Public utility

“ We must include also a wide range of objects of public utility, such as roads and all appliances of transportation and manufacture, and public structures for education, worship, government, health and charity, adding instruments of knowledge and pleasure such as books, music, ornaments and all works of art. ”

“ Even such advantages as works of solidarity, benefit clubs, education, recreation, &c., profit the members in the long run. To do away with all appearance of exploitation of the public it would be better to apply the profits accruing to the society from sales to non-members or at least tfce part which is not returned to them towards some work of public utility outside the society. ”

“ But with regard to one subject after another, such as primary education or sanitation, or the ordinary matters of municipal government, the community has come to the conclusion that it is in the public interest that these services should be rendered to all who need or claim them, whatever their affluence. ”

“ Work I must for the public benefit,—and the root of the matter is in exertion and dispatch of business, than which nothing is more efficacious for the public welfare. And for what end do I toil? For no other end than that I may discharge my debt to animate beings. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I might urge a selfish motive to induce you to do so; the future welfare of the state,—politically, socially, religiously,—depends in a measure upon the exactitude of the returns—the interest of each is bound up in the interest of all—what furthers the public weal will enhance your private benefit. ”

“ The paramount importance of the trade and industry of the country, and my anxiety that the exigencies of the public services should be provided for in the manner least burdensome to the community, have induced me to resort to the means which the constitution has entrusted to me, of ascertaining the sense of my people upon matters which so deeply concern their welfare. ”

“ Thomas E. Watson, New York.
Dear Sir: I am a regular reader of your Magazine, which I find very interesting and instructive. I believe in the Public Ownership of Public Utilities, but fear that does not go far enough to cure the land of the evils that now curse it. With Government banks, Government railroads, Municipal Ownership of Public Utilities, there would still be that awful strife of the many for bread and butter. If we may ride cheaper on the “Railhighways,” if we get our Water, Gas, and Electric Light cheaper, will not the wages of the workers go down as the cost of living decreases? ”

“ All services in the household, in contributing to bodily comfort of the family, make an essential part of human welfare, but prudence requires such an adjustment of these services to the total wealth-producing energy that they may be maintained without reducing the total power. All public expenditures in the care of streets and parks are an essential to welfare so long as the sources of wealth production are kept the more active from such advantages. ”

“ Even in the oldest cities there is no pauper class. (5) In the United States public and private relief, charity and correction, the care of sick, criminal or indigent individuals, and the efforts to improve housing, to provide facilities for recreation, and so on, are coming to be regarded as component parts of a complicated system, not as separate and distinct departments in the economy of the nation. (6) Finally, there is in American social work something of the readiness to “scrap” machinery, processes and plants, which is characteristic of American industry. ”

“ Akin to public charity are all those public enterprises undertaken to ameliorate the condition of the poor—parks, model tenement houses, art galleries, free concerts, free baths, and relief works of all kinds. To these I must add all those Federal, State, and municipal enterprises, such as the post office with the proposed savings attachment, a State system of highways and waterways, municipal water, gas and electric works, etc., that are supposed to be of inestimable advantage to the same worthy class. These likewise fill the heart of the American Philistine with immense satisfaction. ”

“ It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to closely limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the Government economically administered, because this bounds the right of the Government to exact tribute from the earnings of labor or the property of the citizen, and because public extravagance begets extravagance among the people. ”

“ In many instances states and municipalities have in late years seen fit to enter upon projects to promote the public welfare which in the past have been considered entirely within the domain of private enterprise. ”

“ His cattle may not graze in the streets. He must give part of his earnings toward maintaining a water supply for a protection against fire. The citizen of a great city is subject to far more restrictions. The government assumes [201] the control of education, charities, the care of the public health, the drainage of the streets, the collection of offal, and a multitude of other duties which in a less intense civilization each family performs for itself. ”

“ The great majority of city officials and employees are engaged in rendering social and economic services—such as teaching in schools, caring for the public health, building streets, inspecting markets, attending to the water supply, putting out fires, and making out tax bills; all of which tasks are quite different in nature from the work which legislatures or governors or courts perform. It is work which, in order to be effective, must be done in accordance with the methods of everyday business with emphasis on intelligence, punctuality, and honesty. ”

“ But it is not merely on account of the superior interest they have in the public welfare, that persons of high rank and great property, and such as occupy places of importance in the government, are bound to support measures calculated to relieve the distresses of the Poor;—there is still another circumstance which renders it indispensably necessary that they should take an active part in such measures, and that is, the influence which their example must have upon others. ”

“ The advocates of this theory point out that the functions of the Government change with progress, and that in our complex modern industrial life it should seek to improve conditions positively, and not leave the people to the mercies of a blind competitive struggle; practically, it should regulate industry, conditions of work, housing, etc., and should manage all public utilities which affect the life or well-being of the citizens, as railroads, telegraphs, industrial insurance, etc. ”

