Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-06-13

public service commissiOn.I
BY FELIX F. BRUNER.
Perhaps no department of the State
government has attracted so much
attention during the last few years
as the public service commission
which has charge or the regulation
Of utility rates and whose activities
reach directly nearly every citizen
of Indiana
Discovering exactly what the commits
sion has been doing. however, is diff
hcult matter because of the inadequacy
of records and because Of the great
mass of documents involved. Members
of the commission were asked concern
ing the possibility Of obtaining definite
data as to how many utility rates had
been increased. what the approximate
percentage of this increase has been,
how. many utilities have been actually
valued by engineers Of the commission
and how many valuations have been
merely estimated, how many temporary
orders have been issued, how many util-
tiles have not surrendered their fran
chises, and so on.
INFORMATION
NOT AT HAND.
To nearly every question the members
Of the commission answered that they
did not know. To the question Of how
these things could be found out they
said it would be practically impossible.
Despite the fact that the public Serv-
ice commission is a part Of the state
government and despite the fact that
It comes more closely in contact with
the daily lives of the citizens of the
State than any other organization, the
members admitted that it is in their
minds virtually impossible to obtain
definite information as to what 1t has
been doing.
Despite this fact an effort has been
made to obtain the answer to all these
questions. 1t was discovered that the
commission has no tabulatiOn of rate
increases granted by it, and that to de-
termine what rates have been increased
II is necessary to go through each indi-
viduaI order These orders. covering the
existence of the commission up to Sept.
so. 1920. are contained in bound volumes,
but after that date they are simply con-
tained in files with masses Of other pa
per Inquiry as to why this is true
brought the statement that the orders
will all be bound eventually. but no one
had ever heard of any tabulation Of the
orders.
MORE THAN 200 ORDERS
ISSUED SINCE JANUARY, 1920.
The commission issued. as a result of
petitions fled between Jan I, 1920. and
the present date, a total OF more than
200 orders The citizen who desires to
know what the commission is doing must
90 over all of these orders to get any
comprehensive idea. There s. no other
way to get at it. About half of these
ordars aoDcaru rafos ba otbar half
concern other matters affecting utilities.
such as service and bond issues.
In many cases. particularly in cases
where utilities still hold franchises the
commission has issued temporary orders,
to be effective for a limited period of
time. These orders. just like al the other
orders. are jammed together in crowded
files. The commission has no way to tell
when a temporary order expires. 1t
keeps no record Of these things except
the orders themselves.
For instance. if the Street Railway
Company should be granted an increase
IN rates TO cover a period Of two months
the commission trusts to the company or
to some citizens to remind it when the
time expires.
TRUST TO
LUCK POLICY.
men tne law permitting uIllty cor
porations 10 surrender their franchises
went into effect the commission had no
way Of knowing what companies still held
franchises. Repeated requests for a list
Of concerns which would come under the
new law always brought the answer that
the commission did not know and was in
a way simply trusting to luck.
With this state of affairs the average
citizen who wishes to know for what he
is paying scores of thousands of dollars
each year has about as much chance as
the prOverbial SNOWFALL. It would take
him month, conservatively estimated
In the next article an effort will be
made to show the number Of Increases
granted by the commission during the
last year and a half and the amount Of
the increases.