We have already seen the folly of establishing competing electric light companies, and the attempt to establish rival telephone exchanges is just as sure to result ultimately in a heavy additional tax on the public. Then, too, the monopoly has grown so wealthy and powerful through its enormous profits that it will be very loth to release its hold, even when it is no longer protected by patents. Rival companies which may be established then, it will seek to crush by a fierce competition; and it will be quite likely to succeed. But in so far as it is not protected by patents, it is properly to be considered with other municipal monopolies, in which class we have already referred to it. The course pursued by the Bell Telephone Company has at least proved that our whole patent system demands a thorough and radical revision. The inventor should certainly be protected, but not to the public hurt. The second class of monopolies which the government establishes or aids in establishing because it is deemed to be for the public welfare that they exist, are, first, those private industries which receive aid from the government, either directly by subsidies or indirectly by the taxation of the goods of foreign competitors; and second, those branches of industry which are carried on by the government itself. The question concerning the granting of subsidies is principally a past issue. A century ago many new enterprises in all lines of industry looked to the government for aid. In those days, when capital was scarce and when investors hesitated at risk, it was perhaps wise to grant the help of the public treasury to aid the establishment of young industries; but nowadays, when millions of capital are ready to seize every opportunity for profitable investment, it is recognized that subsidies by the general government are no longer needed. The days of subsidy granting ended none too soon. The people of the United States gave away millions of acres of their fertile lands and other millions of hard-earned dollars to aid in the building of the railroad lines of the West; and a great part of the wealth thus lavished has been gathered into the coffers of a few dozen men. The monopolies created by these subsidies have been largely shorn of their power; but while they reigned supreme, their profits were gathered with no halting hand. There is only one direction in which we still hear the granting of subsidies by the general government strongly advocated; that is in the direction of establishing steamship lines to foreign ports. It would be apart from the scope of our subject to discuss the wisdom or folly of such a proceeding farther than to note the fact that it establishes a monopoly.