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Land Improvement, irrigation, etc., employs 500.000 people at an
annual expenditure of $625,500,000.
Education and Recreation employs 3,500,000 people; and in the
United States alone the capital invested is $1,500,000,000.
Libraries employ several hundred thousand people.
Printing for the public involves an annual expenditure of $75,000,000
Banking and Insurance is quite extensively carried on by many of
the state and national governments.
Light, Heat and Power Plants employ 250,000 people and have a
capital investment of $3,500,000,000.
Armies and Navies of the world, on a peace basis, employ 7,746 000
persons at an annual expenditure of $2,324,067,000.
Police Forces in fifty-one of the largest American cities, in all of Great
Britain and in Paris, Berlin and Vienna employ 103,157 people at an annual
expenditure of $73,059,800.
Fire Departments in ten of the largest cities of the world employ
9,447 people at an expenditure of $15,158,800.
Street Car Lines now very largely publicly owned and operated,
at least in Europe, employ no less than 1,600,000 persons and pay
$250,000,000 in wages annually.
In Addition to the above there are numerous other forms of public
ownership maintained by the various states and nations. Mines are very
extensively owned and operated. The Prussian government vorks 345
groups of coal mines; New Zealand produces one-eighth of the entire coal
supply from its public mines. Some of the Scandinavian states o.vn
silver mines; Dutch East India owns tin mines; South Africa, gold mines;
German South-West Africa owns diamond mines; Australia, gold mines;
Prussia owns iron, potash, salt, chalk and amber mines and oil fields are
owned and operated by Austria, Hungary, Servia and the Argentine
Republic. In one or another of the countries there is public ownership of
other utilities less common, such as factories, brick works, quarries, grain
elevators, ware houses, cold storage plants and general stores.
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP IN THE WORLD
The following list of municipally owned utilities does not cover all
the field completely. There are not sufficient data available to give anything like a complete statement. The facts here are compiled from various
sources rather too numerous to mention. It may be said, however, that
Emil Davis' book on "The Collectivist State in the Making,"; Frederic
C. Howe's books, especially "The Modern City," "European Cities at
Work," and "The City the Hope of Democracy"; Charles Zueblin's work
on "American Municipal Progress"; and the study of the Fabian Research
Department are especially valuable sources of information.
England
171 cities own and operate their street car lines;
1,045 cities own and operate water systems;
300 cities own and operate gas plants;
334 cities own and operate electric light and power plants.
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