Public Ownership: A Survey of Public Enterprises, Municipal, State, and Federal, in the United States and Elsewhere.
New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, [1925]. Hardcover. 8vo. Blue blind-embossed cloth with gilt spine lettering, dust jacket. xviii, 445pp. Frontispiece, illustrations, tables. Fine/very good. Faint edgewear and light age toning to jacket, with large chip at head of spine and several quite small edge chips; expert, discreet archival mends on verso. Item #38696
A tight and exceptionally handsome first edition of this (to cite jacket front panel) "impartial survey of what has actually been done in the field of the public ownership of public utilities...." Thompson (1870-1949) was a Congregationalist minister turned Wisconsin politician and socialist, that state's Social Democratic Party candidate for governor in 1912; in Illinois he also ran as a socialist candidate for Congress, then founded the Public Ownership League of America and served as its secretary, a title that appears on the title page here. He boldly signs and inscribes this copy in black ink on the front flyleaf: "Yours in the / Cause of the / Common Good / The Author / Carl D. Thompson / Chicago / July 18 / 1934." A superb copy of this uncommon title, with spine gilt bright and shining -- and rarely found signed.
Price: $175.00