Arizona republican., 1912-07-06

 qHVE A C|NCH
In Onaof Its Railroad Leg islatpm' Bills It Gave a Monapoly in Arizona to a Headlight Manufacturing Concfrn

1 Ol course the legislature never in-
 tended tG do it. It is so thorouSIy 'agin' inogspoly of whatever age, 1 color, or prHious condition of servi-
 tudc that it tEcould never be suspected i of giving aid or comfort to the oc-
 topus in. ;ny form whatever That | is, intentioRhlly; for that it has given
 aid of vfry material nature to one 1 of the awful octopuses we are ac- 1 Customed to reading about there can 1 be no manner of doubt.
 Here is the proposition. At the
 regular session of the p lawmaking i body a law was enacted providing 1 that all railroad locomotives should 1 be equipped with electric headlights. 1 Most of thei readers of The Repubh-
 can will recall that circumstance be- 1 cause It was pointed out at the time 1 that the passage of the law would l probably be a mistake because under
 certain circumstances electric head 1 lights are inferior to others. But the i legislature passed the bill anyway l Also, the fbill contained a provision 1 that each of these headlights shall Ee of not less thanj 1900 candle l power. That is where the octopus gets busy; for it develops that there is just one company in the United, States that sells electric headlights of that description. Really, if one didn't know that legislature was com posed of such an innocent aggrega- ton of statesmen he would be tempt ed to think there was just a wee
 bit of design in bill of that kind. There is another rather funny thing about that headlight law. There is no uncertainty about it. It is as di- rect and circumstantial as the tooth ache; and it says in so many words that all railroad locomotives shall 1 have these electric headlights.
 Now all" means all" At least 1 it is hard to see how it can be con strued to mean anything else But if it doesn't soIIietmes mean something else Some of the smaller roads are
 likely tq find tlemselves in a pretty pickle. For ii Happens that q few of these roads dornOt have night trains at all. Wherefore. their officers are visiting the corporation commission
 and asking if they have to play
 Diogones andy carry headlight around in the day time
 At ~obi4illo9lpIl IN llpt Iuil' ouI
 what it ougbt to order in such a case. It really does seem silly that q locomotive. thar never wanders from it's own little roundhouse after nightfaB should have to be equipped
 with a 1509L candle power electric headlight while moseying around in
 the glare of an Arizona sun; but that's >what the law says.
 Then. the commission is having some more troubles. For instance there is the investment law. some
 times referred to as the Kansas blue sky act, This is the law designed to protect the unsophisticated bank cashieIs and the untutored ruralite from Hting a prey to the silken voiced gentlemen who sell nicely en- graved. gold mines and OrinOco rub
 Der plantations. It provides that the would-be stock salesman must regis ter with the commission and furnish a lot of information before he shall procecd- to make anybody rich by 1 conscnting to part with any of his investment securities.
 But not all the burden is placed on the stock salesman. A good deal of it has been placed on the shoul- derS of the commission. These gen tlemcn must inquire into the char acter of the investment; and if they think it right and proper that the stock shall be offered for sale they are to certify to that fact and to | the further fact that it will probably tav 4 fair return on the investment Ii will be seen therefore. that if ! the corporation commission does not assume the position of underwriters