In Great Britain municipal ownership has been developed far more extensively than in the United States. The public ownership of waterworks is practically universal and, al though profits are not primarily aimed at, these plants seem to be making a fair net return to the public treasury. There are a large num ber of municipally owned gas plants, between 200 and 300, including those in about half of the largest cities. The municipalization of elec tricity and power is even more common. These ventures have proved of some profit to the city and have at the same time frequently made possible reductions in the rates of service. The most striking facts regarding municipal owner ship in Great Britain, however, are those re garding the tramways. In 1914, 171 of the 286 tramways in British cities were municipally owned and 115 remained in private hands. The public management was proving profitable in practically every case. The reason why munic ipal ownership should be so prevalent in the local transportation systems of Great Britain is found in the extreme rigor of governmental control exercised over the public utility cor porations as well as the subsidies these private companies were obliged to pay into the public treasury. The result was so marked a reduc tion of monopoly profits that private corpora tions in many cases were not unwilling to dis pose of their businesses at a fair figure.
Several striking facts may he noted regard ing the municipal ownership of public utilities in Germany. First, the process of municipali zation has gone further in that country than elsewhere in the world. This is true both as to the kinds of projects publicly owned and as to the extent of the public ownership of any one utility or service. In 1911 the statistical report upon German municipalities showed that of 87 towns having a population of over 50,000, 77 owned their waterworks, 72 gasworks, 67 elec trical works and 47 tramways. There are up wards of 40 kinds of services which are in the hands of the municipality in some or all of the German cities. In the second place, the German cities systematically aim at profits in the management of publicly owned enterprises.
Practically all German cities use their public utilities as a means of reducing taxes. In 1912 the gas plant in Berlin gave a surplus of over $2,000,000 to be applied in this way. In the third place, there are some German towns in which the profits from publicly owned utilities and services are so large that they defray all the costs of government and pay yearly divi dends to the individual citizens. Cases in point are the small towns of Klingenberg, Seeburg and Enkirch.
It may be said in conclusion that while mu nicipal ownership will remain a debatable policy there seems to be an irresistible movement throughout the progressive countries of the world in the direction of its adoption. While this movement may be less rapid in the United States than elsewhere it is worthy of note that in many instances the threat of municipal own ership has had the salutary effect of producing better conditions in the administration of pri vately owned public utilities.
Bibliography.— Beard,