The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1914-03-31
CHAMPIONS
METERG0NPLHNT6
Candidate for Utility Commission
Craftsmanship Would Give Up
Part of His Salary.

Declaring that the Public Utilities
Act is a splendid measure If properly
administered, yet qualifying that he.
meant no reflection ON any member Of
the present commission, Judge A. A..
Wilder declares in written statement
that the successful handling Of the
work authorized by the net can only be
obtained by wide Publicity. In this
regard he advocated paying for the pub.
lefty IL necessary. Judge Wilder, who
declares that meters viii act queer.
", states that the consumer is entitled
to have his complaints attended to and
shat this should be done by agents of
the commission. Touching ON The point
that there may not be suflicient funds
for this purpose. Judge wilder, who lis
an nvowcd candidate for the chairman.
ship of the commission TO sucocsd h. A..
Mott.Smith, resigned, declares that
members of the commission might give
up portion of their salaries to meet
deficiencies, rather than ask the Gov.
erDor TO make up deficiencies from his
contingent fund. Judge Wilder said:,
THE Public Utilities Act, IL pru,p,
erly administered, can, in my opinion,
be productive Of much good. AS init
mated in one of the papers, the success.
full handling of the work authorized by
the Act depends in great measure on
making all facts public ia connection
with utility concerns. T.
ttTf A man - fnatar 60 -.
ulating the amount of gas or electricity
dalivered, acts queeriy, and meters.
sometimes get out Of order even when
regulated by the best of quasi public
corporations, that man is entitled TO
have the utilities commission investi-
gate the matter at its own expense.
"Sometimes | have thought my me.
ter was jumping up without cause, and
past experience has shown the folly of
complaining 70 the company about IT,,
The same may be said Of numerous
other complaints about the manner and.
methods used by public utility con
Germs. E"..es
.tof course, in such eases the mem.
bers of the commission are not sup.
posed to look into these things them
selves, as they are not, and were not,
intended by the act to be experts. But
the law expressly gives the commission
power to employ such attorneys,
clerks, stenographers, agents, engineers,
accountants and other assistants as
may be necessary" and to 'six their
compensation" The results Of such in
yestigations should in every instance.
be made public, even If the papers have
10 be paid to publish the same. Results
cannot be successfully attained without
publicity. ~,
sit may be said that there are not
Sufficient funds to do thfs My answer
to that is, let the members of the com
mission, IL necessary, sacrifice part Of
their salaries in order to do some good
under the act and prevent the commits
sion from being referred to, as is now
the case, rs a useless commission,
In fact, II seems that the main idea, so
far, has been to raise sufficient funds
to pay the salaries of the commits
sioners. II they do good work, the peo-i
pie through th6If senators and represen-
tatiyes viii sec to it that they get com
pensated.
Elf the act is not TO be made pro-
duotive of beneficial results. and IL has
been. in effect since July /, 1913, it had
better be repealed. 10y '4." Ia
''fThe foregoing is not intended in
any way ps reflection, directly or in
directly on any member of the commis-
sion. ..a a., 1"....... t1