MUNICIPAL ACTIVITY IN BRITAIN 819
No one can fail to be convinced of the last-mentioned fact who contem- plates the long list of duties, responsibilities, and enterprises already under- taken by local governing bodies, coupled with the rage that some among them show for municipalizing practically everything that they can get within their grasp. Many of these duties and responsibilities, though hardly coming within the range of local government pure and simple, may in themselves b most excellent and praiseworthy. But they nevertheless indicate a marked tendency to take over obligations, trades, and industries exactly on the socialistic lines ; . . . . they represent, collectively, a rapid drifting toward the full and complete realization of the socialist idea.
There is no doubt that the Times writer has allowed his fervor to carry him a little beyond the limits of exact truth; but he is correct in regard to the direction of the movement, if not as to its amount or purely socialistic character. The municipal management of street-cars, water-works, gas, gardens, and even houses has become commonplace, but that is not nearly all.
The idea of providing sterilized milk for babes was started at St. Helens a few years ago, the corporation supplying not only the milk, but feeding- bottles as well, while to each purchaser there were given two nipples, which she was required to bring at intervals to the corporation milk-store, so that they could be tested as to their cleanliness. Liverpool, Dukinfield, York, Ashton-under-Lyne, Belfast, and other towns have since adopted the system, notwithstanding protests which have been raised in certain quarters that the corporations were competing unfairly with the large firms of milk-dealers.
It has even been proposed that the milk supply for adults should also be municipalized, and this "may follow in due course." The municipalization of the liquor traffic is being much discussed, and The Case for Municipal Drink is excellently set forth in a little book published in 1904, written by Edward R. Pease. This question of drink is such a large one that it deserves a separ- ate article; but it is worth while to note here that much has already been accomplished by private or semi-public agencies, working in the interests of the public. Mr. Pease thus describes the origin of the Public House Trust Companies :
The origin of this most influential movement was dramatic. In 1900 Earl Grey, the owner of Broomhall, a mining village in Northumberland, applied for an additional license for that village at the desire of its inhabit- ants. When it was granted, he was forthwith offered 10,000 for what he had acquired "without spending a single sixpence." Struck by the iniquity
