800 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
lutely. but solely with reference to the purchasing power of the community, and in a community where wages are practically double the rates prevailing in another, an average fare of 3^ cents would be, if anything, somewhat cheaper than one slightly under 2 cents in the other ; at least, so far as concerns the army of wage-earners and clerks, and their families, who constitute the great majority of the patrons of any urban transportation system, and are the people to whom the matter of rates and service is of chief importance.
It may be urged, as accounting for some of the relative advan- tages of the Boston system, that it is surrounded on all sides by " feeder " electric roads which deliver passengers from an area including a considerably larger population than is brought into touch with the Glasgow lines. The fact is, however, that the bulk of the business from this wider area is handled by the suburban service of the steam railroads. Hundreds of trains each day, in and out of the two great terminals in Boston, accommodate an immense traffic, and not only from outlying points, but from sta- tions directly within the territory of the Boston elevated, and in constant competition with it; so that the accounts are probably square in this respect. As a matter of fact, the proportion of traffic on the Boston Elevated Co.'s Ijnes which does not originate within its own territory, compared with the total business, is small.
The reasonable deduction from these somewhat extensive comparisons seems to be that, while public ownership and opera- tion of street railways, under the favorable civic conditions of British municipalities, in most cases give a better and cheaper service than was afforded by the various private corporations it supplanted, even this improved service is relatively meager in extent, and usually of mediocre quality, compared with American experience; and that the municipalized enterprises would break down entirely if subjected to any such tests as are commonly required under American conditions.
Glasgow was selected for comparison, as already observed, because it makes the best showing for municipalization, probably; to be found anywhere. In other British experiments results are
