GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE: TAXATION 271

expenditure on their own account, government enterprise
finds its justification. Sometimes this principle is extended,
and a balance of general gain, over the cost involved, is
considered a sufficient justification for compulsion, of even
large minorities, to share in an enterprise which benefits
them less than the equivalent of their share of the cost.
It is not proposed to discuss here what line should be
drawn between the fields of private and public enterprise.
The relative efficiency of public enterprise, at any time or
place, is an important factor in determining where that line
should be drawn. It is sufficient for our present purpose
to be able to recognise that there is a considerable range of
services, and some commodities, which are provided by
government enterprise, and that other government action is
desirable in the general interest. Government control or
supervision implies expense, and this expense needs to
be met by an income. Though the province of government
action were confined to administration, defence, police and
justice, provision and maintenance of highways and sewers,
and the lighting of the streets, a considerable public revenue
would be required. When there is included a water supply,
public libraries, museums and parks, and public schools,
even if the larger field of street tramways, gas and electricity
supply and the like, be not covered, the services of the agents
of the government afford a far from insignificant part of
the satisfactions purchased by the average citizen in exchange
for his money income,
In some cases, as with a gas supply, for example, the
mode of exacting payment may be the same whether the
supply is provided by public or private enterprise, namely,
through the agency of a price for the commodity. The
determination of this price will, however, not necessarily be
the same in the two cases. Even if there be not the
distinction between private enterprises competing with each
other and a government monopoly, the point at which the
price will be fixed may be different. The difference may,
of course, be due to a difference in efficiency of the two
forms of enterprise. But, putting this aside, as capable of
separate examination, the private monopolist may aim