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things? Can he banish us from “everything most dearly loved "?

At the very time that poor Ovid was eating out his heart on the shore of the Black Sea, there was a little boy teaching in the Temple at Jerusalem; and the fruit of his teaching was the abolition of exile, for he conceived the idea that the Kingdom of God is within us. It is an idea born of love; and for the children of the spirit of God, it is truth. But we, children of the dust of the earth, have no such kingdom within us. Within is emptiness; and so, without, we are slaves to inconstancy. We proceed from change to change seeking peace; but place brings no comfort, time brings no consolation. We have lost and flung away our beliefs, but we cannot pluck from our hearts the seeds that consciousness of mortality has planted there; we are haunted by a voice, · Omnia Vanitas præter amare Deum et illi solo servire. (Is Christ or Death the God whom we ignorantly worship?) For those who hear that voice there is no ease in restlessness, no calm in change. Wherever they go, they feel that they are strangers and pilgrims.

The pagans enjoyed a cheerful, careless, animal content; they did not kneel, they stood on their feet erect, they were playmates of the gods and shared the Olympian disregard of morbid perplexities, sympathies, and aspirations. Ovid had no sickly perturbations, no uncertain hopes; his one desire was as clear and definite as Cæsar's head on a freshlyminted coin. Rome was his heaven.

California is pagan, too. When the sun sets and the dying day shakes its departing glories from sea to beach, from beach to field, from field to mountain, the Franciscan monks (poor exiles from

the past) creep out of their Missions and sing Ave Maria; but California laughs. The Sierras, the foothills, the flowering slopes, the blossoming orchards, the budding gardens laugh to the blue waters, and the sparkling waves laugh back. The oranges laugh in their orchards, the lemons in their dark green leaves, the olives in their silvery gray, the guava and the plum tree, the passion-flower, the honeysuckle, the white rose, the violet, and the lily. They have no compassion, no longings for the impossible, no fears of the unknown; they live in the full glow of the radiant present, and laugh. They do not worship the Virgin; they claim no kinship with Christ. Their mother is the foam-born goddess of passion:Not as thine, not as thine was our mother-a blossom of flowering seas,

For thine came pale and a maiden, and sister to sorrow; but ours,

Her deep hair heavily laden with odor and color of flowers,

White rose of the rose-white water, a silver splendor, a flame,

Bent down unto us that besought her, and earth grew sweet with her name. For thine came weeping, a slave among slaves, and rejected; but she

Came flushed from the full-flushed wave, and imperial, her foot on the sea.

And the wonderful waters knew her, the winds and the viewless ways,

And the roses grew rosier, and bluer the seablue stream of the bays.

But the thin-blooded exile from the North, as he hears this exultant cry of passionate life, shrinks within himself, bows his head, and murmurs with his lips, Ave Maria! Blessed art thou among women, for thy Son had compassion on the exile and gave him the promise, the of a home. hope the illusion?

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THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONS LAW OF

1

NEW YORK

BY THOMAS MOTT OSBORNE

THE events which led to the passage of the Public Service Commissions Law in the state of New York are of such recent occurrence that it might not be unnatural to assume that they are still fresh in the minds of every one interested in public affairs; but in our country political memories are so very short that it is never safe to assume a clear recollection of the most elementary facts in the situation of even two years ago. Four years is a political generation — the life of a national administration — and our whole political thought and action is thereby chopped into very short units.

In New York State with its governor's term of two years, our political memories tend to be even shorter than in national affairs; and certainly it seems as if recent events had moved with almost enough rapidity to justify our vagueness. It is but little more than three years since the struggle for control of a great life-insurance company brought about a sort of family quarrel among its directors; that quarrel uncovered a grave condition of affairs in which of necessity the public was seriously interested; that interest led to a legislative investigation; that investigation brought to the front an experienced, able, and fearless lawyer who had hitherto lived but little in the public eye; and that able lawyer probed the life-insurance scandals with such marked ability. high professional standards, and remorseless vigor that, when the Republican party of the state, crippled by savage quarrels among its leaders and much discredited by its recent record, looked about for a candidate who could win the election of 1906 it recognized that VOL. 101 - NO. 4

he was the one man who could defeat the political combination which had been formed against it.

