Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-03-25
PHONE QUIZ SURE
TO CONE UNDER
new UTILITIES ACT
Commission Will Be Asked to
Begin Probe Day Law
Takes Effect.
From a STAFF correspondcnt.l

from a staff Correspondence
TRENTON, March 25.-On July 4, the
day the new public utilities law be-
comes operative in this State, a de-
mand for a thorough probe of rates
and regulations of the New York Tele-
phone Company and its alleged abuses
and determinations will,be made. The
new law gives fun authority for maxi
Ing such an investigation to the Utili-
ties Board hat it creates, and this
board will be urged Immediately to
undertake the inquiry.
Tho real strength of the utilities law
lies in the fact that it establishes the
principle of the States right To super
wise public service corporations. BY
amendments in the future the law can
be made strong enough to give COM
plete regulation of utilities. 1t is be-
lieved that the developments sure to
follow a telephone quiz will arouse the
public to a point to demand that the
utilities law be made all that it should
be.
Governor Fort had this very idea in
mind when he affixed his name and
made the act a statute.
1T is a law" he said, as he dotted
the "i'' and crossed the It" in his sig
nature. But I can't give you the pen,
Mr.. Pierce, nor Mr.. Wakelee, be-
cause | am using the gold pen with
which 1 signed my oath when 1 be-
came Governor. l have not used the
pen since that time"
Governor, l congratulate you," said
Senator Wakelee. TITS a good job
The bill is that which was passed
in response to the demand of the STAR
FOR investigation of the New York Tele-
phone Company's discriminatory rates
and unfair business methods. This
marks the contamination of the great
est victory in the annals of this State
for any newspaper that has ever ad-
vocated the cause of the people. 1t
demonstrated that the power of a great
newspaper when it is used for the bene-
fit of the people is i~mmeasurable.
One of the foremost Republican lead
ers in this State, three weeks after
the Legislature had convened, said to
a. STAR reporter:
You will get no investigation OF the
telephone company and there will be
III PJDllC QliilllCS lGSlSldllOl. 1IdL Is
settled"
That same man declared less than
three weeks ago, after the House Com
mittee on Municipal Corporations had
unanimously indicted the New York
Telephone Company:
There will be nc investigation. 1t
would be unwise. There will be no
public utilities commission created"
But suddenly there was a change.
Six weeks of the hardest kind of news
paper campaigning had its effect. Up
in Bergen County the voters began
to prod their representatives in the
Legislature. Senator Alderman and
the three Assemblymen heard from
their constituents in Union County. In
Mercer, in Atlantic, the call for action
was sounded.
How Change Was rough
Senator Wakelee, of Bergen, who had
been. of those who believed there was
no real demand for action. saw
things differently. He attended some
meetings in his own county. He sound
ed his friends, his enemies. too, and
called some of his associates into con-
ference.
Then he prepared a bill. 1t was
as mild as he could make it, for he
did not want to hurt the feelings of the
corporations. But he realized that the
measure must stand the acid test and
really mean something to quell the up
roar of demand from an outraged pub
lie for punishment of a corporation
that for years has been robbing citi-
zens of this State.
G, tho If1I uraC 1ro Nj tt urac
brought to Trenton and Mr.. Pierce, au-
thor of a bill slumbering in House COM
mittee, and Mr.. Scharff, author of an
other sleeping measure, were called into
a joint conference attended by Speaker
Ward of the House, bot. leaders, Pres
ident Frelinghuysen and a few others.
This was followed by a long conference
of the Senate Republican majority at
which the Wakelee bill, with scarcely a
change, was approved. The House ma
jority followed suit, and it became a
party caucus measure. After being
submitted to the Governor it was in
troduced simultaneously in both houses
on March IA and the e day passed
after hours of debate,
And vet the work cannot be said to
be completed. 1t has just begun. On
July 4, when the new law becomes OPP
erative. this newspaper will serve no.
tice that complaint will be made to the
public utilities commissioners and they
will be asked to investigate the rates
and practises of the New York Tele-
phone Company.
Full authority for this is given in the
law. The commission is authorized to
make recommendations to the company
- T. 4 - - .,,-l, . aaaa - ,.aDnr,a e.