The Street Railway Controversy in Cleveland.

The article reports on the street railway controversy in Cleveland. In previous studies. the author has been concerned with the personalities of the leaders of the Civic Revival in Ohio and with the ideas which animated the movement. Interesting and important as was the dream of a city on a hill, the real import of the movement lies in its contribution of a practical example of a fight against privilege. The object of the present series of papers is to illustrate how this fight was carried on. In both Cleveland and Toledo the Street railway question was the vigorous and practical issue around which the fight against privilege centered. The Civic Revival began in both cities as a people's attempt to prevent local street railway companies from obtaining franchise extensions from supposedly corrupt councils. Popular antagonism toward the transportation and other public service companies was the backbone of the Civic Revivalists' political support. The problem of the terms upon which cities should renew street railway franchises was one faced by many communities in the early years of the twentieth century, for grants awarded about twenty-five years before were then beginning to expire.