=Miscellaneous Sources of Revenue.=--A few years ago much was said relative to the right of a city to take a portion of the earnings of public service corporations as compensation to the public for the use of its streets. Many cities granted franchises under such agreements and until the automobile depleted the earnings of street railways and the general costs of manufacturing gas and electricity went up received considerable revenue from these public utility organizations. While in most cities this went into the general fund money was usually appropriated from that fund for street maintenance and improvement, so indirectly, at least, the roadways profited. In the large cities franchises for the use of the public streets at, above, or beneath the surface are sufficiently valuable to warrant good returns to the public. It seems logical that such money be used for street improvements. Bus and truck lines fall directly under this head, and since they are very largely conducive to the distruction of pavements, it would seem as though they ought to pay for at least a part of this damage. The tax might be graduated according to weight as is now in most states the automobile license tax. A number of cities are entering the commercial and industrial enterprises such as the sale of water, gas, electricity, ice and coal. While usually these are operated on a low margin so as not to make money there is nevertheless, here, an opportunity to secure necessary funds for public improvements. And if the operation of these enterprises is such that private competitors can make reasonable profits the people will be the gainer by having more available funds for worthy objects. It may not be the proper province of the government to go into gainful enterprises in competition with its own citizens. In fact, public opinion in America has been so one-sided on such questions that wherever private enterprises have been taken over by the states or the nation they have thereafter been conducted free or at the bare cost of operation. The turnpike roads were bought by the states and made part of the free public road system. Cities like Cleveland and San Francisco have handled their street railways at the bare cost of operation. Efforts are being made to make the Panama Canal free to certain classes of commercial shipping. Government land reclamation by irrigation and drainage has been made so that it could be paid for by the settlers in small amounts, running through long periods of time. But notwithstanding all this there is an awakening to the possibilities that may come from the development and operation by government of resources that were formerly considered fair game for private exploitation.