The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-10-01
ENFORCE THE LAWS.
That Is Business of Attorneys General
Says One of Them

St Louis. Oct 1.-The national
conference of attorneys general held
It's final session here today Attorney
General Dana Malone of Massa-
chusetts read a paper on "Capitaliza-
ton of Public Service Corporations -
He said in part:
Massachusetts,. so far as I can as
certain, was the first state to prevent
by legislation the issuance of capital
stock by public service CORPORATIONS
unless the corporation received a full
equivalent in actual tangible property
for every share issued. The right to
thus regulate corporations must rest
upon one general ground of the regu-
Iatton of a natural monopoly. By this
1 do not mean that legislation should
be confined to the regulation of abso-
lutte monopolies but if the public ser
vice performed by the corporation is
Of character which In IT'S nature IS
not open to free competition, but is
for any reason restricted within a few
hands the service to that extent is a
monopoly and should be regulated.
"A commission, not the legislature,
IS the proper authority TO determine
what amount of securities should be
authorized. and care should be taken
that no form of Indebtedness should
be authorized without rulI value re-
ceived, as Indebtedness other than
than capital stock. because upon
debts interest must be paid. and upon
stock dividends need nor be paid I'M
less they are earned
II urge the passage of laws similar
to those Of Massachusetts, in other
states. not in a spirit of hostility to
capital and capitalists, but in the in
terests Of public and the investors in
securities"
Mr.. Jackson's Paper.
In the absence Of Attorney General
W. s. Jackson. of New York. his pa
Per, state regulation of public utili-
ties" was read by Attorney General
William Dickson of Colorado. TheCp
per in part follows:
AT this particular time no economic
subjects are of such vital concern to
the people as the regulation and control
OF what are known as trusts and of
what are commonly called public utili-
ties and the question of the state reg
ulation of public utilities is of peculiar
interest at a time when the limita-
lions and functions of state and federal
government seems to be almost as
vaguely compreheuded and as widely
n1isconstrued as in the beginning of our
constitutional history.
Yet in the evolution of public senti-
ment IN relation to civic affairs the
problem Of the fundamental right of
government to regulate and control its
public utilities fortuna teIy has passed
beyond the stage Of mere academic dis
cussion-
1T is an encouraging evidence of an
gence that in nearly all of the states
efforts are being made to insure effec-
tive and intelligent regulation of public
utilities. without regard to legal quib-
bles or absurd presidents
MANY of the remedies proposed seem
worse than the evils which they seek
to overcome and this will be true in a
degree of any remedy that violates the
principle of home rule.
Whatever may be the ultimate So
luton of the public service CORPORA
lions problen-whether 1t shall be prf-
vate ownership with public reguIa ton
and control or within their respective
limits, federal, state, municipal owner
ship of all utilities, which in their ma
ture are essentially monopoIies-the OBJ
legation devolves upon the attorney
general of all the states vigorously
and efficiently to enforce the laws now
existing for the cIIrtailment of corpor-
ate agrandizement and the protection
of public rights.
A general discussion followed the
reading of papers