The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-20

utilities fight in the Missouri Iegisla.
ture, which is now raging as f1ercely
and along the same lines as the recent
| three weeks battle in the Kansas leg
1slature, has the following interesting
story of the work of the lobbyists and
the report of the things accomplished
Dy the utilities commission in New
| York state:
Same Old Lobbyists.
Since the public service bills have
been introduced the railroad LOBBYISTS
/ are more fond than ever of the board
| OF railroad and warehouse commits
sIo!lers. Ihey can make it clear that
| II IS unfair to take away from the
railroad board offices to which thev
We're elected by the people
Inc pressure to save these men is
50 great that the governor may have
70 make provision for them by naming
them, or at least part of them. for
members of the new commission with
some wide awake associates who will
90 thlngs and see that the commission
ooSS not sleep too much of the time
Ine telephone and street railway
!oDples see in the commissions named
IN the cities under the ena bling act a
great bulwark of the peoples rights
All OF them find serious objections to
| state regulation of the kind thew be-
lleVe Hadley will give them
Uti1tIeS Commission and CheaD Fares
The railroads, particularly, resent
the appointment of such a commits
sion as Hadley. probably would name
because it would mean 2-cent fares
again on some roads and two and a
half cents on other roads They have
nad nearly two years of 2-cent fares,
largely through his fighting habits
and they are ready to show the Dem03
Gratis that it will be a dangerous power
to place in the hands of the Re
publieans; publ The only trouble is that
whether Scent fares and no reguIa-
tion as a result of their efforts would
not be worse for the party than to
help Republican governor make the
railroads do the fair thing
The New York Commission.
Recently the governor has been
picking up information about the
workings of the public service COM
missions of New York and Wisconsin
Among the most interesting docu-
ments on that subject is a speech made
recently by Thomas M. Osborne, a
member of commission No. of New
York. In New York there are two
commissions, one for New York city
and one for the state at large.
The latter, or No. 2, is the one
whose duties are most like those of the
commission Hadley asks for, for the
reason that it deals with affairs of
the state at large. The amount of
sion is told by Mr.. Osborne in this
statement:
From July 1. 1907, to October I,
1908, the public service commission
of the second district has handled
and disposed of 1886 cases, or an
average. of. four and a third cases for
every working day since the commits
sion went into office"
Going a little more into details he
described the general work of the
commission by saying:
Among the accomplishments of
the commission shall not go into
detail-can be said to be these:
What 1t Has Accomplished.
The Authorizations of New Corpora
tions-It has been said that the New
tension of business. In answer it may
be said that the Upstate commission
has authorized 20 new companies in the
Is months from July 1, 1907. to October,
1908; three railroads and II gas and cleo
tric companies besides nine extensions
of old companies.
1t Has Authorized New Capital-Not
long ago it was stated by a man promi-
nently connected with some of the pub
ic utilities in New York that no new
capital was going into public utilities
On account of the passage of the law
and the drastic actions of the commits !
sionS. Our commission has authorized /
he issue of 106 million dollars of new
securities within the Is months, and that /
means honest capitalization. In face of
he hard times which the country has
been passing through believe that it |
s not so bad
Abolition of Railroad Rates and Dis |
have long been bit |
er complaints of discrimination be- |
ween individuals. Now every road has |
% file its tariff or scale of charges, and |
very shipper can find out just what the /
ate is
Abolition of Rebates-There can be I
10 real uniformity of rates if rebates
ire permitted By uniform system of
accounts rebates can now be detected,
md it is believed that the practice has
,een effectually stopped.
Improvement in Freight Service-A
great improvement in freight service
has taken place This has been ac-
,omplished by insisting upon better !
at Buffalo, Rochester
md other great freight yards where
congestion occurs. The condition of
he yard at Buffalo was such that it
lad become known as the graveyard:
md the manufacturing business with
which l was formerly connected often
lad to send man to Buffalo to look
fter the delay of cars in that yard,
where they would sometimes lie for
weeks if not months.
Reduction of Rates-Not only in
many individual cases, but along
Whole sections of railroads, as in the
ase of points on the Rome, Water
own & OgdenSburg.
Improvements in Passenger Service
great improvement has been made
n the matter of train delays, as must
'e evident to all travellers. I believe
he proportion of trains on time has
increased from 60 per cent to about so
'er cent. There is still room for i'm
Trains Taken Off Have Been Re
tored-In one case train was taken
IF which had been running thirty
ears. There was another case of a