Excerpt from Corporations and Public Welfare: Addresses at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Philadelphia, April Nineteenth and Twentieth, MDCCCC The moment the interest of the consumer rather than that of the public treasury enters as the guiding principle in the control of the public-service corporations, it becomes necessary to examine each service with reference to the social and economic welfare of the community in order to determine where the emphasis of control is to be laid. In the gas service, for instance, the public is primarily inter ested in a low cost of service in order to utilize, to the fullest extent, the varied possibilities of gas as an illuminant, motor power and for purposes of heating and cooking. With the recent improvements in the mechanism of illumination we are rapidly approaching a point at which the candle power of the gas will be of secondary importance. In the street railway service, on the other hand, rapidity of transportation, combined with comfort and convenience, are the primary requisites. With the higher rate of wages pre vailing in American cities low fares must be placed second to the above requirements, and last of all comes the money payment to the City treasury for the privileges granted to the corporations performing the service. In other words, given the conditions of life in American communities, the emphasis must be laid on rapidity and comfort of service. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.