Failure of Government Control

In Great Britain the history of telephone legislation has persistently reflected the vacillations of immature opinion, strengthened by the attitude of permanent officials of the Post Office and the Treasury. The situation to-day is the result of years of laisser-faire, improvidence, and vacillation. Its economic defects and inadequate equipment are the natural consequences resultant from the National Telephone Company's inability, as the expiry of its franchise drew near, to provide for expansion of service and renewal of plant. The economical construction of new underground cables alone involves plans and estimates for a period somewhere between 15 and 20 years ahead. Further causes of disorganization lie in the relaxation of discipline and esprit de corps consequent upon the transfer of the telephone company's personnel to the Post Office; in the jealousies and friction between old employees and new, all tending to impair smooth working; above all, in the technical telephone staff's recognition of the fact that under the cast-iron, water-tight compartment system of Post Office tradition there is little or no scope for intelligent individual initiative and scant prospect of applying business methods to the development of what should be a rapidly expanding commercial undertaking, managed by the best technical and financial talent obtainable.

There are many experts qualified to speak with authority on this question who share the views expressed by Lord Desborough, as president of the London Chamber of Commerce, on May 18, 1911.

Many chambers of commerce besides the London Chamber, he said, had discussed the subject, and they were unanimously of opinion that it would be very much better for the telephone service of this country to be in the hands of a board of experts than to hand it over to a Government Department. . . . Business men would like to see an independent authority formed, somewhat on the lines of the Port of London Authority, or in any case formed of business men and of experts, with sufficient Government representation. Such men would be alive to the needs of the business community and accessible to representations from them, and would bring the telephone service of this country up to the requirements of the nation.—The Times (London), December 1, 1913.

See La Démocratie Socialiste Allemande, Paris, F. Alcan.

The organ of the Socialist propaganda.

Raymond Boverat, Le Socialisme Municipal en Angleterre et ses Résultats Financiers, p. 444.

Municipal Trade.

See Circulaire du Comité des Houillères, February 20, 1913.

Arthur Raffalovich in Journal des Économistes, October, 1912.

Journal of Commerce, New York, February 24, 1912.

Claude W. Mullins, L'Activité Municipale de Londres, Revue Economique Internationale, 1910.

State Socialism in New Zealand, by James Edward Le Rossignol, Professor of Economics in the University of Denver, and William Downie Stewart, Barrister at Law, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1 volume in 12mo, George C. Harrop & Co., London.

New Zealand and Evolution, page 58.

Revue Générale des Chemins de Fer, November, 1911, page 352.

Bulletin du Comité Central du Travail Industriel, December 15, 1911.

Railways and Nationalization.

Report on Railways in Germany, by C. H. Pearson and Nicholas Reyntiens, for the Board of Trade Conference, June 7, 1909 (Cd. 4677).

See for the series of discussions concerning the Prussian railways the collection of Marche Financier, by Arthur Raffalovich, and the Revue Générale des Chemins de Fer, among others, the number for November, 1911.

See Yves Guyot, Trois Ans au Ministère des Travaux Publics.

Der Zonentarif der Ungarischen Staatsbahnen, by Rudolph Remengi, 1912, published by J. Benko, Budapest. Discussed in the Journal des Économistes, July, 1912.

Journal des Transports, September 28, 1912.

See The Economist, November 4, 1911.

The Economist.

Railway Transportation, by Charles Lee Raper, 1912, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

The Economist.

See Journal des Économistes, Dec. 15, 1910, article by M. Favarger, Nov., 1912. The Latest Accounts of the Federal Railways, July, 1913. The Revised Accounts of 1912.

State Socialism in New Zealand, page 72.

July 26, 1907. State Socialism in New Zealand, p. 74.

Railways and Nationalization, by Edwin A. Pratt, 1908.

Railway Transportation.

See Raymond Boverat: Le Socialisme Municipal en Angleterre et ses Rèsultats Financiers (1907), 2nd ed., 1911. Major Darwin: Municipal Trade. Lord Avebury: On Municipal and National Trading. Des Cilleuls: Le Socialisme à travers les Siècles. D. Bellet: Socialisme et Municipalisme. Hugo Meyer: Municipal Ownership in Great Britain. Graham and Warmington: Taxation, Local and Imperial, and Local Government, 1899. Fairlie: Municipal Administration. Davies: Cost of Municipal Trading. Municipal and Private Operation of Public Utilities. Report to the National Civic Federation. Three volumes in octavo. 1907, New York. Municipal Year Book, edited by Duncan, published annually by the Municipal Journal.

Vince, History of the Corporation of Birmingham, 1902.

Raymond Boverat, Le Socialisme Municipal en Angleterre et Ses Résultats, p. 190.

The Times (London), September 5, 1902.

See H. Davies, The Cost of Municipal Trading.

The Municipal Year Book for 1913 not having yet appeared, I must make use of the figures quoted in the edition of 1912.

7.6 per cent. on revenue is approximately equivalent to 1.5 per cent. on capital investment.

The Times (London), October 21, 1902.

Municipal Year Book, 1912, page 752.

Municipal Year Book, 1912, page 775.

A Housing Policy.

The Economic Outlook.

Boverat, Le Socialisme Municipal en Angleterre et les Résultats Financiers.

Since the foregoing statement was made, the project has again been advanced and has been incorporated in the budget of 1914.

Les Annales de la Régie Dirécte, Feb.-April, 1912.

