The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1916-02-10

itiate on its own motion cases Of gem
eral interest. but Its preference, in in
dividual cases, is to have complaints
filed in the usual way.
Under the present law, the orders
of the Commission are not limited as
to time, but run for an indefinite
reriod. or until rescinded or modified
by the Commission or set aside by the
Court of appeal. Neither does the
taking of an appeal suspend the opera
tion of an order; it must be obeyed
during the dependency of an appeal
unless superseded by an order of the
Supreme Court. The district courts
of the state are prohibited from inter
fering with the Commission. and con
not set aside any of it's decisions All
appeals must go direct to the Supreme
Court, which court can. if it 81 de-
sires, and uron prorer showing. sus
pend the operation of the Commits
sion's order. brt only after due notice
to tie Commission and requiring a
syspsnding bond to- lie filed. the
an cunt of which must lie approved by
{ the Commission The review by the
| SUPREME Court cen extend no further
than to determine whether the Com
mission has regularly pursued its an
{ thority; including a determination OF
whether theorder of TIE Commission
review violates any rights OF the petit
! toner under the cons stitution of the
State, or of tie United States. and
whether the order of the Commission
is just and reasonable. and whether
its conclusions are in accordance with
the evidence. The fndines of the
Commission on questions of disputed
! facts are final and cannot lie reviewed
by the Court. 1t is obvious that un-
der this statute very few apI eals will
ever be taken from the decisions of
the Commission. An easy way is also
provided. through mandnm action,
for the Commission to enforce its ord
ers. as penalties of from one 10 two
thousand dollars per day are provided
for disol edience of the same.
When the law became effective in
August. 1914. the Commission imme-
diately orranized and took such steps
as were necessary to carry out the
intent and purposes OF the Act. We
found that a tremendous amount Of de-
tailed work was necessary to the prop
er Inauguration OF the work. Rules
OF practice had to be adopted: forms
drawn and printed. Circular letters
were sent to various county and city
officials throughout the state TO ascer-
| ing in their territory. so that actual
work OF the Commission did not com
mence until about the first OF the pres
ent year.
| When the Commission was first or
ganized We had two employees. sec
retary and a stenograrher. ,.e en-.
ployed more help from time to time,
as the work increased. until now our
force consists of eleven employees. as
follows: A secretary. two stenogra'
pliers. one reporter. statistician. rate
expert. civil engineer. electrical en-
gineer. telephone engineer. and two
inspectors. In addition to this we have
had occasion to employ. from time to
time, extra clerks for temporary pur-
poses. With this force OF employees,
| the Commission Is endeavoring to con-
duct its affairs along well defined busi-
ness principles. and to that end com
peis every empioye to render full ser
vice for every dollar expended in sal
aries.
The Commission as 1t is now con-
stlfuted Is uon-partisian. and we de-
terTnined ct the outset that. in order
to be effective and accomplish what
the law contemplated and have the
confidence of the people. IL would be
necessary to entirely eliminate poll
tisc; partisan questions are therefore
never discussed by the Commissioners.
or allowed to interfere with the work
of the Commission. Our employees
are selected solely on account Of their
peculiar fitness for certain duties ir.
respective of what their politics may
| :, Or electrical engineer was Sc
cured from the Edison people in Chi
caeo. our telephone expert from the
Public Utilities Commission at Spring
field. Illinois, our rate expert. statisti-
clan and civil engineer were hired in
| Colorado. all of whom are high class
men in their respective lines.
During the first year OF its exist
ence the Commission has held 2ss
meetings. received approximately 100
| informal and 40 formal complaints:
| in addition to this Il has ordered l49
reparat,on claims to be paid and au-
| thorized 376 emergency rates to be
| tablishcd. BY emergency rates |
mean chang es in the rates as shown
~ schedules OF the various utilities.
on file with the Commission, which,
un Ter tie law. cannot be changed
exert on thirty days notice to the
Commission and to the putlic. unless
special authority is granted by the
Commission. These. emergency rates
are reductions in every instance and
are usually the result OF an investi-
cation conducted by our expert and
recommended by the Commission.
| There are at the present time two
hundred and sixty.six public utilities
under tie Jurisdiction of the Commis-
sion: thirty-three of these are steam
, railroads. with milnaee of some.
lining in excess of afty-fye hundred
miles These utilities represent an In.
vestmeut OF many millions OF dollars
Fearing this fact in mind, as well as
/ ihn hrrnd Ind eaynnLi1au Iln.rnr and