Public Utility

der fourteen; and in some instances minimum
standards of education must be attained by
minors between the apes of fourteen and six-
teen before they are permitted to take up
employment. Another recent tendency is the
provision of medical inspection and treat-
ment of school children, together with close
attention to hygiene, sanitation, and other
aspects of a similar nature in the construc-
tion of school buildings.

The evolution of this public school system
has been gradual. The public elementary
school, in the sense of a school maintained
out of public funds, appeared as early as
1636 in Boston and 1638 in New York. But

3870_____________________Public Utility

Service Corporation have been used to de-
note a concern performing for a municipality,
for pay, one or more of the public services
which the town or city might itself perform
—such as the supplying of gas or electricity,
or the furnishing of means of transportation
and communication (see LOCAL GOVERN-
MENT; MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP). Under the
term 'public utility1 are commonly included
steam and electric railways, bus and steam-
boat lines, express companies, grain elevators,
public warehouses, telephone and telegraph
systems, water companies and water depart-
ments, electric central stations, gas supply
works, pipe line companies, district steam

Central Park Pool, New York City,

the modern conception of thi; public school
arose only about the middle of the last cen-
tury. The first public high school was estab-
lished in Boston in 1821, the first public eve-
ning school in Louisville in 1834, and the first
public kindergarten in St. Louis in 1873, A
compulsory attendance law was enacted in
Massachusetts in 1852, and eleven other
States followed between 1867 and 1874. The
public school is the characteristic educational
institution of the United States. To it arc
sent nearly ninety per cent, of the school
population. See EDUCATION IN THE UNITED
STATES; EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS, NATIONAL;
SCHOOLS, PRIVATE*

Public Utility Regulation. In recent
years the terms Public Utility and Public

heating systems, sewage disposal companies,
and radio.

The present era of utility regulation may
be said to have begun with the establishment
of the Massachusetts Gas and Klectric Light
Commission in 1885 and the Interstate Com-
merce Commission in 1887. The Interstate
Commerce Act, strengthened by various
amendments, was more or less the model of
many State commission laws—obviously in-
fluencing even the Wisconsin and New York
measures secured under the leadership of
Governors La Follcttc and Hughes in 1907.
The success of these two measures in meet-
ing with the demands of the time led other
State to establish more or less similar bod-
ies, or to enlarge the powers of old ones,