CHAPTER VII1 
THE FIXING OF RATES 
Public Utilities and the Regulation of Public Service 
Ownership of Public Utilities. — In the older countries the 
public utilities are generally owned and managed by the State 
or municipality. In the countries, on the other hand, which 
are but sparsely populated and in which the potentiality of 
natural resources is large, private enterprise is usually depended 
upon to make the development. 
Certain utilities are almost universally publicly owned. This 
is true of city streets, very largely of country roads and bridges 
and, in most countries, of the sewers. There is probably not a 
city in the United States in which a charge is made for the 
service rendered by the sewer system. The benefit, in this case, 
to the community as a whole, of properly disposing of human 
excrement and such domestic waste as can be floated away with 
water, is generally recognized. There is no apportionment of 
cost to individuals, in other words, according to the value of 
the service. The cost of establishing and maintaining the sys- 
tem is raised by taxation. 
The streets and public roads, too, are generally built at public 
expense. But there are other utilities such as water-works, 
electric light and power works, gas-works, telephone systems, 
railroads and other transportation systems which may be either 
publicly or privately owned. The private ownership is usually 
exercised through a corporation. That this should be so is 
natural for the reason that stability of management is thereby 
secured, the element of uncertainty in the matter of the life of 
the owner being eliminated. 
Quasi-public Character of Public Utilities. — While the public 
service corporation is subject to the same general laws which 
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