Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/572

 558 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The final chapter is devoted to considering the value of foreign experience in the fields of municipal ownership. This experience should teach us, it is said, the danger of trying to make public- service activities a source of revenue instead of making its prime purpose the service of society; it should teach us that short fran- chises to public-service companies prevent their proper extension and equipment while long franchises are obviously incompatible with the public's interest, and finally that any attempt at adequate public control establishes hostile relations between the interests of the city and those of the public-service company. Again an appeal is made for the centralized executive, based upon the experience of European cities, the adoption of which will be necessary to an efficient system of municipal ownership. Many examples of social betterment resulting from public ownership are cited, and it is mainly upon this ground that arguments in its favor are based.

The select bibliography at the close of each chapter evidences a discriminating choice of references, though it might be more useful if more of the references were to the specific parts of the bearing upon the particular chapter, instead of merely to the work itself. This lack is partially compensated for, however, by a num- ber of footnotes with specific references.

In no work of such limited space devoted to this subject will there be found so wide a field as accurately covered. All good suggestions taken from all sources have been adopted. The author's contribution is the combination of all the best thought upon the subject, treated in a scholarly and scientific manner and from a broad social standpoint that is most admirable. The emphasis upon the evolutionary aspect of city government, the clear and vigorous denunciation of the separation of powers, of the large number of elective officers and of the limitations upon home rule, and the firm conviction that efficient government means a professional office-holding class, permanent tenures of administrative heads, and the application of business methods to business propositions, are truly characteristic of the author's attitude toward municipal prob- lems as it finds expression in his work.

The method of treatment is at fault in that repetitions of argu- ments and ideas are too often found when they might have been avoided by a more careful and logical analysis and organization of the material, which would have rendered the book more concise and clear. It might also be suggested that the devoting of one-