Relations Between a Water Department and the Public

The relations between a water department and the public forming the customers of such department differ to some extent from the relations which may exist between a private company and its consumers. A private company seldom, if ever, performs the function of being in business for the sole benefit of the people supplied by it, the primary purpose for existing being that of gain. On the other hand a municipal department holds the same relation to its customers as that occupied by an association or company doing a life insurance business on a mutual basis, the profits being evenly distributed among all those forming the association, or, in the case of a water department, drawing water from a municipal plant. For this reason the attitude assumed by the authorities in charge of a municipal water department must of necessity differ in character or form from that assumed by those controlling a private company. While this latter statement controls in many respects, it must be borne in mind at all times that there are certain fundamental principles on which both private and municipal plants must agree as regards their relation to the public. These points of similarity will be touched on later. A municipal plant, not having to strain every nerve to produce a large dividend for a small number of stockholders, but to give the best service possible with existing physical conditions, to every citizen alike, can devote its energies to providing a water supply absolutely above reproach as to quality and quantity and to educating its consumers into expecting nothing but the best, so that failure to render such quality of service will result in general censure of those in charge of such work. It should provide a distribution system capable of furnishing proper domestic supply at all times and, in addition, giving that large measure of fire protection which will preclude any possibility of conflagration under anything like