re wrong.

_Universal needs._--Every force, external or internal, which is likely to
be injurious to the whole community, the whole community through its
organization is obliged to combat. Hence the necessity for quarantine
against infections diseases wherever found, and provision against
destructive storms wherever possible. Protection against the ravages of
insects falls into the same list, and so does every safeguard in which the
whole community is interested. The same principle applies to positive
provisions for welfare in economical ways of meeting universal wants. The
universality of the need makes the water supply and the lighting of cities
a proper work for the city organization. If the same machinery can provide
most economically for larger personal wants without infringing upon the
rights of all, simple economy invites it, and the principles of good
government sustain it. The question of municipal lighting is simply one of
true economy for the entire body of citizens.

For the same reason, that everybody needs it, the government is obliged to
have control of the means of transit so far as ease and safety and economy
to all require. Government must maintain highways suited to the needs of
the community at all stages of its development. The question of city
management of street car lines, beyond such control as secures safety and
essential justice, is purely one of economy for all concerned; that is,
for the entire community. This economy is not settled for one community by
the conditions of any other. It must be decided in each community whose
interests are to be served by the actual need and abilities of that
community.

The same may be said in regard to all methods of providing ready
communication of wants and abilities as needed for mutual welfare. The
postal system is a natural government machine, because every citizen needs
to be within reach of every other citizen in the same community. If
government does not furnish the machinery, it must control it to the same
end. The extent of the machine must be decided by the extent of the want.
If the want is sufficiently universal, the organization cannot avoid
providing the machinery. This principle applies to every form of
communication devised or discovered. The question of government ownership
of telegraph or telephone connections becomes one of simple economy,
whenever the community finds such means of communication a matter of
universal want. If economy or