In the first chapters of this book, we considered the special nurse as supported by a group of private individuals, in connection with some privately maintained association. Social experiments frequently begin in this way; when their value is proved, it should be the aim of the promoters to transfer this special work to the department of the municipality in which it belongs. Upon looking over the various municipal departments, we realize that much of what is now freely recognized to be municipal work, was originally carried on through private enterprise and initiative. This is the case with school nursing, playground work, juvenile court and probation work; which in many cities has passed through the stage of private enterprise and become firmly incorporated into the city machinery. In all public health nursing, the aim of the founders should be, first to prove its worth to the community, and then make the community (municipality) assume full charge of it as soon as possible. It is particularly necessary to transfer tuberculosis work from private to municipal control. =The Danger of “Political” Control.= The question of doing this, however, is often a matter of great concern to the founders. They are usually deeply interested in the work, and have maintained it upon a basis of efficiency, in spite of many obstacles. They fear, and often rightly, that to transfer it to the municipality will be to transfer it from the basis of efficiency in its own line, to the basis of politics, and they dread that sinister condition known as “political control.” And yet the administration of public affairs is not necessarily “political” in the bad sense of the term. On the contrary, municipal control may, and in many cities does mean, that work is conducted with the force, authority, and financial backing of a great department, such as the Health Department. Under such conditions, it can attain a far greater degree of efficiency than could ever have been reached through private administration. Under municipal control, it is possible to have a large staff of nurses and pay them good salaries—which latter always means a wide choice of applicants. It is also possible to establish many and well equipped dispensaries, in charge of salaried, qualified physicians. Money will be forthcoming for all necessary expenses connected with the development and extension of the work—in short, the financial handicap will be removed, and the work can go forward with increased facilities, enlarged opportunities, and heightened dignity and authority.