Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1913-09-12
A Serious Situation In The Public
Service Commission.
BY JOHN W. OWENS,

tive, flabby institution or it will be set on
the road to constructive usefulness.
Upon Governor Goldsborough rests the
heavy responsibility of determining the
issue. And this responsibility upon the
Governor has peculiarly personal nature
because the simple truth is that he dealt
the Public Service Commission the blow
by the appointment toit of E. Clay Timanus
contributed largely to the present crisis
To clearly understand the crisis, the rea-
son for the creation of the Public Service
Commission should be recalled. For many
years the public service corporations of
Maryland, as elsewhere, virtually denied
all responsibility to the public. They con-
ceived their obligation to be entirely to
make money for themselves. If in doing
that they gave the community good ser
vice, well and good. But that was Incl
dental. They also undertook to be mas
tiers rather than servants. The inevitable
followed. The public rose in revolt Then
came the swing of the pendulum which
threatened at one time to move to the ex-
IRENE of governmental, State or municipal
ownership. Many of the best and ablest
men openly advocated it, and many more
said that unless some reasonable middle
ground could be found, public ownership of
public service corporations, controlling and
operating public utilities. would come. The
reasonable middle ground" which the
country accepted was regulation of public
service corporations by means of commits
siOns.
Regulation is not proved theory. 1t
still is on trial and still is travelling road
uncharted for the most part. To succeed
it must give the community maximum
of good service at a minimum of cost while
holding before the corporations and their
officials the reward that honest effort and
, labor deserves. II must adjust the scales
with such nicely that the service to the
public may not eat all the rewards of
official labor and that the rewards of off
cial labor may not eat the service to the
| public. 1t must make the prime object of
/
public, and yet it must hold before the
corporation officials the return for labor
that men demand
Unless it succeeds, it is as certain as any
future thing can be that another period of
corporation riotousness will come in one
form or another or that public ownership will
come. Nothing could more plainly state
the size and importance of the task before
the regulating bodies.
The work of the Maryland Public Service
Commission in meeting the demand upon it
in holding the reasonable middle ground"
and making it permanent-is particularly
difficult, because this State is one of the
half dozen or SO in the Union that we're
completely under the heels of corporations
for years. and even now is in constant
danger of their getting the upper hand
1t seems obvious that the commission
should be composed of strong well educated,
industrious men who have a definite interest
in the great work before it and who would
bring to their duties some phlosophic grasp
|
law which is marked by regulation.
What are the conditions in the commits
sion now?
Chairman Philip D. Laird is a man of
undoubted ability and devotion to the
public No one who knows him would
dream that any act of his would have any
purpose other than service to the State as
his duty presented itself to him Mr. Laird
is an intellectual conservative. By that it
is meant that he is a conservative because
his reason dictates conservatism and not
because he is too stupid or too cOwardly to
take new and advanced steps. Such
man as he studious. long Inexperienced,
! patriotic and courageous needed on the
commission, and there is big and absO-
lutely necessary work for him to do
But he should be the balance wheel. not
the propulsive force of the commission.
There should be on the commission one or
two men of aggressive and radical trend of
mind. The pioneer work of the commits
sion in solving the problem of effectual and
healthy regulation demands that sort of
mind-an original thinking mind that would
clash and weigh with Mr.. Lairds.
Yet the fact is that Mr.. Laird has been
the radical" of the commission. He has
taken the peoples end time and time
again. and in taking it he usually has
stood alone II is not necessary to point
out the attitude as between the public
and the corporations which the other
members must have had
BY the resignation of DIR. Herring, there
is left on the commission beside Chairman
Laird the appointee Of Gov GoldsborOueh.
Commissioner Timanus Concedng to Mr..
Timanus all credit for good work done in
other public positions and recognition Of
his agreeable personal traits, the fact re-
mains that he is distinctly untitled for the
Public Service Commission.
When he was appointed there was ser-
Gus misgiving, but people interested in the
success of the commission took the view
that he should be given chance. He has
been given chance and he has failed.
In practically every question OF Importance
that has come before the commission he
has taken the corporation side and appar
emily has taken it blindly.
Moreover, it is a notorious fact among
those having business with the commits
sion that Mr.. Timanus does little work Of
importance, and that since the serious ILL
ness OF DIR. Herring, Chairman Laird has
had on his shoulders virtually all the com
missions business. lie has written most
OF the opinions and orders. and it is known
that he has written opinions which were
credited to Mr. Timanus.
The situation in the commission, there
= fore. is that there is one intellectual con-
sentative and one member who sides with
tho oorparatiouo Enu CoIHak.-n..sl. -.