524 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 617. 



which persists in impeding the execution of 

 its will. What could such an employer be, 

 in dealing with labor on a large scale, save 

 a harsh task-master? What could it natu- 

 rally become save a driver of shackled 

 slaves? Where is the clear-headed and in- 

 dependent wage-earner who will consciously 

 invoke such tyranny ? 



Fallacies of Municipal Ownership: Allen 

 Ripley Foote, Secretary State Chamber 

 of Commerce, Columbus, Ohio. 

 The most beneficent service a government 

 can render the people is to correctly regu- 

 late, not to own and operate, public service 

 utilities. Every gain made in reducing 

 prices for services charged to the people by 

 eliminating the political elements of the 

 costs of ownership and operation paid by 

 corporations, can be eliminated by placing 

 corporations under a correct system of 

 regulation, and granting them, without 

 charge, every privilege enjoyed, without 

 payment, by the municipal corporation. 



Politicians now take advantage of cor- 

 porate mistakes to make promises of better 

 service. They make a show of keeping 

 their promises to the people, by the simple 

 process of not charging into the account 

 numerous items all of which are paid by 

 corporations and must be covered by prices 

 they charge for services rendered. The ap- 

 parent gains sometimes shown by municipal 

 ownership advocates in the department of 

 economic costs, on close analysis and inspec- 

 tion are invariably found to be the products 

 of political book-keeping, and an unsound 

 financial policy. These include the pay- 

 ment of the interest account on bonds out 

 of the tax-payers' money and charged to 

 general expense, instead of to the operating 

 expenses of the utility; no insurance, with 

 losses by fire to be paid out similarly; no 

 account taken of depreciation. 



Economic gains are thus shown, but not 

 made. Such gains must be earned, they 



can not be created by a fiat resolution. In- 

 stead of making savings for the people, 

 municipal ownership has resulted in ham- 

 pering, restricting and deadening all enter- 

 prise and improvement in the industries it 

 has absorbed, and in placing heavy burdens 

 upon the tax-payers. 



Correct regulation would require all cor- 

 poration accounts to be kept in the form 

 prescribed by the state for the information 

 of the people. There would be an end of 

 watered stock ; wars between competing cor- 

 porations would cease; operating costs 

 would not be inflated by charges for fran- 

 chises and property taxes; prices charged 

 for services would be true economic prices. 



The Corporate and the Individual Con- 

 science: Cora Agnes Benneson, LL.B., 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



Within the last decade great changes have 

 taken place in business management. From 

 individuals it has passed to corporations, 

 composed of individuals, to be sure, but 

 they must now consider corporate instead of 

 personal interests; they have, or should 

 have, a corporate conscience. 



Granted, that although a corporation 

 proverbially has no soul, it has a corporate 

 conscience. Who is responsible for that 

 conscience, the stockholders, the directors or 

 the state ? 



On measures involving public welfare, 

 the state conscience should be on the alert. 

 If a corporation corners a necessary com- 

 modity, like wheat or coal, or unduly 

 cheapens labor, it is dangerous to the re- 

 public and the state should take away its 

 charter. State laws should be passed pro- 

 tecting minority stockholders. 



The directors are responsible for the cor- 

 porate conscience, when they resort to 

 double-dealing, as for instance privately 

 giving lower railroad rates to certain cor- 

 porations than to individuals, or exploiting 

 the corporation for private ends. The 



