. Loyal citizenship. because they are necessary to so manypeople, and second, because they are supplied bymeans of pipes, poles, wires, or rails which are con-ducted through the public streets. The right to use the streets for public-utility pur-poses is known as a. franchise. Poles, rails, and wiresare not in themselves desirable in public less of them the better after the necessary ser-vice has been provided for. It has, therefore, beenunusual to allow two or more utilities serving thesame end to occupy the same street. This meansthat the holder of a franchise usually has the exc
. Loyal citizenship. because they are necessary to so manypeople, and second, because they are supplied bymeans of pipes, poles, wires, or rails which are con-ducted through the public streets. The right to use the streets for public-utility pur-poses is known as a. franchise. Poles, rails, and wiresare not in themselves desirable in public less of them the better after the necessary ser-vice has been provided for. It has, therefore, beenunusual to allow two or more utilities serving thesame end to occupy the same street. This meansthat the holder of a franchise usually has the exclusiveright to furnish a particular form of service to the individual can do nothing by himself to controlthe quality or price of these services. Competitioncannot be depended on as a regulator. It is notstrange, therefore, that the public-utility problem isoften a serious one. Since we cannot do withoutthese utilities, the community must either controlthem or own and operate them. 172 Public LtiUlies 173. Am. Til. and Tel. Co. Fig. 78. Weaversof Spocch. Tin-work of olliio, farrn. and factorycould hardly go on without the tiliphonc. the public utility whichhas made of the United Stales a compact cotruuunits. Public ownership. Many persons believe that itis wroii^ to maul to any individual or corporation anexchisive right to tlie use of a piibhc street. 1 heyhold that all public utilities should be owned andoperated by the coinnuniity. Other persons behevethat pul)lic ownership and operation should never beundertaken so long as private enter{)rise can supplythe service. They argue that ])iiblic ownership andoperation will bring careless, inellicient. and corruptmanageniiiil; liiat jobs will be used to strengthenthe power of party machines; and that taking util-ities away from private ownership unwisely limitsthe opportunities for private enterprise. Each sideis partly right and partly wrong. Private enterprise has given us many utilities thatwould never have Ixcit beg
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