Municipal Monopolies (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Municipal Monopolies<br><br>Every one concedes that soon one half of the population of this country will be living in cities of over 8,000 inhabitants, and that to every one of these cities the supply of water, street railways, electric light, gas for fuel and lighting purposes, and the telephone at the command of every one, if not in every home, will have become vital necessities. Nearly every one is also ready to concede that each of these industries partakes of the character of a monopoly.<br><br>Although competition has been tried in hundreds of places, combination, either avowed or tacit, has always been the result. The longest continued competition has been between gas and electric light, but consolidation has now occurred among companies producing even such distinct forms of illumination as these.<br><br>Three great questions now confront us: Shall we have public regulation, or public ownership and operation If the former, what shall be the nature of the regulation If the latter, what are the dangers to be avoided<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.