convenience and expense of the public. But
since 1890 there has been a rapid tendency toward a consolidation of
business enterprises, by which railroads became united into a few
gigantic systems, street railways were consolidated into a few large
companies, and ocean-steamship companies amalgamated into an
international combination.

215. =Government Ownership vs. Regulation.=--Nor did monopoly confine
itself to transportation. The control of public utilities has passed
into fewer hands. Coal companies, gas and electric light corporations,
telegraph and telephone companies tend to monopolize business over
large sections of country. Some of these possess a natural monopoly
right, and if managed in the interests of the public that they serve,
may be permitted to carry on their business without interference. But
their large incomes and disposition to oppress their constituents has
produced many demands for government ownership, especially of coal
companies and railroads, and though for less reason of telephone and
telegraph lines. Government ownership has been tried in Europe and in
Australasia, but experience does not prove that it is universally
desirable. There are financial objections in connection with purchase
and operation, and the question of efficiency of government employees
is open to debate. Enough experiments have been tried in the United
States to render very doubtful the advisability of government
ownership of any of these large enterprises where politics wield so
large a power and democracy delights to shift office and
responsibility. But it is desirable that the government of State and
nation have power to regulate business associations that control the
public welfare as widely as do railroads, telegraph-lines, and
navigation companies. By legislation, incorporation, and taxation the
government may keep its hand upon monopoly and, if necessary,
supersede it, but the system which has grown up by a natural process
is to be given full opportunity to justify itself before government
assumes its functions. It is hardly to be expected that government
regulation will be faultless, American experience with regulating
commissions has not been altogether satisfactory, but society needs
protection, and this the government may well provide.

216. =Trusts.=--The tendency to monopoly is not confined to any one
department of economic activity. Manufacturing, mercantile, and
banking companies have all tended to combine