“ One of the most difficult and interesting practical problems which now engages the thoughts of the American people is how to maintain economy, efficiency, and purity in the administration of local affairs, and especially in the government of towns and cities, without a departure from principles and methods which are deemed essential to free popular government. ”

“ On the other hand, I, and the few who think with me, contend that justice alone is to be administered by the community in its corporate capacity; and that the practice of generosity is to be left to private individuals, and voluntarily-formed combinations of individuals. Insuring each citizen's safety in person and property, as well as insuring him such returns for his services as his fellow-citizens agree to give, is a public affair; while affording him help, and giving him benefits beyond those he has earned, is a private affair. ”

“ Legislation making it a crime to publish or circulate false or deceptive matter relating to public utilities.
The proper relationship of the government to the development through government itself of power resources and power manufacture is clear enough if the fundamental rights of the individual and the government are kept in mind. I do not hold with those who advocate government ownership or government operation of all utilities. As a broad general rule, the development of utilities should remain, with certain exceptions, a function for private initiative and private capital. ”

“ The growth—of our cities and the increasing complexity of our industrial life have greatly increased the number of activities which it is to our advantage to carry on, not individually, but collectively or through the agency of government. The spread of altruism and the widening of the concept of social service have caused the extension of governmental activity in such new fields as social insurance, recreation, and public health. ”

“ I am sure of this, that so long as men agree to maintain society, they will more and more agree that the question of private or corporate or public control of the industrial opportunities upon which the good of all depends is in the last resort a question of administration. Is the public welfare most likely to be subserved by public or by proxy management? ”

“ The expansion and increasing complexity of municipal activities, the desire of women for more knowledge about their new responsibilities, the need for better living conditions brought about by greater congestion, the necessity for conserving every ounce of man and woman power, the demand for greater efficiency and rock-bottom economy in every line—all these conditions are making themselves felt with the public official. ”

“ All questions of nationalization of industries or of [pg 345] community consumption must be brought to the test of universal need. What the whole community wants the whole community has a right to provide in the way which brings most good with least expenditure of exertion in any form. No other question can outweigh in importance this one of public need or public welfare. Every producer and every consumer is interested in seeing that such welfare is not overlooked by the public, or infringed upon by any individual or combination of individuals in his community. ”

“ Every consideration of care for the public interest and every sensible business reason dictate such management or disposal of this important source of public revenue as will except it from the general rules and incidents attending the ordinary disposition of public lands and secure to the Government a fair share at least of its advantages in place of its transfer for a nominal sum to interested individuals. ”

“ In fact, as soon as individuals shall be educated and placed—and it is for the best and permanent interest of society that all should be educated and placed—the saving of time, labour, and capital, between public and private property, will be beyond any estimate the mind of man can form in favour of public property.... ”

“ In other words, the economic model of pure public goods will track our reality well in some areas and poorly in others—and the argument for state intervention to fix the problems of public goods will therefore wax and wane correspondingly. ”

“ It is the only government which has shown due consideration for working men as such; which has recognized the value of their services, and encouraged what is the chief compensation for their condition of poverty, their participation in public life. ”

“ By prescribed law, by authorized publicity, by informed public opinion, let her continue to strive to provide that all conditions under which her citizens live are worthy of the highest faith of man. Healthful housing, wholesome food, sanitary working conditions, reasonable hours, a fair wage for a fair day's work, opportunity — full and free, justice — speedy and impartial, and at a cost within the reach of all, are among the objects not only to be sought, but made absolutely certain and secure. ”

“ Power to own, maintain and operate public utilities, such as waterworks, gas and electric plants, street railway systems, public markets, and the like is frequently conferred by the states upon their cities and other political subdivisions. ”

“ The Government should therefore bear a liberal proportion of the burdens of all necessary and useful improvements. And as nothing could contribute more to the health, comfort, and safety of the city and the security of the public buildings and records than an abundant supply of pure water, I respectfully recommend that you make such provisions for obtaining the same as in your wisdom you may deem proper. ”

“ That if the legislative power or some other proper authority but decree that certain things be called public utilities, thereby it changes the whole natural law, and that anything can be regulated in the same way. ”

“ The relationship of tile service to public welfare, so intimately affected by State and Federal regulation, demands the effective correlation and a concerted drive to meet an insistent and justified public demand. ”

“ Again, in the administration of public charity, the industry and morality of the whole laboring population depends, to a most serious extent, upon adherence to certain fixed principles in awarding relief. ”

“ That for the protection of the labouring classes and of the ratepayers against inefficiency and waste in all new structural arrangements for the protection of the public health, and to ensure public confidence that the expenditure will be beneficial, securities should be taken that all new local public works are devised and conducted by responsible officers qualified by the possession of the science and skill of civil engineers. ”