The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-12-18
GOVT. CONTROL OF MONOPOLY.
Monthly Meeting of Social Science
Club.
VALUABLE PAPER BY PROF. SCOTT.
Favors Municipal Control OF Natural
Monopolies-Many Interesting Ex-
amples Cited-Municipal Gas, Water,
Electricity and Telephones Advised.

Government ownership of natural
monopolies was the su bject consid-
cred by the Social Science Club last
evening.
The club met with President Hos
mer, at his Punahou residence. The
attendance was very good one, and
included visitors from the Hyacinth; !;
also American Minister Willis.
The first ten minutes for discussion
of general topics was taken up by
President Hosmer's description of an
organ built in Great Darlington; and
the question of the ability of the Chi
nese to grasp quickly the meaning of
expressions in their own language was
introduced by Rev. S. T.. Bishop.
The paper of the evening was deliv-
cred by Professor M. M. Scott. 1t was
a most interesting and exhaustive
production. Owing 10 the length only
the salient points can be given. Pro-
fessor Scott said:
The historian of the future, in re
cording the thoughts and events,
scientific, social and religious, of the
last quarter of the nineteenth GEN.
tury, must put this period down as
one of profound interest. Questions
that but few years before this period
were thought to have been settled are
brought up, re-examlned, and, II not
by a large number of able, we'll
equipped and disinterested men of the
most exalted character. This is nota-
bly, the case in that department of So
GEOLOGY known as political economy,
or rather in economics, pure and SIM
pie. For a hundred years after the
publication of the "Wealth of Ma
tions" scarcely any English or Amer
ican writer upon economic subjects
could be named who did not teach and
glorify the doctrine of LaisSez Fare,
or the let-alone policy. This doctrine
of non-interference with Individual
ism by government, except in cases
where the interests of the individual
were manifestly at war with those OF
the society or State, possesses many
attractions for the Anglo Saxon mind
and character.
AS might have been expected from
settlement, inheritance and environ
ment, the Americans have carried
this doctrine of individualism much
further than even their English kins-
men, both in State and municipal
affairs.
1t is now claimed by the entire
school of socialistic writers, who
neither in point of numbers nor in
grasp of industrial processes are to be
despised, that industrial competition
has worked, and is working, untold
disaster, both from an economic and
from an ethical point of view; that
industrially and morally it is wreck
| ing the entire structure of society
that it is wasteful in the extreme,
| causing aggregation of capital into
| the form of trusts, combines and
every other possible form in order to
| crush out opposition; and that the
only possible remedy is for society, as
| a whole, to take over all instruments
of production to be utilized for the
common veal.
Leaving out of consideration rail.
! roads which may not come with pre-
else definition within the category,
| Mr.. Farrar, in his work, ''The State
in It's Relation to Trade" gives the
| following characteristics of natural
monopolies:
"tiist. What they supply is neces-
sary.
siSecond. They occupy peculiarly
favored spots or lines of land.
Third The article or convenience
they supply is used at the place and
in connection with the plant or ma
chinery by which it is supplied.
Fourth. This article or convenience
can De, in general, largely, if not in
definitely increased without proper
| tionate increase of plant and capital
Fifth. Certainty and harmonious
| arrangement, which can only be at
taineu by unity, are paramount con-
| siGerations.
1t will thus be seen, granting these
| definitions to be in the main correct
| that natural monopolies are largely
municipal.
1t is claimed that the regulation ot
! these natural monopoiies must be diff
ferent from the regulation of Other
| Industrial pursuits, because the under
| living principles are different.
! Again, Proft-so- w. +. Adams gives
some of the characteristics of natura
monopolies, or those occupations in
| which meu engage fOr profit, by di-
vidIng them into three different cate
| gories, viz: those of increasing re-
Turns, those OF constant returns, anC
| those of decreasing returns. Ga:
works, street railroads, water works
electric lighting, telephones, etc.
come under the category OF increasing
returns. Generally commerce anC
manufacturing are placed in the lis
of constant, and farming in that o
| decreasing profits.
Now all those occupations, or nearly
all, in which men engage, that giv'
! increasing returns, are more particu
larly made profitable by aggregation
Of people in definite spots, usually