municipal reform in the various citie3 of the United States, it was established in Xew York in 1894. as the outcome of a naticmal con- ference held in Rhiladelphia in .July of that year to promote the interests of good government. It has no political interests wliatever, but confines its operations to the securing of good miinicip:il laws, the appointment of men of integrity and ability to office, and the correction of abuses in municipal methods of government in American cities. The reforms recommended by the League are being tried with consideralde success by va- rious municipalities throughout the United States, Cuba. Hawaii, and Porto Rico. The League is also directing attention to the ques- tion of instruction in municipal government, in American educational institutions, and to the subject of uniform municipal accounting and statistics. A meeting is held annually to confer and report on the subject of nuinicipal reform. MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP. Possession by a municipality or any minor civil division of the State. The term is. however, more commonly limited to public as opposed to private ownership of water-works, lighting plants, street railways, telephone systems, and other revenue-producing industries designed to meet the wants of urban populations. The term generally implies munic- ipal operation as well as ownership, but ex- ceptions are frequent and sometimes notable. The term •municipal socialism' has sometimes been used in much the same sense as municipal ownership: but it is more inclusive, embracing various eflforts to meet the collective wants of a municipality, whether founded on municipal ownership or not. In its broadest sense, munic- ipal socialism would provide for all waiits com- mon to the citizens of a municipality, in so far as they were not met by the State. A narrower usage would apply the term more particularly to unusual municipal enterprises, such as the man- agement of coal-yards or bakeries. The terra 'municipal trading' has been applied in England to municipal ownership, but it has not gained currency outside of Great Britain. The services which a municipality may be ex- pected to render its citizens are more compre- hensive than those included under municipal ownership, municipal socialism, or municipal trading, as may be seen by referring to the ar- ticle JIrMClP.4LLlTy. The' object of the pres- ent article is to consider those undertakings which require the nse of the streets or other public places, and which might be carried on by either municipal or private enterprise, but are actually carried on by the former. Since by their nature such undertakings exclude competition, they are called natural or municipal monopolies. Under either kind of ownership they can be carried on only by authority from the State, in the form of general or special legislation, besides which a private corporation must generally secure the grant of a municipal francliise permitting it to use the public streets. Within the limitations stated the most common ol^cets of municipal ownership are sewerage systems and water- works, and gas and electric-lighting plants. More rarely street railways, ferries, and tele- phones are owned by the municipality. .queducts for the supply of the cities of an- tiquity were the nearest approach to nuinicipal ownership as the term is understood to-day, al- though from remote times cities have ownicd lands, improved harbors, built docks, and de-