Public enterprise

“ The contemplated move is manifestly chimerical in any community, such as the modern industrial communities, where public policy is with growing singleness of purpose guided by business interests with a naive view to an increase of profits. ”

“ The first lesson in political economy of which I have any distinct recollection was to the effect that no government can carry on any industrial enterprise as profitably as it can be managed by individuals. As an abstract proposition this may be true. It cannot at present be proved or disproved. It has been abundantly demonstrated, however, that governments can and do carry on some very important classes of business with financial, political and social advantages to the whole public, incomparably superior to those obtainable previously from private performance of the same service. ”

“ The Believer then who is not in the public service, whose life lies among the operations of private enterprise, must work always on the supposition that the property he administers, the business in which he works, the profession he follows, is destined to be taken over and organized collectively for the commonweal and must be made ready for the taking over ”

“ In our municipal life, for example, it is the aroused interest and zeal of the best business community for better government and better conditions that can alone produce important results. Happily, all over the country we find chambers of commerce, boards of trade, merchants' associations, and other bodies of men of practical business affairs, taking their stand for the transaction of public business upon high standards of character and efficiency. ”

“ National Civic Federation, Report on municipal and private operation of public utilities. 1907. 3 vols. (A monumental study by an American delegation, which visited many cities of Europe and America; favorable, in the main, to extension of municipal ownership.)
Winchell, B. L., Drift toward government ownership of railways. Atlan. Mo., 110: 747-758. 1912.
Questions.
1. Does every government enterprise necessarily narrow the field for private enterprise and diminish the amount of competition?
2. What forms of state activity favor survival of unfit men and bad traits of character? ”

“ It must always be remembered that in the working of a [Pg 218] monopoly by the State, the interest of the public as a whole is the paramount consideration, and every economy consistent with efficiency must be adopted. ”

“ The public service corporation which is administered, not to render service to the public, but to permit stock speculators to reap a harvest, can hardly hope for the same brand of justice, and it is hardly to be expected that such a corporation will welcome publicity. ”

“ It is much better to treat it at once as a public function; and if it be not such as the government itself could beneficially undertake, it should be made over entire to the company or association which will perform it on the best terms for the public. ”

“ Public management will begin in those branches where the difficulties are smallest. Publicly managed enterprises will originally represent kind of oases linked with private enterprises by the laws of exchange of commodities. ”

“ But every successfully conducted private business establishment in the kingdom was an example of the ease with which public ones could be reformed as soon as there was the effective will to find out the way. ”

“ We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that people may know beyond peradventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. ”

“ Until we have developed and applied, much beyond present standards, the policy and practice of social agency on the part of individuals in the conduct of business, direct public control, and even public management of many kinds of business is the dictate of reason, of prudence and of patriotism. ”

“ The undertaking by the State or the Municipality, or other units of social life, of various departments of industry, such as the railways, telegraphs, post-offices, is a definite assertion that, in the supply of the common services rendered by these industries, the competition of private interests cannot be relied upon to work for the public good. ”

“ In view of these several features, which are so closely related that they form a common character, more or less fully shared by various industries, and especially in view of the necessity for the formal granting to them of peculiar privileges in the form of a public franchise, the public, in order to protect the general interest, is forced to undertake an exceptional control of these industries. ”

“ This view of the development challenge underlines in each and every case our basic economy policies, particularly those governing the role of private enterprise in the economy. There have been questions raised as to the role of private enterprise. ”

“ In another State, a single corporation held it, and yet again, it was often held by a corporate group acting together. In many States one individual dominated public affairs and more often for good than for evil. ”

“ His object is profit; and if industry is to become, as employers and workers in the building trade propose, an "organized public service," then its subordination to the shareholder whose object is profit, is, as they clearly see, precisely what must be eliminated. ”

“ The answer to all these questions is that the Government and the Municipalities have proved that they can manage vast and intricate businesses, and can manage them more cheaply, more efficiently, and more to the advantage and satisfaction of the public than the same class of business has ever been managed by private firms. ”

“ In the further development of the organization of labor and of large business, the public interest, as well [Pg 115] as the interest of Labor and Capital alike, will, it seems to me, be best advanced by whatever stimulates every man to do the best work of which he is capable; by a fuller recognition of the common interest of employers and employed; and by an earnest effort to dispel distrust and hatred and to promote good-will. ”

“ A government enterprise is managed by the people who represent, or are supposed to represent, the consumers; but the good or bad economy of its management does not necessarily redound to the profit or loss of those who most use it. ”

“ As an interested party to any condition of business, labor also is claiming the right to be heard. The public in its direct dependence on certain classes of corporations for many of its necessities and most of its conveniences is also interested in the proper conduct of those businesses. ”

“ Because private enterprise really meant more, therefore the Government said more, and the very defining of the work and circumscribing of its sphere made the results sounder, more lasting, and more substantial. ”

“ It appears necessary, therefore, to consider briefly the relation which these interests bear to one another, to study the causes which have led to mutual misunderstandings, and to note the proper relations which should, if possible, be established and maintained between the people and those corporations organized to perform certain of the functions of the State. ”