Annales de la Régie Directe, 1908.

The Revue Bleue: La Municipalisation de la Boucherie, by Henri Martel, director of the Veterinary Service of the Prefecture of Police.

See Book 4, The State, a Dishonest Man.

Journal of Commerce, New York, December 22, 1911.

Fortnightly Review, August, 1906: Lord Avebury, On Municipal and National Trading, page 68.

Constitutional Amendments to be added to the Declaration of Rights.

Edwin A. Pratt, Railways and Nationalization, page 3.

For New Zealand see Book 2, Chapter VII.

The highest judicial court of France.

See Numa Droz, Études Économiques.

See Appendix “A.”

The report to the Chamber of Deputies by Emmanuel Brousse on Dec. 12, 1912.

Pour Sauver Quelques Millions.

See above.

L'Informateur Parlementaire.

See above citation.

Rousseau. Pour Sauver Quelques Millions, see Journal des Économistes, Dec. 31, 1911.

See Journal des Économistes, March 5, 1912.

See the Chéron report of May 10, 1911, upon a demand for supplementary appropriations.

The Morning Post, April 19, 1911.

See Book 2, Ch. 8.

Économiste Français, July 27, 1912, reproducing the annual table of the Moniteur des Assurances.

Annales de la Regie Directe, April, 1911.

Annales de la Regie directe, April, 1911, page 169.

Ibid., December, 1909, page 47.

De Monopole d'État. Rapport au Congres de Chambre de Commerce, by M. de Lasteyrie.

Translator's Note—I have been unable to verify these figures, which appear to be incorrect.

Circulaire du Comité Houillères, February 10, 1912.

Communication à l'Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, August, 1912.

Truth, April 26, 1911.

Statistik der Vereinigung der Elektrizitätswerke für das Betriebjahr, 1909, Dortmund, 1910, supplemented by the Statistik der Elektrizitätswerke in Deutschland nach dem Stand, vom April 1, 1910. G. Dettmar, Berlin, 1910.

Efficiency in City Government, page III.

Report on the budget of 1912.

Le Matin, January 28, 1912.

See Le Client.

Howard Economic Studies, Vol. 6.

Communication of Laws Webb to the London Chamber of Commerce, Morning Post, February 18, 1911.

The Electrical Review, February 10, 1911.

See Yves Guyot, Science Economique, 4th edition, page 230.

Société d'Economie Politique. See Journal des Economistes, December, 1911.

Conseil Municipal de Paris, 1912, No. 46.

Moniteur, May 17, 1853.

Yves Guyot, Les Chemins de Fer et la Grève, page 149.

See Yves Guyot, Les Chemins de Fer et la Grève, page 50.

Municipal and Private Operation of Public Utilties, National Civic Federation, 1907.

See Raymond Boverat, Le Socialisme en Angleterre.

The Accountant, July 31, 1897.

The Times, September 16, 1902.

Efficiency in City Government, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1912, page 103.

The report of M. Dausset on the budget of the city of Paris, 1912.

Th. Favarger, Situation des Chemins de Fer Fédéraux en Suisse, Journal des Économistes, December, 1910, Rapport de la Commission du Conseil National, 1909.

Yves Guyot, Les Chemins de Fer et la Gréve, 1911.

Le Temps, April 4, 1912.

Report of M. Rebullard, Municipal Council of Paris, 1912, No. 7.

Le Temps, August 19, 1912.

The Socialist hymn.

An association of employees engaged in the preparation of the Register of the National Debt.

Yves Guyot, Les Chemins de Fer et la Grève, 1911.

See Appendix “B”.

See the text in Sophismes Socialistes et Faits Économique, by Yves Guyot, Paris, Librarie F. Alcan.

Société d'Économie Politique, Journal des Economistes, December, 1912.

See above, book 2, chapter 20.

July 30, 1906.

See Appendix “C.”

Organe Industriel, of Liège, August 1, 1903.

L'Économie Publique, November, 1911.

Arbitration committees, composed partly of employers and partly of workingmen.

Bulletin de l'Office du Travail, February, 1912.

July 27, 1912.

Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1910.

Esprit des Lois, book 13, chapter 8.

See E. Watelet, Les Recents Troubles du Nord de la France, 1912.

Discussion de la Société d'Economie Politique, Journal des Economistes, December, 1911.

Labour Leader, May 12, 1911.

See Yves Guyot, Les Chemins de Fer et la Grève.

Les Grandes Régies d'État, by Paul Pic, Revue d'Économie Politique, July-August, 1912.

See above, Book I, Chapter 23.

A navy relief fund.

Yves Guyot, La Céruse et la Méthode Expérimentale. Brochure, Paris, F. Alcan.

See Les Principes de ’89 et le Socialisme. La Democratie Individualiste.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1908. Legislative Restriction in New York, page 134.

See the discussion relating to the Prussian railways in the series of volumes, Le Marche Financier, by Arthur Raffalovich.

Principles of Economics.

State Socialism in New Zealand, page 299.

The Official Year Book of New South Wales, 1904–1905, page 543.

Journal des Économistes, December, 1910.

Revue Économique Internationale, see above.

See Yves Guyot, Les Principes de ’89 et le Socialisme. La Democratie Individualiste.

Ibid.

L'Individu l'Association et L'État, Paris, F. Alcan.

Upon the Insurance Bill, Labour Leader, July 14, 1911.

Socialism in England, page 109.

Gasette de Lausanne, February 1, 1912.