The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1912-07-20

&idtlOn 1Or tne frottStioh VI TlNi
leee, which is meeting with the Ma
tional Boss1bund at the Gilded Floot
hotel, Witnessed renewal OF yes.
serday's controversy The Privileg
ers alleged inefficient service lately
from the bosses The subject today
was public service c>lnmissioners
and the first complaint came from
q gas company in New York state.
The president of the company, Mr..
4atebooster was introduced by
Chairman Bondedwater as a victim
a the inefficiency OF the modern
bpts
Mr. Ratebooster devoted an hour
of Introductory remarks to describ-
ire the many benefactions which his
company had bestowedAnoT'h city
aI1d the thanklessness of the people
n shown by the agitation for lower
rRtes. The creation. of the public
|. Skrvice commission he denounced as
4 4 great hardship.
.~They have come into our Off
d. he said, land demanded u see
our books They have revealed to
the whole world ourpbidest and most
icalously guarded Mlsiness secrets
Stid as a final enormty they. inven.
dried our property and compared
iffwith our capitalization for the
n.fpose, as they frankly and un-
,siblushingly conessed-lfor the pur-
pose OF ascertaining sifr;' our rates
were reasonable. Now it happened
that through the friendly services OF
~ "a, ha
obtained contraction lighting the
streets. AS this contract provided
very handsome profits We naturally
capitalized this certain future in
come and issued new stock at par,
on which we readily paid dividends
The commission recklessly made
this important business secret pub
lie property and refused to consider
this section of our capital as a
urcper basis for establishing the
slUcal r3te for gas. The result was
y sharp decline in the value of our
stock In the market, causing many
hardships to widows and orphans
Who had invested their little all in
these securities. We pleaded the
interests OF these innocent investors
to the best of our ability and were
met with harsh laughs and open
scorn. Now things have come to
pretty pass gentlemen, when the
bosses whom we have SO often aid
ed, allow us to be betrayed in this
fashion and do nothing about it,"
Mr.. Ratebooster paused at this
point, overcome with emotion and
Chairman Bondedwater took the
osportunity to demand a reply from
Mr. Swag, the boss of that city
who had impassiyely smoked big
cigar Throughout thN recital
fiMr Swag spoke sat. length upon
the history and glories Of. the Re
pdbiicrat party and the great men
Iit1had given to the nation. Turning /
fpally to the issue Of the moment
he said
.lThe governor appointed that
.0ommission and you well know that
the governor is always the slipper
test officer on the whole state
ticket, and impossible to control
when there Is any pubic clamor.
He is so conspicuous that the peo-
aile know everything he does and |
they would make life miserable for |
him III he didn't know their whims.
Il can't biame governors much for
this weakness and ii nominate the |
kind that have the courage to say |
,-+the public ;be damned" | can't elect |
them. Now we do the best we can
III persuade the governor to appoint |
MEN who will use discretion in |
these matters and who will consult |
the party before tampering with /
great business interests, but we ac-
complish very little that way. An
other method, of course, would be /
lta repeal the public service commits
sion law but the people would wipe |
Us out at the next election. The
hest way to capturesthe commission /
aor you and keep the patronage OF
the commission in existence, is t4
make the commission elective b., I
popular vote. We have introduced
bills for that purpose at Albany, /
but in. the present state Of puf Q
opinion we cant pass them. To L
change the popular attitude we
ought to make campaign for get
ting. that commission into politics. |
we could talk about; giving the peo- 4
pie more power and lot of folks T
would fall for it. We could say /
that it would ibe better to have the /
commits sion directly responsible TO /
the people and let the people rule. L
If we once got it elective we could |
do whatever we pleased. 1t might /
be well to nominate popular man
for chairman. to satisfy the public
8nd then the other four could be /
slipped right in easily on the tail of
the ticket.
The chair then recognized Mr.. I
iGaggem a boss from California, who 1
said:
5.l want to say that Mr.. Swag has
got It exactly right. We have had
both systems in California. The L
Railroad commission there was cleo I
tive. and as our ballots contain as
high as fifty offices and two hun
afed candidates you can see how
easy 1t was to slide. good Southern
Pacific railroad men through in the /
&huffle without the voters noticing.
We'll, we had an upset there lately
bnd the progressives got IN. The
Hrst plank in their platform was
Remand for the shogt ballot. Now
u few years without power wouldn't L
have hurt US much and we wouM
have worked back in after a while, Il
hut in casting about for offices 70
clean en from the ballot they hit