The morning journal-courier., 1908-05-22

officials themselves, and many an hon
est man has felt the sting of public
dlstrust when In hie own conscience he
knew he was gultless ana recognized
that he was made to suffer for the
sins Of his fellows,
"Yet the world owes a heavy debt
to the private corporation, for the
great industrial and commercial devel-
opment Of the last two centuries would
not have been possible without It. The
disastrous results which attended the
early attempts IN England to apply the
partnership idea to big industrial en-
terprsos indicate what would have
happened generally II the private cor
poration had not been invented. The
rapid progress which the world has
made In modern times is a monument
to the value of the corporate idea.
THE public service corporation is
still more closely connected with our
daily life, and without the frightening
list of public utilities, our whole So
cial economic and political life would
be disrupted, We have been so acCus-
toned to their mlnistratons, that we
hardly give them q thought. until same
catastrophy or strike brings us face to
face with the disastrous results which
might f How total suspension of any
one service. What would any city do
without water supply even for one day,
in a week 1t would be depopulated If
the transportation systems We're put
out of use at one full sweep, business
would cease, and the whole life Of the
country would have TO he reorganized
"If the distrust with which corpora
tion management Is currently viewed
and the evils frequently found to ex-
list are to be removed, and II the cor
poration Is to BE- given fair play and
its usefulness preserved, there must be
some fair and impartial body TO which
all may appeal for a thorough sitting
Of the facts and a wise decision. And
as yet no country has evolved a plan OF
public regulation which has been pro-
ductive of better results than the es-
Enlistment of an administrative body
free and untrammeled.
"The surface conditions of which
have Just spoken are but the express.
sions of an underlying principle Pub.
lie utilities differ from ether forms oil
commercial ana industrial activity ir
one very important respect competi.
ton in public service Is practically
/ non existent There are few cities "
! the whole United States where the
same area is supplied by more thar
one gas company, one water company
one electric company or one street
railroad. Even where there are TIVE
or more companies, the competitive
spirit has been eliminated either b,
agreement, stock control or mutua
! consent The instances are very rar,
where any user or consumer who Il
/ dissatisfied with the service or charges
of one company may transfer hi,
| patronage from ono company to an
other; he virtually must take the ser
vice offered him by one company or d,
/ without. Further. there Is one larg,
company that controls undertakings II
some 60 or 70 cities, and there are sew
eral smaller companies that control I
dozen cities each, thus bringing unde
one management not only the gas sup
ply, for example, In every section o
ono city, but the gas supplies in scor
Of cities, thereby eliminating sucl
competition as might grow out of com
PARSONS between the services a price
of different companies in different cit
les.
In many instances. and there IS
definite movement in this direction
competitive services have been brough
under the control Of the same group o
men. This is we'll illustrated by tn
experience of New York city. Original