uld injure
the body politic. The need of a growing social control over modern
machine-production, in cases where that production is left in the main
to the direction of individual enterprise, is admitted on every side,
though the development of that control has been uneven and determined
by the pressure of concrete grievances rather than by the acceptance
of any distinct theory of public responsibility.

Other limitations upon individual freedom of industry imply a clearer
recognition of the falsehood of the _laissez faire_ position. The
undertaking by the State or the Municipality, or other units of social
life, of various departments of industry, such as the railways,
telegraphs, post-offices, is a definite assertion that, in the supply
of the common services rendered by these industries, the competition
of private interests cannot be relied upon to work for the public
good.

Sec. 5. The industries which the State either limits or controls in the
interest either of a body of workers or of the consuming public may be
regarded as passing from a private competitive condition to a public
non-competitive condition. If therefore we wish to ascertain how far
and in what directions social control of modern production will
proceed, we shall examine those industries which already exhibit the
collective character. We shall find that they are of two kinds--(1)
industries where the size and structure of the "business" is such that
the protection afforded by competition to the consuming public and to
the workers has disappeared, or is in frequent abeyance, (2)
industries where the waste and damage of excessive competition
outweighs the loss of enterprise caused by a removal or restriction of
the incentive of individual gain. As we have seen in the analysis of
"trusts," these two characteristics, wasteful competition and
monopoly, are often closely related, the former signifying the process
of intense struggle, the object and ultimate issue of which is to
reach the quiet haven of monopoly. Generally speaking, social control
in the case of over-competing industries is limited to legislative
enactments regarding conditions of employment and quality of goods.
Only those industries tend to pass under public administration where
the monopoly is of an article of general and necessary consumption,
and where, therefore, a raising of prices considerably above the
competition rate would not succeed in evoking effective competition.
Since t