printing
office. The fish commission, and the various branches of the
department, cooeperate with private industry in many ways. This brief
survey suggests that the industries undertaken by government are both
varied in nature and large in extent, altho small in proportion to the
mass of private industry.

Sec. 12. #Economic basis of public ownership#. The question as to the
proper limits of public ownership is one most actively debated. The
movement is progressing in accordance with the principle that public
ownership is economically justified wherever it secures a product
or service of widespread use that would otherwise be impossible, or
insures the public a better quality or a lower price. The question of
public ownership is not exclusively an economic question. There
are incidental problems, such as its effects on enterprise and on
political integrity, with which it is not possible here to deal. In
the main, however, public ownership is simply a business policy which
must be justified by its economic results. In the case of a general
social benefit not to be secured without public ownership (as popular
education or the climatic effect of forests), the only question
to answer is whether the utility is worth the cost. In the case of
industries already in private hands, as waterworks, gas and electric
lighting, there is needed, to make a wise decision possible, a
knowledge of the effect a change to public ownership will have upon
cost and service. If public officials can furnish some goods cheaper
than they are furnished by private enterprise, it is because of the
wide margin of monopoly profit, not because there is any magic in
public ownership. The same general items of cost must be met. The
first cost of the plant and the annual interest payments are much the
same. Experience shows that, because of political influence and of
public opinion, wages are likely to be higher under public ownership,
but salaries for management lower. Public collection of dues along
with taxes is an advantage not enjoyed by private companies. Several
public officials sometimes share the same office and thus reduce
expenses. In small towns the public electric lighting and waterworks
have been operated more economically under one roof. Some items of
cost may be less under public management, but on the whole, public
industry probably has no advantage in these respects. Public industry
does not have to meet the costs of lobbying and blackmai