580 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 955 



Senator Eoot then went on to say that 

 there is nothing more important to-day 

 than that by education and the spread of 

 ideas such misunderstanding shall be done 

 away with; that Americans shall interpret 

 the spirit of popular government so that 

 each shall be ready to do justice to the 

 other, and every American shall desire the 

 prosperity and happiness of every other 

 American. 



But while there is great force in what 

 Senator Root says, it remains true that this 

 social unrest springs in a measure from 

 causes which the government can remedy. - 

 The part which the government must play 

 in our complex civilization is constantly 

 increasing, and is immensely more impor- 

 tant than in the simpler civilization of a 

 century ago. In the early days the indi- 

 vidual was much more independent, and 

 each community was much less dependent 

 on other communities than now. Society 

 was simple, communication and commerce 

 were limited, and relatively few laws suf- 

 ficed. The twentieth century differs from 

 the eighteenth in many respects, but in 

 none more strikingly than with regard to 

 the increasing complexity of business deal- 

 ings. 



The regulation and control of large cor- 

 porations which have virtually secured the 

 monopoly of particular industries is now 

 receiving the attention of many of our 

 leading scholars and statesmen, and the 

 solution of the problem will be a triumph 

 for popular government. The means that 

 may be employed for this purpose are not 

 so restricted as they formerly were. The 

 public is becoming educated rapidly, and 

 the constitution has greater capacities now 

 than formerly. 



STATE REGULATION OF NATURAL MONOPOLIES 



While the federal government in the 



' In other words, the people acting cooperatively 

 through their chosen representatives can remedy. 



last few years has been striving to break 

 up giant aggregations of corporations into 

 their constituent parts, with the hope of 

 getting these parts to compete with one 

 another and so put an end to an unde- 

 sirable monopoly, some of the states have 

 been dealing in constructive fashion with 

 another class of monopolies, and showing 

 how they can be regulated and controlled 

 to the end of conserving the best interests 

 both of the public and of the stockholders. 

 I refer to that very large and important 

 class of corporations known as public- 

 utility companies, chief among which are 

 the steam railwaj's of the country, city 

 and intemrban electric railways, gas and 

 water companies, electric light and power 

 companies and the telephone and tele- 

 graph companies. The federal govern- 

 ment through the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission has of course taken a leading 

 part in this development, particularly with 

 respect to the railways of the country, but 

 the work done by some of the state public- 

 service commissions, prominent among 

 which are the commissions of Massachu- 

 setts, Wisconsin and New York, is of far- 

 reaching influence and importance. 



The attitude of the public regarding 

 public utilities has been undergoing a pro- 

 found change in recent years. Formerly 

 a franchise for a street-railway or gas 

 company, for example, was usually granted 

 without compensation to the city, with few, 

 if any, obligations on the company, with 

 no control by the city over prices or serv- 

 ice, and with extensions of the service 

 into new territory optional with the com- 

 pany. Competition was sometimes sought 

 by granting a franchise to more than one 

 company, but generally such competition, 

 if any,- made the service poorer to the 

 public as well as the profits less to the 

 stockholders. If the business was profit- 

 able and the franchises valuable, city coun- 