It certainly is no secret that among the states of the Union, New York has endured its full share of that reckless disregard of the rules of sound finance which has characterized the rapid development of our public utilities in the last fifty years. In fact, we have had rather more than our share of the violation of monetary sanity and economic morals (to say nothing of economic decency) that has accompanied that development. The scandals attendant upon the earlier operations of the New York Central Railroad, the performances of Jim Fiske and his printing-press in the manipulations of the Erie, the story of Jacob Sharpe and his Broadway franchise, and last but not least the Interborough-Metropolitan merger, are only the more striking chapters in a long story of intrigue, corruption, and disgrace. The annals of almost every city in the state can show their own version of the combination of scheming promoters, selfish investors, uninterested citizens, and greedy politicians; their own record of valuable rights given away without foresight and often with the most revolting concomitants of bribery and corruption.

It would, of course, be grossly unfair to blame the condition of things which resulted entirely upon the corporations which were formed to develop the public utilities and to which the public grants or franchises were given. At the best they were developing services of vast importance to the communities; at the worst we can only say that it seems to be human nature with too many people in the business world to grasp at what seems to be

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For a number of years, however, there has been developing a distinct change in the temper of the public mind toward such matters. There has arisen a renewed sense of the hatefulness of public dishonesty, a renewal of belief in the public trust involved in public office. If some of the manifestations of awakened conscience seem rather too overstrained and sensational to be quite sound or lasting, yet such states of mind often aid in producing important political results — as was the case in the autumn of 1906.

At that time there seemed to come about a political crisis as sudden as it was unexpected, although to the more far-sighted it had been in truth preparing for several years. A not unnatural sense of injury and grievance had grown up as the public had followed the testimony in different investigations which seemed to open up ever new vistas of corruption; as it had followed the proceedings in the Standard Oil cases; had perused the highly colored revelations of "high finance" - by "one of themselves; and had watched the proceedings of various reckless promoters and financiers, seeing those favored individuals amassing vast fortunes the origin of which lay in the public franchises which had been procured upon such easy terms.

It is at periods like this, when the people has lost confidence in its servants, in its old leaders, in the very framework of the social structure, -apparently almost losing faith in democratic self-government itself, and is calling for some political Moses to lead it out of bondage, that there comes the moment eagerly awaited by the demagogue. Trading upon the righteous anger of the just, upon the prejudices of the unreasoning, upon the cupidity of the mercenary, upon the

timidity of the politician, the demagogue becomes suddenly a menace to society; a menace, not because he may not be entirely right in his analysis of the situation, but because from the nature of the case he is a destructive and not a constructive force; and because he is always seeking, not how to apply genuine remedies, not how to safeguard the interests of the mass, but only how to turn the situation to his own personal advantage; a menace, because, even if he is honest in his aims, he has faith in progress by revolution rather than progress by evolution, believing in miracles rather than in science.

It is distinctly to the credit of the people of New York State that in the midst of a genuine crisis of political feeling there should have been shown such careful weighing of all considerations before political action; that amid forceful appeals to passion and prejudice, based upon undoubted public grievances, there should have been upon both sides so much honest endeavor to think clearly and act justly. Probably at no election ever held in New York State was there so complete a breakdown of the ordinary political barriers. Republicans by thousands voted the Democratic ticket in whole or in part; Democrats by thousands voted the Republican ticket in whole or in part. While outwardly old party forms were maintained, in reality party ties in a large measure ceased to exist.

As the campaign developed it became a genuine choice between one who preached the gospel of disorder,1 under cover of a righteous outbreak against existing conditions on the one side, and on the other an exponent of calm, sane, and orderly progress. And it is a humorous illustration of the irony of history that the Republican party, which of the

1 "As between Rottenness and Riot," said Mr. Bourke Cochran, when defending his candidate at the Buffalo Convention, "I prefer Riot." A unique way, certainly, of recommending a nominee for governor.

two political parties may fairly be held far the more responsible for the evils of the situation, should have been the one to place in nomination the genuine reformer; while the Democratic party should have thrown away the chance of a generation by allowing its opponents to play once more the old game so aptly described by Disraeli at the time of the repeal of the Corn Laws, when he averred that Peel had caught the Whigs in bathing and had run off with their clothes.

The result of the election was to seat in the governor's chair an able and successful lawyer, a Republican who aims always to place state interests before partisan advantage, a man of the sincerest and most confirmed honesty, of a high ideal of public service, of determined convictions yet open mind; moreover, a man who realized fully that his election was simply an expression of public confidence in him personally in the midst of his party's defeat. Governor Hughes realized to the full the political difficulties of the situation, and the dangerous temper of the public mind, along with the genuine grievances which lay behind and were the cause of it; so he at once set himself to grapple with the problem in the calm temper of a true statesman. The Public Service Commissions Bill was the outcome.

II

The law as it was passed contains five articles, the main points of which may be briefly touched upon.

