St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-03-27
Corporations and Public.


An appeal for some regulation of
corporate property by a permanent
tribunal is made by t. N. Vail in his
annual report of the business of the
American Telephone and Telegraph
Company. He shows very clearly
the wrong and undesirability of pol
itical tribunals who are not influence
ed by the facts but by the desire of
what they want to prove. Mr.. Vail
said in part:
We believe, and we think the pub
lie is fast coming to believe:
That telephone service to be per-
feet must be universal, intercom-
municating, interdependent under
one control, and that no isolated sec
ton can be considered independent
ly of any other or of the whole sys-
tenn, and that rates must be so adj
justed as to make it possible for
everyone to be connected who will
add to the value of the system to
others.
That the highest commercial
value of the telephone service de-
ponds on it's completeness on the
extent and comprehensiveness of it's
possibilities of intercommunication
not only between individuals but be-
tween aggregations of individuals,
i. e., communities.
AS a corolIary to this-we recog-
nize responsibility" and account
ability" to the public on our part,
which is something different from
and something more than the obli-
cation of other public service COM
with the daily life of the whole
community.
But, in admitting this RESPONSE
bility and accountability on our part
we must insist that the measure of
it shall not be determined by i'm
possible standards, that equity and
fairness shall be, and personal and
political exigencies or partisan adj
vantages shall not be, the basis of
judgments and requirements.
We cannot conceive of anything
more unfair than was the spirit
which actuated a minority-small,
it is to be hoped-of a political club
which stands for high purposes,
when it was proposed to pass a re-
solution recommending, "such ac-
ton with regard to telephone rates
and service as shall strengthen the
party before the people of this
state"
The same spirit actuates bodies
or committees undertaking to legis-
late on service corporations when
report after report of independent
experts employed by those bodies to
examine and report conditions on
which to base action is objected to
and rejected because the reports
do not conform to their precon-
ceived ideas of political desires or
interests, and at the same time
these bodies openly demand a report
that does not conform to their
ideas.
This is only illustrative of the
tendency on the part of individuals
or temporary bodies, without any,
or at the best with a very superb
cia1 or partisan, knowledge, often
prejudiced by their own interests, to
attempt to pass on complex bust
ness questions.
In our relations with permanent
bodies of control and regulation
during the past year, we have had
SO little in the way of difference or
difficulty as to be almost negligible,
Wherever we have had serious
difficulties with representative bod
les or the public, it has almost al
ways been because those represent
ing the public or Legislative bodies
were of temporary nature.
This only emphasizes the fact
that all regulation and control of
corporations serving the public
should be by permanent bodies, judi
cial in their attitude, equitable in
their purposes and actions, govern
ed by a few simple laws based on the
rights of the individual, the corpora
ton and the community, and ap-
piled after the fullest examination
and consideration.
The opinions and the facts that
controlled or Influenced the judg-
ment should be matters of record,
with the constitutional right of ap-
peal in the corporation.
Temporary committees of bodies
legislative in their functions, though
trying to assume a judicial attitude,
do act from an entirely legislative