rosa: regulation op natural monopolies 215 



voltages are being used than a few years ago would have been 

 thought possible. One thousand volts is a dangerous voltage, 

 but transmission at fifty to a hundred thousand volts is becoming 

 common. As water power is utilized more and more, the country 

 will finally be covered with a net work of high potential transmis- 

 sion and distribution lines, and it is a matter of vital concern that 

 all reasonable precautions be taken in the construction and opera- 

 tion of such lines. So long as public utilities were regarded as 

 private business and a company was free to make as much money 

 as possible and invest as little as possible in its plant, the tendency 

 was to economize unduly with respect to protective devices, and 

 any construction that was more expensive than the mechanical 

 or electrical requirements demanded, was avoided. But when we 

 regard railroads, electric light and power companies, and tele- 

 phone and telegraph companies not only as public utilities, but 

 as quasi-public institutions, and permit them to charge enough to 

 make a good profit, but to make the rates as low as good service 

 permits, then it is seen that the pubhc pays for the cost of pro- 

 tection, and it is entitled to require that every reasonable pre- 

 caution be taken to safeguard human life. This latter is the 

 view which is now becoming general, and the public service com- 

 missions are therefore greatly interested in making rules and 

 regulations worked out in such a way as to be capable of enforce- 

 ment upon the electrical companies. On the other hand, the 

 electrical companies themselves are anxious for such information. 

 It is not necessary to make original investigations in every case; 

 it is often a question of collecting and digesting the information 

 already in existence, and with the co-operation of numerous 

 agencies which stand ready to assist, work out a body of rules and 

 regulations that will be as useful as possible. Congress has re- 

 cently made a special appropriation to permit the Bureau to 

 undertake such a study of the life hazard in electrical work, and 

 it is hoped that valuable results may be accompUshed. 



Railroad scales. Another investigation of great practical 

 importance, in which the Interstate Commerce Commission and 

 the Bureau of Standards are co-operating, is the investigation of 

 the accuracy of railroad scales, especially car scales, for weighing 



