"Moreover, there was a strong public feeling in favour of the Corporation working the tramways. The company service was not efficient; it was dear, and their bad treatment of their employees had roused general indignation. "So the Corporation decided to manage the tramways, and the day after the company's lease expired they placed on the streets an entirely new service of cars, cleaner, handsomer, and more comfortable in every way than their predecessors'. "The result of the first eleven months' working was a triumph for Municipal management. "The Corporation had many difficulties to contend with. Their horses were new and untrained, their staff was larger and new to the work, and the old company flooded the routes with 'buses to compete with the trams. "Notwithstanding these difficulties, they introduced halfpenny fares, they lengthened the distance for a penny, they raised the wages of the men and shortened their hours, they refused to disfigure the cars with advertisements, thus losing a handsome revenue, and in the end were able to show a profit of L24,000, which was devoted to the common-good fund and to depreciation account. "Since that time the success of the enterprise has been still more wonderful. "The private company during the last four weeks of their reign carried 4,428,518 passengers. "The Corporation in the corresponding four weeks of 1895 carried 6,114,789. In the year 1895-6 the Corporation carried 87,000,000 In the year 1899-1900 127,000,000 In the year 1900-1 132,000,000 In 1895-6 the receipts were L222,121 In 1899-1900 the receipts were L464,886 In 1900-1 the receipts were L484,872 In 1895 there were 31 miles of tramway In 1901 there were 441/2 " " In 1895 the number of cars was 170 In 1901 " " was 322 "The citizens of Glasgow have a much better service than the private company provided, the fares are from 30 to 50 per cent. lower, the men work four hours a day less, and get from 5s. a week more wages, and free uniforms, and the capital expended is being gradually wiped out. "In thirty-three years the capital borrowed will be paid back from a sinking fund provided out of the receipts. "The gross capital expenditure to May 1901 was L1,947,730. "The sinking fund amounts to L75,063. "But the Corporation have, in addition, written off L153,796 for depreciation, they have placed L91,350 to a Permanent Way Renewal Fund, and they have piled up a general reserve fund of L183,428. "Under a private company L100,000 would have gone into the pockets of a few shareholders _on last year's working_--even if the private company had charged the same fares and paid the same wages as the Corporation did, which is an unlikely assumption."