1. By Article One the state is divided into two districts, with a separate and independent commission for each. The first district includes what is known as Greater New York, -the four counties of New York, Kings, Queens, and Richmond (or New York City, Brooklyn, Long Island City, and Staten Island),and the second includes all other counties in the state. This division, suggested by the great difference in character of the problems in the two districts, has been already justified by experience.

The ten Commissioners, five for each district, are appointed by the Governor subject to the approval of the Senate, but removable by the Governor alone. They must have no official relation to any corporation subject to the provisions of the act, nor own stocks or bonds therein. Neither shall they ask the appointment of any person to office by such corporations or receive from them any pass or reduction in fare.

Each Commission appoints its own counsel, secretary, and minor employees, and each single commissioner has full power to hold investigations and hearings, although an order must be approved by the Commission before it becomes operative. The Commission is not bound by the technical rules of evidence, but is free to get at the facts in the quickest and simplest way possible. All witnesses are duly protected, and the Commission can force attendance and secure testimony, refusal constituting a misdemeanor.

2. Article Two prescribes the duties of common carriers, which term includes, according to the wording of the act, "all railroad corporations, street-railroad corporations, express companies, car companies, sleeping-car companies, freight companies, freight-line companies, and all and associations of persons, persons whether incorporated or not, operating such agencies for public use in the conveyance of persons or property."

Common carriers shall furnish to the public "such service and facilities as shall be safe and adequate and in all respects just and reasonable; " and "all charges made or demanded . . . shall be just and reasonable and not more than allowed by law or by order of the Commission." They shall provide proper switch and side-track connections; and shall file and keep open for "public inspection schedules showing the rates of fare and charges for the transportation of of passengers and property."

There shall be no special rate, rebate, or unjust discrimination of any kind; no "free ticket, free pass or free transporta

tion of passengers or property," exception being made of officers of the railway and certain other specified individuals. But this provision is not to prevent the issuing of mileage or commutation tickets.

There must be sufficient and suitable cars for freight in carload lots; sufficient cars and motive power on railroads and street railroads to meet all requirements for the transportation of passengers and property; the Commission being expressly given power to make suitable regulations for the furnishing of freight cars and for demurrage charges.

3. Article Three continues the provisions relating to common carriers, dealing especially with the powers of the Commission for carrying the provisions of Article Two into effect.

Power is given to the Commission: (a) To examine into the general condition, capitalization, franchises, and management of all common carriers;

(b) To examine all books, contracts, records, documents, and papers, and to compel their production;

(c) To conduct hearings and take testimony on any proposed change of law when requested to do so by the Legislature, by the Senate or Assembly Committee on Railroads, or by the Governor; (d) To prescribe the form of annual reports;

(e) To investigate accidents;

To investigate as to any act done, or omitted to be done, in violation of law or of any order of the Commission; (g) To fix rates and service;

(h) To order repairs, improvements, or changes in tracks, switches, terminals, motive power, or any other property or device, in order to secure adequate service;

(2) To order changes in time schedules by increasing the number of trains, cars, or motive power, or by changes in the time of starting its trains or cars;

(j) To establish a uniform system of accounts and prescribe the manner in which they shall be kept.

The approval of the Commission is

necessary for various things. Without it

(a) No construction of a railroad or street railroad, or extension of existing lines, shall be begun;

(b) No franchise shall be assigned or transferred;

(c) No railroad or street railroad or other stock corporation shall purchase or hold any capital stock of any other road;

(d) No stocks, bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness (except notes payable within twelve months) shall be issued;

(e) No merger or consolidation of existing companies shall be made; and in case such merger is approved, it is provided that the capital stock of the merger shall not exceed the sum at par of the capital stock of the corporations so consolidated, or any additional sum paid in cash.

The penalties for failure to comply with an order of the Commission are drastic. Each day's violation constitutes a separate offense, and for each offense the penalty is $5000 if by a common carrier, $1000 if by other than a common carrier. Every individual who aids or abets any violation of an order of the Commission, or who fails to obey, or aids or abets any corporation in its failure to obey, is guilty of a misdemeanor. In case the Commission believes that a common carrier is violating the law or an order of the Commission, it may commence an action to secure relief by way of mandamus or injunction, and the court shall require an answer within twenty days.

4. Article Four applies practically similar provisions to the gas and electric companies. It also provides for inspection of all gas and electric meters. The Commission has the right to fix rates upon proper complaints as to quality or price, not only of that supplied by private persons and corporations, but of that supplied by municipal lighting plants as well; it has power to examine the books and affairs of the producers, to approve of all incorporation and franchises, and of all stocks, bonds, and other in

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