. Loyal citizenship. arguments are in this case favor-able to public ownership. The construction of agreat water-supply system is too vast an undertak-ing for private capital; a reasonable price for waterwould hardly allow an adequate return on themoney invested. Wliere waterworks are once con-structed, however, their operation is very simple,requiring the employment of comparatively few importance of these facts will be clearer if wecontrast water supply with milk supply, the natureof the dairy business being such that public owner-ship and operation would not be practical. Gas and el
. Loyal citizenship. arguments are in this case favor-able to public ownership. The construction of agreat water-supply system is too vast an undertak-ing for private capital; a reasonable price for waterwould hardly allow an adequate return on themoney invested. Wliere waterworks are once con-structed, however, their operation is very simple,requiring the employment of comparatively few importance of these facts will be clearer if wecontrast water supply with milk supply, the natureof the dairy business being such that public owner-ship and operation would not be practical. Gas and electricity. Conditions in cities make thesupply of gas and electricity almost as essential as thesupply of water. Electricity has largely taken theplace of gas as a means of lighting, but the use ofgas as a fuel has vastly increased in recent have been very few municipally operated gasplants in this country, and they have not generallybeen successful. The manufacture of gas is a some- 176 Loyal Citizenship. Fig. 80. A high-tcnsiun power line. U\ er such lines, millions of horse-power generated by the fall of water are carried for hundreds of milesto centers of industry. what difficult and intricate chemical process, and itrequires a very costly j^lant. Gas can be economi-cally produced only on a large scale. This, of course,does not apply to natural gas. Where that is avail-able, conditions may be different. Electric current can be produced with a fair degreeof economy in small units, and a great many of ourcities, especially the smaller ones, have adopted thepolicy of supplying electricity to the public. Of lateyears the supplying of electric current has fallenmore and more into the hands of great corporations Public I tUitles 177 which serve many eilies, and wliieli iiianuraelurc thecurrent eilher in large steam plants or by the useof water power (Fig. 80). Transportation. Tlie j)rinci})al means of transpor-tation in American cities is tlie electric street railway.
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