Feanchises of Public Utilities as They were and as They are

The developing and perfecting of what the real estate man calls modern conveniences and of those structures necessary for furnishing the means for the employment of these conveniences, which the publicist calls public utilities, have been so rapid and have become so necessary to every human habitation that public utilities and their franchises are receiving the widest publicity and attention as a great economic question. It is the purpose of this paper to consider only such utilities as are ordinarily within the limits of the municipality. Mr. D. F. Wilcox makes the following list of municipal utilities: electric light and power, telephone, telegraph, electrical signals, electrical conduits, water supply, sewerage, central heating, refrigeration, pneumatic tubes, oil pipe lines, and artificial and natural gas. To these the statutes of some of the states have added street railroads, storage and wharfage. We can better appreciate the relation of these utilities to the public and the engineer by knowing something of their history.