Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/818

 802 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

obtained thus far. Chicago, it is true, has voted in favor of municipal ownership of the street railway, gas and electric- light plants; but in the present financial condition of that city there is little prospect of the proposal getting any farther. Thus far. only one community in the land owns and operates its own street railways, namely, Grand Junction, Colo., a town of less than 5,000 population. Of places of 3,000 population and upward, 193 are supplied with electric light by public enterprise, 1,190 by private; 20 operate municipal gas-works, 956 rely upon private companies; 1,465 have private telephone exchanges, while not one has embarked in this branch of municipal enterprise. Water-works and sewers, the two forms of municipal service requiring relatively the least of expert management and trained business judgment, are much more largely under direct municipal control; there being only 42 private sewerage systems against 1,045 public, and 661 private water companies against 766 public.

It is interesting to note that by far the larger number of municipally owned electric-light plants and gas-works are found in small places, where the conditions are relatively simple; very few of the large cities, where the demands of the situation are complex, extensive, and exacting, have tried the experiment. Of cities of 30,000 inhabitants and upward, only four conduct municipal electric-light works, and three municipal gas-works; while in places of 3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, in electric-light plants are under public management, and seven gas-works. In the six largest cities New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore both electric light and gas are supplied by private companies, with the partial exceptions that Chicago furnishes her own electric-street lighting, and the Phila- delphia gas-plant, although leased to a private corporation, is

ied by the city.

The Philadelphia experiment in gas-making is one of the interesting cases of municipal mismanagement on a large scale. After many years of operation by the city, the plant had so deteriorated and the financial losses to the city had so accumu- lated, the gas supplied was so poor in quality and high in prkv. and the political manipulations of the "gas ring" (which Pro-