THE STATE AND THE STREET RAILWAY
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THE STATE AND THE STREET RAILWAY ONE SUCCESSFUL SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONS BY BENTLEY W. WARREN OTHER American states have fre quently accepted the action of Mas sachusetts as a model on -which to shape their own policy towards various problems of government. Massachusetts is one of the oldest and most populous of our common wealths. Its people are democratic, pros perous, and contented to a degree that may well induce investigation by citizens of other states to determine how far this condition results from qualities peculiar to its inhabitants, and how far from differ ences in government, laws, and public poli cies. The census of 1900 shows that it is at least not due to a peculiarly homogene ous population, nor to a great preponder ance of native born Americans; for, while the foreign born population of the country as a whole was 13.7 per cent, that of Massa chusetts was 30.2 per cent, being exceeded only by Rhode Island and Nortli Dakota; nor was it due to a less rapid increase of foreign born population, since in the de cade 1890-1900, the percentage of in crease in Massachusetts was 28.8, as against 12.4 for the United States, and was much greater than that of New York, Pennsyl vania, and Illinois. Only Connecticut and New Jersey, among the older states, and half a dozen newly formed states, or terri tories, in the West, showed a larger rate of increase. To what extent its example may be safely followed in adopting a particular policy is, perhaps, doubtful, unless other policies are first carefully studied to determine how far the apparent result is due to the selected policy and not to the combined effect of
that and several others. Nevertheless, the policy of Massachusetts towards public ser vice corporations has been, so far as its people are concerned, so successful, and has, upon the whole, resulted in such an exten sive and satisfactory system of public utili ties, that a study of that policy, and a brief outline of its development, may not be un profitable at this time, when agitation of the general subject is widespread and pro nounced, and the results thus far attained upon different lines in other states are ap parently so little to the taste of their in habitants. It would be beyond the scope of a maga zine article to attempt a discussion of this question as regards all public utilities. Probably, however, none affects so many people or excites more general interest than that of street railways. Certainly none has been the subject of more diversity of treat ment in different jurisdictions. It is, there fore, proposed in this article briefly to de scribe the Massachusetts policy towards street railways, merely prefacing it with the statement that the Commonwealth's treat ment of other public services is substantially similar, although, perhaps, in some cases less completely developed. The business of street railway transporta tion in Massachusetts to-day is, speaking broadly, that of a governmentally regulated monopoly, conducted by private corpora tions, under conditions of public supervision designed to secure the highest degree of efficiency and accommodation at the least public expense. This attitude toward street railways is the result of half a century of
