SOCIAL LEGISLATION ON TEE PACIFIC COAST 287 



ments and industry. The single-taxers claim that the increasing values 

 of laxid are made by the community and that the community should 

 take these values through taxation. They furthermore consider the 

 taxation of industry as a hindrance to industrial development and un- 

 just. The single-tax measures have assumed various forms, according 

 to the imagined taste of the voters. Three times they have been voted 

 down ; though the election returns show that they were favored by about 

 one third of the voters of Oregon. 



Street railways are the public highways of the modern city dweller, 

 as are the streets for the inhabitant of a small town. Hence the oppo- 

 sition to their use for private profit and the insistence on their regula- 

 tion for the welfare of the citizens who have no other recourse than to 

 use them. The public's interest in these public utilities is further 

 heightened by the close relationship that has existed between the gov- 

 ernments of the cities and the ofiicers of the public utility companies. 

 This relationship is quite natural, but in some cases it has not worked 

 for the best interests of the public. Hence another governmental func- 

 tion has been developed, that of regulating public utilities. California, 

 Oregon and Washington in 1911 passed public utility acts modeled on 

 the Wisconsin law, placing the control and regulation with the state 

 railroad commission. There are a few instances of municipal owner- 

 ship of street railways on the Pacific coast. Seattle began the operation 

 of a short line in 1914. San Francisco affords the more important 

 instance, being the first large city in the United States to own and 

 operate a municipal street railway. The Geary Street Eailway began 

 operation as a municipal road in December, 1912, after a long fight 

 begun in 1896. The line is five and one half miles long. Its operation 

 has been successful and the citizens seem pleased with it. A munici- 

 pally owned railway is also being run to the fair grounds of the Pan- 

 ama-Pacific Exposition. 



In the cleaning up of prisons and the bettering of conditions of 

 prison labor, the Pacific coast states have taken a leading place. The 

 theory of prison reform is to turn prisoners back to society better men 

 and women. To this end the "honor system" has developed. This 

 means that prisoners are permitted to work at their various occupations 

 with no armed guard, bound only by their pledge of honor. Published 

 reports state that there are no more escapes than under the old system. 

 The " honor system " has been developed in Nevada, Colorado and in a 

 few prisons in Ohio and in N'ew York ; but Oregon is notable in having 

 proportionately more prisoners working without guard. The "honor 

 system " is more spectacular, but no more important than other features 

 of prison reform, such as farm colonies, treatment of female prisoners, 

 medical aid, manual training shops and the parole system. Progress 

 in these features has been especially marked in California during the 

 last three years. The private leasing of convicts by contract and the 



