The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-01-27

Four years ago, when Representative
Eley (D.) of Ashland county introduce
ed bill to compel interchange Of.
long distance telephone service .
number of members Of the house
laughed outright. They thought IL
was another freak" bill and no A.
tention was paid to it. But Mr.. Eley,
undaunted, and better informed, rein
t,oduced his telephone bin st the seet ,
sion two years ago. During the past.
two years many incidents in the field
Of telephone service have attracted
general attention, and Mr.. Eley re-
turned this session with stronger
bill than before. 1t provides that tel.
ephone and telegraph companies shall
be declared common carriers and be
under the control Of the state railroad
commission, which shall have author
ity to compel interchange of long dis
tance service, without additional tolls,
the toll charge to be prorated be-
tween the connecting companies; for
regulation OF telephone rates based on
the proportionate number of subscrib-
ers. the rate not to exceed 8 per cent
Of the dividend earning power of the
capital actually invested; for inter
change Of local service at a fee of 5
cents for 3-minute talk, divided be-
tween the companies; for the hearing
of complaints of subscribers or others
about service or equipment and fxes
penalty of not to exceed $500 for the
first offense and not to exceed $1,000
for each subsequent offense.
Among other big measures affect
ing public service corporations is the
public utilities bill by Representative
Shuler (R.) of Dayton. The passage
of this bill would supercede the pres
ent railroad commission with a COM
mission of five, appointed by the gov
cfnor for terms of five years, at a sal
| ary of $4,000 each per year, to exer-
else general control over public SER
vice corporations. II is too volumin-
Gus and covers too many details to
afford an intelligent analysis in few
lines, further than to say it Is pat
termed after the Wisconsin law with
some provisions of the New York law.
Cne feature which is regarded with
suspicion is the very complicated pro-
vision for perpetual franchises.
One of the amusing effects Of Sena-
tor Humans primary elections bill
| on certain nervous Republicans is the
, expressed fear that it would abolish
the Republican primaries appointed
| for Feb. II by the call of the state
central committee, If it should pass
before that date because it proposes
to repeal all existing primary laws,
including the Bronson law, under
which the primaries were called. The
call having been issued before the
passage Of any act 1t will stand for
this time, because the legislature can
not pass retroactive laws. Any pri-
mary election law If passed before
| Feb. II would have the same effect
| IL the Huffman bill could be SO con-
| strued. II there should develop any
| illegality in the call for the Repub-
lican primaries and state convention
| it will not be because of any primary
elections law that may be enacted
| prior to either the primaries or the
convention.
Mr.. Huffmans bill provides that all
| candidates for state, district, county,
| township delegates and members of
| controlling committees shall be Sc
| lected by primary The new Bronson
| bill would do away with county con.
| ventions altogether, while Mr.. Huff-
mans bill leaves 1t optional with the
| controlling county committee as to
whether nominations shall be made
by direct primary or the delegates Sc
lected at the primary shall make nom-
nations in delegate convention.
In its report Of graft exposures at
! Cincinnati the Drake investigating
| committee makes no new disclosures,
hut reviews in an interesting way the
testimony which was quite fully pub
| lished while the probing was in pro-
gress. The supreme court could sift
| the committees report with profit
| and better understand perhaps why
u large part OF the public believes the
court made a mistake In stopping the
| exposure of Coxism. In addition 10
its history of the Investigation the
| Drake commission submitted s"Een
bills to trim the claws Of grafters In
| general, with prison penalties for
| some of the acts revealed in the prob
ing of Cincinnati. Members of the
committee desire to go on with the
investigation and complete the work
so thoroughly begun, but certain Re-
publican influences are doing what
they can to discourage 1t on the plea
of economy" The public knows.
however, that there is another reason.
| Quick action Is expected on the ini-
tiative and referendum resolution to
be submitted to vote of the people
at the election in November. for the
| prevailing belief is that the resolution
will be adopted in both houses with
but little opposition. Two years ago.
when it was offered by Senator Howe
| CD of Cleveland, 1t was adopted by
the senate, but failed to reach a vote
in the house. This year after 10 WAS