The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-07
SENATOR MAHAN'S
 ARGUMENT AGAINST
 THE MINORITY BILL

I1A4 II II DxAA with existing statutes, and some of which are unintellfgible
 Fourth: The minority bill is of very doubtful oonstitutionality.
 In taking up the first difference be- tween the majority bills and the mln- ority bill. I have only time to indi- cate some of the most important rea- sons for the recommendation of the majority of the committee.
 BETTER MEN ON COMMISSION
 1 We are likely to get better men to serve as commissioners. If the du- ties thrown on commissioners are so extensive as to take up all or nearly all of their time, very few except those h0 are content to make a precarious living out of politics can afford to accept the ofIace. Governor Baldwin has, with general public approval, ap- pointed as railroad commissioners. MT. Higgins. who has a good law prac- tice in Winsted, MT. Ford, who has a good business as civl engineer in Bridgeport, and MT. Hale, who has a good business as a fruit grower in Connecticut and Georgia. These gen. t,emen can afford to accept the office of railroad commissioner because it's duties do not take so much of their time as to prevent them from keep ing up their several lines of profess sional and business work. If they had been asked to give up permanent oc- equations for a precarious salary of $5,000 year, which they are likely to lose in a few years with the changes of politics, some or all of them would probably have said that they could not afford to run the risk of finding themselves in a few years out of office and compelled to start afresh, late in life, to build up all over again a professional clientage or business connections I submit to you, Senators, as practical men. the ques- tion whether it is not wiser to avoid loading up one set of commissioners with the oversight of all the many public service corporations of this State, so as to make it difficult, to say the least, to find any to take the office except men who make living out of politics or men who have been unsuccessful in their business or pro- fession. Any legislation whose prac- tical tendency is to make the office of public service commissioner prize for politicians or an asylum for un- successful men with influential friends, ought not to commend itself to your serious Judgment.
 THE BUSINESS OF
 TRANSPORTATION
 2 The transportation business is so different from the more local munich pal service of the other corporations, that a different experience and train- ing is required to qualify commission CTS to pass upon the questions arising in such different fields. The engineer member of the railroad commissions should understand railroad engineer ing, and the business man should have some comprehension of traffic ques- tions. On the other hand, the mem bers of the other commission should be selected for their knowledge relat- ing to the telephone, lighting and wa> ter business.
 THE SAVING OF EXPENSE
 TO THE STATE
 The salaries of the railroad com missioners and all the expenses of their office are borne by the railroad and street railway companies of the State just as the salaries of the bank and insurance commissioners are paid by the banks and insurance com, panies. They may be somewhat in creased under the new bill from their present amount of about s13,0O0. but whatever they may be, they will not affect the State Treasurer. The result therefore will be that the expense to the State of two commissions will be less than that of the one commits sion provided for in other bills.
 MINORITY BILLS APPEAL TO
 SUPERIOR COURT A SHAM.
 The second main difference between the majority measures and the minor ity bill is that the majority report actually provides constitutional right of access to the courts of this State for the trial of issues of facts and sA~~ relating to the rates to be charged and the services to be rendered to the public by public service corporations, whereas the so-called appeal to the Superior court in the minority bill is a mere sham.
 So lately as in the year 1895. in Spencer's Appeal, IS Conn.,, 3O1, the Su- preme court of this State held that under the Constitution of Connecticut the legislative. executive and judicial departments must be kept separate and distinct, and that therefore the Legislature, having conferred upon the Railroad Commissioners duties which must~be and were administrative in