By the system of regulation, as we have seen, government is brought into close contact with business along many lines. But the state is also one of the largest sellers and buyers in the markets of the world, and as such has many other intimate points of contact with economic affairs. Like any individual or corporation under the same circumstances it is liable to be victimised by practices designed fundamentally to make it sell cheaply or buy dearly,—both to the advantage of corrupt outside interests. Franchise grabbing is perhaps the most magnificent single example of the difficulties the state encounters when it appears as a vendor. Popular ignorance of the real nature of such valuable rights has been responsible for enormous losses on this score. A city which for any reason had to dispose of a parcel of land would find itself safeguarded in some measure by the fact that a large number of its citizens were familiar with real estate values and methods. Knowledge of intangible property is very much less common. There has been a great deal of effective educational work along this line, however, and that community is indeed backward which at the present time does not understand perfectly that perpetual franchises without proper safeguards of public interests are fraudulent on their face. Administrative agencies such as were referred to in connection with business regulation, and particularly public service commissions, are doing extremely valuable work in cutting down the possibilities of franchise corruption. The grabbing of alleys, the seizure of water fronts, and the occupation of sidewalks are minor forms of the same sort of evil which can no longer be practised with the impunity characteristic of the good old free and easy days of popular ignorance and carelessness. In disposing of its public domain, although here, of course, the price obtained was not the major consideration on the part of the government, notorious cases of corruption were of common occurrence. Recent developments, particularly in connection with timber, mineral, and oil lands, reveal the stiffer attitude which the public and the government are taking on this question. Time was also when deposits of public funds yielded little or no interest to cities and counties. At bottom such loan transactions were sales, _i.e._, the sale of the temporary use of public monies. Quite commonly treasurers were in the habit of considering themselves responsible for the return of capital sums only, and any interest received was regarded as a perquisite of office. The system had all the support of tradition and general usage; it was frequently practised with no effort at concealment and without protest on moral or business grounds. Nowadays its existence would be regarded as a sign of political barbarism, and would furnish opportunity for charges of corruption about which effective reform effort would speedily gather.