Municipal Ownership With A Special Survey Of Municipal Gas Plants In America And Europe Comprising A View Of The General Principles Of Public Ownership Its Relation To The Public Welfare PDF Download

Excerpt from Municipal Ownership: With a Special Survey of Municipal Gas Plants in America and Europe; Comprising a View of the General Principles of Public Ownership; Its Relation to the Public Welfare; With a Specia Study of Gas Works in American and European Cities Under Both Public A Because of intimate relations early in life with the railroads, telegraph and other public utilities, the conviction came to me that the corporations operating them were not only usurping functions which rightly belonged to the government, but were rapidly becoming so rich and powerful as to be a serious menace to liberty, justice and democracy, in defiance of which, private monopoly ever sought to control the making and administration of law. Believing it to be the duty of every citizen to contribute from his powers or experiences whatever would best promote the common good, I have for over thirty years made a special study of public utilities under both public and private ownership in our own and in foreign countries. This little book, while giving a brief view of the general principles involved in public ownership, is largely a plain and homely contribution to a discussion of but one of the important necessities of life. The facts and data given have been gathered through many years of personal study and investigation, both in our own and foreign countries, and are supported by the highest official authorities. As one who turns a hopeful face toward the days of reconstruction ahead of us when the spirit of genuine democracy shall rule the earth, so I now present, as amply expressing my own idea of what should be the future attitude of every citizen, the following high standard of real citizenship so nobly expressed by our honored President, Woodrow Wilson: "The days of political and economic reconstruction which are ahead of us no man can now definitely assess - but we know this, that every program must be shot through and through with utter disinterestedness, that no party must try to serve itself, but every party must try to serve humanity, and that the task is a very practical one, meaning that every program, every measure in every program, must be tested by this question, and this question only: 'Is it Just, is it For the Benefit of the Average Man, Without Influence or Privilege; Does it Embody in Real Fact the Highest Conception of Social Justice and of Right Dealing, Without Respect to Person or Class or Particular Interest.'" - If this high ideal of civic consciousness prevail, service not profit, democracy not autocracy will rule the world. What we sow today, we reap tomorrow. As our forefathers gave to us a new nation, so the opportunity is ours to guide the affairs of state so that the priceless heritage of liberty shall not perish from the earth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.