The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1914-07-23

plaintiffs predecessor, the Beaver River
Power company, secured franchise
from the city of Twin Falls to construct
transmission lines through the city and
to deliver light and power to the city
and its inhabitants, but had not COM
menced any actual construction work
within the city limits.
IL is admitted, however that it was
already equipped with sufficient plant
to supply all the electricity that would
be needed or could be used at this
place. In the meanwhile, the Great
Shoshone and Twin Falls Water Power
company was supplying electricity to
Twin Falls and neighboring towns.
Now the question arises: Did the
legislature, when writing and enacting
into law the above quoted sections of
the statute, intend to permit the utili-
ties commission to exclude either one
of these companies, or any company al
ready in the field, from continuing to
to operate and seek market for its
products? To my mind, 1t is clear
that the legislature intended to allow
them to continue to operate and seek
every available market for the products
of their plants to the extent of the full
capacity of their power and generating
possibilities and to confer on the com
mission plenary power to regulate the
! service and fix rates The chief thing
the legislature had in mind was to con-
fer the power to regulate public serv-
ice corporations and fix rates to be
charged consumers. They had no idea
of discriminating between public serv-
ice companies already in the field with
their money invested and plants in op-
GRAFTON; neither did they intend to make
a pet monopoly out of one and wreck
another that already had hundreds of
thousands in cash invested in the state.
] cannot conceive that lawmakers at
tempting to legislate for the people OF
, the state could have meant any such
thing. and it seems to me that they
made 1t very plain by the above quoted
provisos that they did not intend such
thing.
1t is said that because the plaintiff
company had not commenced work with
in the corporate limits of Twin Falls
il had not done any work under its
+ franchise That is like saying that the
man who shoves his hand through the
windpow and takes your coat off the
1 hook didn't steal the coat from youi
dwelling house because the motive and
will power were outside the house.
We don't generally have great water
power sites in the city. We rather
have to go out and build power anC
generating plants where the stream:
/ flow and then convey the current Ions
distances over transmission lines Il
places of consumption. and we find tn,
bulk of consumers in the towns ant
cities The diversion of the water anC
construction of plants at the power sit'
is as much a part of the work of sup
plying a city and its inhabitants will
fight and power as is the building o
distributing line. Again. ii would seen
to me that a plant large neough to gen
crate current for transmission S6 mile
to supply city of twenty five or thir
ty thousand people. is certainly withil
the same field of operation compris
ing city of nine or ten thousand tina
is only thirty miles distant
Again, it would be the height of fol
ly to say they can enlarge or increas
existing plants and generate more elec
tricity and still they cannot build NOR