The broad ax., 1925-04-04

I
as YOU know, created commission,
first called the Public Utilities Com
mission, later changed to the Illinois
Commerce Commission And that
commerce commission act gave the
power Of regulating matters Of fare
and comfort and convenience and
service into the hands Of the commits
sion That is why, in spite Of the fact
that the 1907 ordinances say that the
companies obligate and pledge them
selves to maintain hve-cent fare from
1907 until 1927, that has been abro-
gated, and We have the rate Of fare
which is fixed BY the Illinois Com
merce Commission, or fixed by the
courts when there is no application to
review the findings Of the Commits
sion by the courts, as happened in the
seven-cent rate case. In other words,
the contract which the city made in
1907 with there companies is binding
in certain respects on the city, binding
as far as the right granted to them to
operate, but it IS not binding on the
companies as far as questions Of fare
or questions Of service are concerned
The 1907 ordinances obligated the
companies to build twenty-three miles
Of single track extensions a year. They
have not built twenty-three miles Of
track since 1915. Altogether since that
time, in all those years, they have not
built twenty-three miles. And the
reason for that, the principle reason
is that the city has been unable
to compel them to do it. We secured
about twelve or thirteen miles Of ex-
tensions during the year 1924, but it
was only done after cooperation
which was brought about between the
City Council and the Illinois Com
merce Commission The extensions
had to be ordered by the City Council
and provisions made for the payment
Of their cost through an order entered
by the Illinois Commerce Commission.
Now, that affects us in just this
way: That assuming that these COM
panies could take twenty-year fran
chise, or under the law we could get
it changed so we could give them
longer franchise than that, and we set
out to make contract with them, It
would be perfectly useless to read pro-
visions into that contract as regards
fare, as regards service, as regards pub
lie necessity and convenience and all
Of those thing because the power OF
the City Of Chicago over those things
has been taken away from Us BY the
Illinois Commerce Commission Act,
and if the fare that we agreed upon
in the new contract wasn't satisfactory
to them they could 60 to the Illinois
/ Commerce Commission and have it
corrected. If they obligated them
selves to run two-man cars in a con-
tract and they figured out that they
would rather run one-man cars. they
could file petition before the Illinois
i Commerce Commission. and have the
two-man cars provided by the con-
tract changed to the one-man cars by
an order Of the Commission. So that
when we come to deal with them, as
you and would deal privately, we are
hampered by the fact that we can
make lot Of provisions that will bind
ourselves, but we can't make pro
visions which will bind the companies.
Now, in that situation what next
to do? The very natural thing. It
seems to me, would be to figure out
what you had the legal right TO do,
because the more you have to do with
that matter the more you find that
thing constantly recurring to you as
to what you have the right to do.
"a city has not the same liberty of
contract, the same liberty Of action
that individuals have. 1t can do lust
those things that it is permitted to do
by the Legislature and by express
grant We have two acts Of the Leg
islature on the books, one the Act Of
1908, commonly known as the Mueller
Law, and the Act Of 1913, commonly
known as the Public Ownership Act
The 1913 act was passed at the same
time that the Utilities Act was passed.
and was individually passed by the
Legislature TO show way By which
some Of the limitations that were put
upon cities could be avoided bv some
different kind Of operation. Those two
acts are very much alike. The 1913
act supplemented the 1908 act and
corrected it in some respects where il
was deficient strengthened II. But
you can treat them as one act because
the legislation is very similar.