New-York tribune., 1915-07-16
The Thompson Committee
Would Apply Plan Even
to Parcel Checking.
WILL SEEK ADVICE
OF LAWYERS HERE
ASsemblymen Meier and Knight
Taken Off Board at Order
of Speaker Sweet.

All public utilities, whether fur
nished by private corporations, mu-
inequalities or the state, should be reg
ulsted by the state. Sterting on that
hypothesis. the legislative committee
Of which Senator George F. Thompson
is chairman is undertaking 10 rewrite
not only the Public Service commits
sions law but also ,he transportation
act, the railroad law and the stock cor
poration law.
This committee was appointed last
winter for the purpose Of investigating
the Public Service commissions and
recommending changes in the act
under which they operate.
Carrying out the theory on which the
committee has started 10 work would
mean that not only would water COM
psnies, both private and municipal. be
put under state regulation. but all ex-
press companies, ferries, steamboat
companies (Which operate within the
state), parcel checking concerns, power
plants OF all kinds that sell service. cab
companies and even stock ticker con-
Germs.
Tho committee announces thst next
Wednesday at IL o'clock at the Bar AS
sociation they will be glad 10 hear
lawyers who have ideas in regard to
the reconstruction of the public utility
laws. Representatives of large cor
porations have shown a keen interest
in the work. and even have offered 10
draft the entire laws. This committee
is going at its work with great delib-
GRAFTON, with the idea OF drafting at
leisure perfect laws after the widest
search for opinions from all sides.
The committee met at the Biltmore
Hotel, which will be the headquarters,
yesterday morning, and adjourned to
the Bar Association, where II will hold
its deliberations and hearings. II will
work here the last four days of each
week until August. when an adjourn
ment will be taken. In September
hearings will be held upstate.
Apparently working on the theory
that no Assemblyman should sit on
more than one special legislative com
mittee when so many members were
crying for appointment, Speaker Sweet
has taken Assembyman William J.
Meier and Assemblyman knight off
semblyman Meier is on the committee
that is to investigate New York City
finances, and Assemblyman knight is
on the codes committee. Assemblyman
William c. Baxter, of Albany County,
takes Meier's place, and Assemblymar
A. Feinberg, of New York, has replaced
Assemblyman Knight. Assemblymsn J.
Leslie Kincaid. Of Onondaga. has been
elected vice-chairman 10 succeed As
semblym8n Meier.
Senator Thompson has discovered all
sorts of suggestions before the Con-
stitutional Convention 10 organize the
comm ssions and the tenure OF Office Of
the commissioners in the organic law.
He has protested against putting the
commissions in the constitution. One
of the suggestions would make IL al
most impossible 10 get I'D Of inefficient
commissioners.
Indicating how the corporations are
trying TO use the Constitutional Con-
vention to establish themselves in mo-
nopolies, Senator Thompson said tho
Fifth Avenue Coach Company had sug-
gested that the constitution provide
that no public coaches could be op-
Grated on a street unless by the con-
sent Of half the property owners IN the
street.
Theodore P. Shonts, president Of the
Ilterborough Rapid Transit Company,
is urging before the committee that II
vest the Public Service commissions
with the sole right to regulate public
service cor~orations. As II is, the
Health Commissioner and other local
bodies have been able 10 force the COM
many 70 obey their orders.