The Washington times., 1915-10-02

On this point Mr.. Clark declares that
the commission has considered care
fully. and agrees with him. Here Ia his
statement Of It's opinion:'
"A good deal has been said and writ
ten about the necessity for a reorgan-
ization Of the work OF the commission.
or the commission itself. No one re-
alizes more fully than do the members
OF the commission the magnitude and
complexity of the duties placed upon
It. The system under which our courts
are organized and their several Juris-
dictions defined Is often pointed to az
pattern for organising the work Of
the commission. Inasmuch as In or
dinary litigation before the courts the
parties In interest are generally all be-
| fore the court. while In matters coming
before the commission the whole public
Is concerned, and many who are not
before the commission may be affected,
| We may well doubt the wisdom and
practicability OF dividing the jurisdic-
! tion geographically. with the certainty
that at times cases involving the same
facts and principles will be decided Diff
fe.e.tly in different jurisdictions. Tho
possibility OF maintaining the under
lying principles of the act II the courts
in their several jurisdictions were to
pass unon questions Of an administra-
tive or quasi judicial nature
! THE commission has given much
thought to this .subpect and to the
various plans for simplifying and ex-
| pediting the work. and has reached the
conclusion that the largest measure of
relief would he secured by eniarging
authorizing il to divide Itself into
groups or divisions. each division to
have and exercise all the powers of
| the commission in the matters or cases
referred to II. This would give us a
mobile but still a centralized body.
assignments to divisions when and as
circumstances might require"
Body To Value Railroads.
Commissioner Clark proceeded to say
,1Sat he personally regarded the work
SURPRISING Importance that a commits.
sion. or a Division of the commission
should give undivided attention to II.
| 1t is near a decade since the Dolliver-
Hepburn law passed. 1t increased the
membership OF the commission from
five to seven. and greatly increased the
turned out, IL also loaded UP the com.
mission with an amount OF work which
&as quite impossible for II to handle
with expedition. Though the genera
public does not yet fully appreciate tho
fact. the commission has. by some de-
velopments of recent time. been xiver
authority that even Senator Dollivel
did not anticipate II would ever acquire
under that law. 1t has had presented
to 1t the most sweeping questions OF
control over rates and charges: ques
tions in which the whole transporta
tion scheme Of grand division Of thu
country were involved. When the Dol
liver act passed. 1t was farthest from
everybody's thought that the commits
sion should be given authority to A.,
a general fabric OF rates for the who'll
system of railroads. Yet In the recen
eastern and western advance rat
cases that very issue has been raised
the railroads. once eager to deny suci
a power to the comm ssion. have ap
pealed to II to exercise that power
the public has assented. and there 4
no doubt In anybody's mind that tn
courts will acquiesce. Thus the com
cumstances, the real rate maker o
the whole country. 1t will be only
few more years until practically all tn