Gubernatorial Messages 777 



life, and there is no possible reason for changing 

 from one system to the other simply because the 

 change would make our political system in theory 

 more symmetrical. Obviously it is undesirable that 

 the government should do anything that private in- 

 dividuals could do with better results to the com- 

 munity. Everything that tends to deaden individual 

 initiative is to be avoided, and unless in a given case 

 there is some very evident gain which will flow from 

 State or municipal ownership, it should not be adopt- 

 ed. On the other hand, when private ownership en- 

 tails grave abuses, and where the work is of a kind 

 that can be performed with efficiency by the State or 

 municipality acting in its collective capacity, no 

 theory or tradition should interfere with our mak- 

 ing the change. There is grave danger in attempting 

 to establish invariable rules; indeed it may be that 

 each case will have to be determined upon its own 

 merits. In one instance a private corporation may 

 be able to do the work best. In another the State 

 or city may do it best. In yet a third, it may be 

 to the advantage of everybody to give free scope to 

 the power of some individual captain of industry. 



On one point there must be no step backward. 

 There is a consensus of opinion that New York 

 must own its own water supply. Any legislation 

 permitting private ownership should be annulled. 



Nothing needs closer attention, nothing deserves 

 to be treated with more courage, caution and sanity, 

 than the relations of the State to corporate wealth, 

 and indeed to vast individual wealth. For almost 



