222 rosa: regulation of natural monopolies 



concerns operated by business men for the benefit of the people, 

 and as such they are models for the whole world. They own and 

 operate most of the public utilities themselves, and do it well, 

 and hence the necessity of public regulation is there less felt 

 altho it has been practiced for many years. But in this country, 

 municipal ownership has been less successful, except in the case 

 of municipal water supplies. 



There have been three stages in the modern history of natural 

 monopolies. In the first they went unregulated, being operated 

 for the profit of the owners and exploited for the benefit of finan- 

 ciers. In the second stage, regulation was by legislation and law 

 suit. In the third, regulation is by commission; the regulation 

 is more complete, as well as more intelligent, and co-operation 

 and publicity are the keynotes of the method. 



The large industrial corporations which have virtual monopo- 

 lies, are mainly in the first stage, altho some are in the second. 

 Whether they will finally come to the third stage, and be regu- 

 lated by the methods now apphed so successfully to natural 

 monopolies, remains for the future to determine. 



If state regulation of natural monopolies becomes as general 

 within a few years as it promises to be, and if it is as successful 

 generally as it has been in the few states which took it up first, 

 it will solve the problem of public utilities and largely solve the 

 problem also of good municipal government. 



The signal success of the Wisconsin Commission was largely 

 due to the influence of the University of Wisconsin. In its per- 

 sonnel and methods it was a scientific commission, and entered 

 into its work with the spirit of the investigator. Its spirit and 

 its methods have been adopted by some of the other state com- 

 missions, of which a larger number have been created recently and 

 are now taking up their work. 



If the administrative officers of the commissions are assisted 

 by scientists, engineers, and economists, and the work is 

 done in a judicial spirit, as new problems being taken up as a 

 scientific research would be, the states and federal government 

 "acting in full co-operation, with the experience of each available 

 to all; if the work is done in that way we may be certain that 

 success will be sure and permanent. 