“ But, while the experience of any one office, taken by itself, furnishes a very imperfect criterion, each contributes its quota of knowledge and experience to the common stock, and the public get the benefit both of broad and trustworthy data and of that peculiar and intimate acquaintance with each different class of property or process which the conductors of one company or another are sure to possess. ”

“ The industry and commerce of a great country, he endeavoured to regulate upon the same model as the departments of a public office; and instead of allowing every man to pursue his own interest his own way, upon the liberal plan of equality, liberty, and justice, he bestowed upon certain branches of industry extraordinary privileges, while he laid others under as extraordinary restraints. ”

“ If you are at all distinguished in quality, you will have a competition among public authorities from the beginning, to act as sponsors and dealers for your work; benevolent dealers they will be, and content with a commission. ”

“ Most earnestly, therefore, does this Society call upon all to whom a maintenance, out of the public purse, is dear, upon those who value the places they hold at the expense of the country, or the permanence of the present Administration, to join them in promoting these objects and principles. ”

“ First and foremost, the thing at which the "practical" men smile, which professional "reformers" sneer at as an evasion of the issue, viz., teach the fundamental principles of corporate and state relationship to all sorts and conditions of men. ”

“ I do not mean that the transaction of public business has esoteric mysteries, only to be understood by the initiated. Its principles are all intelligible to any person of good sense, who has in his mind a true picture of the circumstances and conditions to be dealt with ”

“ All persons conversant with public business know the difficulties which, from this cause, have constantly been experienced in bringing commercial subjects, and even the condition of the population dependant on manufactures and commerce, under the consideration of government and parliament. ”

“ The entire wealth of the country in its different forms, irrespective of ownership, shall be subordinated to the general interest. 2. Public initiative in economic activity is recognized. Essential resources or services may be reserved by law to the public sector especially in the case of monopolies. Likewise, State intervention in companies may be imposed when the public interest so demands. ”

“ The absorption of private industry will be gradual. The public ateliers will all be united from the start [120] into a grand federation, and will form a mutual insurance company, so that the losses of one may be made good by the profits of others. ”

“ PART IV—AMERICAN POLITICAL PROBLEMS A. SOME ECONOMIC FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT CHAPTER XXVII PUBLIC INTEREST IN BUSINESS: REGULATION 322. NECESSITY OF PUBLIC INTEREST IN BUSINESS.—Although individuals carry on business primarily for their own ends, the economic activities of men affect not only themselves, but the community as well. If every individual voluntarily confined his attention to those forms of business which strengthened the community as well as adding to his own prosperity, there would be little need for laws regulating the conduct of business. ”

“ Our duty plainly consists, first, in regarding a public service corporation as a public agent, and, second, in allotting such values that this public agent will receive a full and fair return for every dollar judiciously and honestly spent in building and developing its property. ”

“ Canning, and that accumulated facts and well-digested reasoning on their bearing, a command of all the materials of commercial controversy, and a mastery of the laws that regulate the production and distribution of public wealth, combined with habits of great diligence and application, would ensure the attention of a popular assembly, especially when united to a high character and great social position. ”

“ The first essential in determining how to deal with the great industrial combinations is knowledge of the facts—publicity. In the interests of the public, the Government should have the right to inspect and examine the workings of the great corporations engaged in interstate business. ... "When the Constitution was adopted, at the end of the eighteenth century, no human wisdom could foretell the sweeping changes, alike in industrial and political conditions, which were to take place by the beginning of the twentieth century. ”

“ Religious and eleemosynary corporations are also included in this classification. The public corporation is such as is created for the purposes of government, such as cities, towns, villages, and institutions founded by the State, and managed by it for governmental purposes. ”

“ Diversified as the functions of the express companies have become, success has more than kept pace with their extension into varied fields, and a keen, wideawake public interest in the express business is demanded, not alone by the public and necessary character of the business itself, but still more by the extraordinary return which the companies receive for service performed. ”

“ You sell ’em out; you turn over the whole thing—the city, its property, and its people—to Business, to the big fellows; to the business leaders of the people. You deliver, not only franchises, privileges, private rights and public properties, and values, Boss: you—all of you together—have delivered the government itself to these men, so that today this city, this State, and the national government represent, normally, not the people, not the great mass of common folk, who need protection, but—Business ”

“ Innumerable corporations are acting on the presumption that the public is a mine, to be worked for all it is worth till the lead runs out. A change of public opinion is unlikely, therefore, until there is an evident change of front in corporate management. ”

“ In Looking Backward the entire social process is made an expression of service. Service is a matter of course, not of compulsion. No business is so fundamentally the public’s business as the industry and trade on which the livelihood of the public depends.X-29 Therefore, to intrust industry and commerce170 to private persons to be managed for private profit is a folly “similar to that of surrendering the functions of political government to kings and nobles for their personal glorification.” ”

“ Every inducement should be held out to join in such combinations, giving them the assistance and security of official auditors, as is provided for friendly societies at present Every line in which any class can profitably unite for economic action, on an entirely voluntary basis, and without any tie on the individual beyond his share in the enterprise, is a clear gain to society. ”