NY Times had it right then

Back in 1905 the NEW YORK TIMES editorialized against populist sentiment for municipal operation of the subways. It said that the truest test of the real need for any proposed subway route was the ‘reasonable certainty of profit’ by a private operator. Two of the three systems (IRT and BRT) constituting the NYC subway system were financed by investors and operated as a self-financing business for the first 35 years, though the capital works were always under city title and took city money. (Brian Cudahy “Under the Sidewalks of New York: the Story of the Greatest Subway System in the World” Fordham Univ Press, 1995 p38)