Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-19

ture. l9ll and was ON the legal affairs
committee. to which committee was re-
ferred Il public utilities bill, and he
faithfully worked during all that ses-
sion to set a good bill out of that COM
mittee He made Investigations of pub
lie utilities. and it was great help to
our subcommittee that the gentleman
from South Paris was II member of that
committee. With his knowledge, with his
disintorestedness, with his perfect fair
ness, lie sat down with our sub-cpmmit-
tee and gave us the full benefit of his eN-
perience. And it this public utilities bill
goes through this Legislature, much OF
it viii be due To the work of the gentle
man from South Paris, Mr. Wheeler
The gentleman from Dover Mr.. Peaks.
who has his first term in the Legislature
was the secretary of our committce-a
bright, faithful young lawyer who is CO.
ing to make his mark in the world and
who was of great assistance to our com
mittce rs the secretary in the investiga-
ton. The gentleman from South Port
land, Mr. Sanborn is not a crank. not a
radical, nor an over-conseryative. He is
Il well-balanced young man. and in the
makeup of this bill he took a very prom
will suffer, nor will the people of this
State. from any action taken by the gen
tleman from South Portland, which was
always perfectly fair on every measure
and in every paragraph of this bill The
gentleman from Patten, MIR Smith an
old member of the Legislature, we'll
trained, gave the committee careful and
painstaking efforts. He was here during
all the days of the week. the Saturdays
and the Mondays. staying here all the
time. and devoted his attention praetical-
~ to this bill, and great credit is due to
him for the amount of labor he put upon
1t. The senator from York. Mir. Cole,
brought to that committee his long expe-
rience as com1gereial lawyer dealing
with great interests and himself an at
torney fer many years for large corpor-
atoms and railroads in this State. I now
want to say for him that he showed tie
utmost fairness in looking after the in
tereSts of large corporations as we'll as
the people of the State. As to myself
texcuse these bushes, In the Legisla-
ture of l90l | presented to the LEGISLATURE
of Maine what was then a public utilities
Dill TO enlarge the powers and
of Maine. Some of you here, today.
were in that Legislature with me and
Know the fight on my part to get that
commission enlarged and utilities
bill through. And | remember at the
close of the Legislature, after a long
fight, that the gentleman from Wa
terville, the leader of the Democracy.
Mr.. Pattangall, across the aisle from
Sli1 Of .
lature; | will be with YOU for a utili-
ties measure that will take in all the
public service corporations of the State
OF Maine" and the record show that
| said to Mr. Pattangall: Il agree that
TINS bill shall be indefinitely postponed
ON the statement of the gentleman
from NaterNille that he will do that"
Well, came back in the Legislature of
I'LL ana the gentleman from Water
vile also came back | was i'm the
minority. He was in the majority. |
went to him early in the session and
SAID 10 him: Are you going to intro
duce a public utilities bill into this
Legislature. and he says: L am.
1t is going TO be an administrative
measure and we are going to put it
through / says: Il will do the best
can Tor you He referred it to his
committee. and there hearing after
hearing was had during the Legisla-
ture IN that committee. During the
closing days of the Legislature a bill
was reported To the House. | had the
Honor OF presiding over the House
when that bill came up for debate.
and Mr.. Pattangall rose in his place
and said in substance: ''The bin has
not been SO carefully considered as we
would like In great many portions
of the bill we have not had time to
80 through it as we should 1t needs
10 be more carefully considered. I
90 not recommend that it should pass
TINS Legislature. / ask that it go over
To the next Legislature" And it fell
between the two Houses. If / know
anything about the Legislature of 1911,
the policy on the part of the majority
was that it didn't want to pass much
legislation. They said: III YOU don't
pass any laws, then you can't pass
any bad laws. II you don't do ANY,
thlhg, why, of course they can't find
fault for what you did. And so the
measure went over. Whether the
democratic party made mistake by
doing that at that time is not for me
~ 9d9, only Know that in the plat
form of both parties at the last cleo.
ton they declared for this bill.
Now then we come to the. present
hour. The bin is before u.s. And
want To say to YOU right here, that
"ach the subcommittee got together
ana organized, We had before us h
great deal of matcrial-not only ma
tefiaI collected from the last Legisla-
tufe upon public utilities. but. we had
before us the combined experience of
good many years of public utilities
III other states. We had before us
legislation that had been tried. We
nad before us bills from other states
Whefe they had had the experience
and found them all right We had
pelofe us the mistakes of 80 states.
VINO had adopted utilities matters. for
us TO avoid. And | want to say To
YOU this-thcre is not a nara
graph in the bill we present to
you, today, that is the invention of
any member of this subcommittee or
was evolved from us. Every para
graph represents the experience and
the approval of some state that has
tried it out and proved it. This bill