In that
event a community which had any idea of making economic responsibility
commensurate with power would be obliged to adopt a policy of gradual
appropriation.
The public service corporations in the large cities have already reached
the stage of being recognized natural monopolies. In the case of these
corporations public opinion is pretty well agreed that a monopoly
controlling the whole service is more likely to be an efficient servant
of the city than a number of separate corporations, among whom
competition in order to be effective must be destructive and wasteful.
American municipal policy is consequently being adapted to the idea of
monopolized control of these public services. The best manner of dealing
with these monopolies, after they have been created and recognized, is
not settled by any means to the same extent; but the principle of
restricting the franchises under which they operate to a limited term of
years is well established, and the tendency is towards a constant
reduction of the length of such leases and towards the retention of a
right of purchase, exercisable at all or at certain stated times.
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