Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-08-29


rule article was finally agreed upon
by all of the friends OF home rue in
the larger cities, Including myself, il
was submitted to the legislature to-
wards the end of the session, and in
the turmoil and confusion which usu-
ally results in attempting TO pass |
bills during the last few days of the +.
session, article 6, over my objection, /
was stricken from the bill. and the bill /
was passed by the legislature and sub /
mit.ed to me for my approval with the .
home rule provision stricken there /
from. l was thereupon confronted /
with the duty of either vetoing or ap- |
proving the bill in this form, and after |
careful and mature consideration l !
finally determined in the interests OF /
the general public of the state il was
my duty to sign the bill as passed,
which did
The law as passed places broad
and comprehensive control of all the
public utilities of the state, including
steam railroads, electric railroads.
warehouses, gas, Geographic, telephone
and electric light and power plants,
water plants, and all o.her utilities OF
the state, under the control of a COM
mission of five to be appointed by the
governor, not more than three OF
whom shall belong to any one political
party.
AS finally passed it is framed along
the lines of the Wisconsin law with at
least two material changes. 1. IN
der the Wisconsin law the state CON-
mission has control of all publicly
owned utilities. The Illinois statute
expressly excludes from the jurisdic.
ton of the commission the control OF
publicly owned utilities. 2. The Wis
consin law makes all franchises of the
state of Wisconsin indeterminate. In
other words, the private utility CON-
panies OF Wisconsin are made private
monopolies, perpetual during good be-
havior, with the right reserved to the
state TO control the services rendered
and the rates charged, with the addi-
tional right TO the public to acquire
the plants at fair price to be fixed by
| the commission.
The Illinois law has no such pro
vision. The cities of the state of IL
| linois have still the right to fix defin-
tie terms for all franchises given by
| them 10 private corporations.
Every line and section of the act
as passed was examined and approved
| by the attorneys representing the
1 a1fi Of a
! ceded by them to be entirely satisfac,
| tory, provided that article 6 or the
home rule article heretofore referred
| to. should be incorporated in the act.
l eXerted every possible effort to Sc
cure the Incorporation Of this article
in the act, but failed to persuade the
legislature to allow it to remain there
in on the final passage. After the
| passage of the act | was urged with
much vigor and earnestness, priaci-
pally by the public officials of the
great city Of Chicago, to veto the
whole act
To have done so. in my opinion,
would have been unjust and unfair to
the rest of the state outside of the city
of Chicago.
Chicago has a population of about
two and one-quarter million. The
state population of nearly six mil
lion. In our great state there are
public utilities Of every character.
First, intra-urban; second. interurban;
third, statewide utilities.
There was a crying demand for the
control of all of these utilities as the
result OF the rapacity of many OF
them, and their scandalous exploita.
ton OF the public in the past.
Two classes OF these to-wit: The
inter-urban and the statewide utilities
could only be controlled by state
wide commission. The fact that Chi
cago and some of the o.her large cities
of the state were denied in the Law
the right to control local utilities
wholly within their corporate limits
| was not in MY judgment good ant
7 sufficient reason why I should deny
y TO the citizens of Illinois the right t
control statewide and interurban utii
tiles.
We have in the state of Illinois, al
hLneTe are IN OIner states OF the C0lIeC
States, many interurban railroads thai
cover our state like a. net; many hea
and electric power plants which ex
= tend from city to city; and gigantic
VI. power plant on the Mississippi at Keo
kuk and Hamilton which proposes t
furnish light and power to probabl!
one-flfth OF the state. We have also il
Illinois many gas concerns which
furnish gas to several cities, and al
Of these concerns, in my opinion
. should be subjec. to the control of III,
. state with reference to their rates ant
character of service.
. To have prevented t act from be
coming a law by my veto. would have
deprived the people of the state OF al
these rights and postpone the contro
:, Of such utilities indefinitely. The Law
= as passed, is Of the same genera
character in SO far as statewide contro
:. Is concerned, as have been passed II
: Wisconsin, New York, Vermont, Mary
land Indiana Dragon Massachusetts