THE IKK I GAT I ON AGE. 



73 



urban railway and railroad companies. Since it 

 began its work it has considered and disposed ot 

 over 7,000 cases of complaints as to service, rates, 

 etc. Thirty of its orders or rulings have been taken 

 into the courts, but the commission has not once 

 been reversed. It has reduced freight rates within 

 the state to the amount of $1,200,000 a year; pas- 

 senger rates about $800,000 a year; rates of water 

 supply, gas and electric light companies over 

 $550,000 a year ; telephones, street railways and 

 interurban rates, several hundred thousand dollars 

 more making a total annual saving to the people 

 of the state of nearly $3,000,000. Besides this it 

 has standardized service, so that in all lines the 

 utilities companies are compelled in every city in 

 the state to furnish a just standard of service. In 

 the nearly nine years of its existence this commis- 

 sion has cost the state a total of about $700,000, or 

 an average of less than $80,000 a year, so that the 

 annual saving to the people of the state (to say 

 nothing of the doing away with unjust discrimina- 

 tion and other unfair practices) is nearly forty times 

 more than the commission with its big force of ex- 

 pert engineers, statisticians and accountants costs 

 the state annually. 



The Wisconsin commission does not now have 

 to wait for complaints against utilities before it 

 undertakes to regulate them. For example, it re- 

 cently issued an order reducing the rates charged 

 for electricity in the capital city of the state, about 

 20 per cent. It made the investigation on its own 

 initiative and found that at the rates charged the 

 company was making an unreasonable profit (some- 

 thing over 12 per cent on its investment), and so 

 ordered the reduction. It cuts off about $40,000 a 

 year from the revenues of the company and saves 

 the consumers of the capital city the same amount. 

 The week in which the commission ordered the re- 

 duction in Madison, it gave permission to a gas 

 company in one city in the northeastern part of the 

 state, and an electric light company in a city in the 

 southern part of the state to increase their rates. 

 In both of the latter cases the companies were not 

 getting enough to pay interest on their bonds. 



The Wisconsin commission also has control of 

 the capitalization of public utilities, and by this 

 means prevents the exploiting of the public through 

 padded capitalization. When it undertakes to make 

 or change a rate, or increase the scope, or improve 

 the standard of service, the first thing done is to 

 make a scientific valuation of the particular utility. 

 Its engineers, accountants and statisticians go to 

 work upon it, and each department submits to the 

 commission its findings. No matter whether the 

 utility is capitalized for twice its actual value, the 

 rates are determined upon the actual value of the 



capital actually used or useful in furnishing the 

 service. Thus the gas company spoken of above 

 as having been given permission to increase its 

 rates, was capitalized for $450,000. The commis- 

 sion's experts, after two or three months' careful 

 investigation and valuation of the plant, reported 

 its actual value to be $196,000. The increased rate 

 permitted by the commission was what would bring 

 a reasonable return upon the $196,000, not a return 

 upon the $450,000. This illustrates briefly the 

 method by which the commission protects the pub- 

 lic from extortion. 



A volume might be written about the work of 

 the Wisconsin commission, but sufficient has been 

 given to show what the people of Illinois may ex- 

 pect from the administration of the new public 

 utilities law by the able and trustworthy men whom 

 Governor Dunne has appointed upon the com- 

 mission. 



"THE MILLS OF THE GODS" 



A single man will often have more power in 

 working a reform than is accomplished by an asso- 

 ciation or a convention, and it is remarkable how 

 such things work out when the ball is set in motion. 

 Four years ago a farmer named E. Sundberg, of 

 Kennedy, Michigan, received by express a casting 

 for a piece of farm machinery. It was worth only 

 $2.50, but the express charges were $32. The ex- 

 press company was ugly about it, and Sundberg got 

 very little satisfaction. He started proceedings to 

 have the Interstate Commerce Commission look 

 into the matter of express rates. His lawyer 

 lawyered around for awhile and the case was finally 

 removed from Minneapolis, where it began, to New 

 York. Ordinarily a change across the continent 

 would have discouraged a litigant, but not Sund- 

 berg, who by this time was beginning to fight. He 

 went east with his lawyer and saw Franklin K. Lane, 

 then one of the members of the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission, and things began to move when 

 subpoenas were issued for the officials of the Wells 

 Fargo, Adams, United States and other express 

 companies. It was shown on examination, that the 

 robber express companies had a community of in- 

 terest, the directorates were interlocking, and the 

 rates charged were confiscatory and unreasonable. 

 The inquiry was pursued further by the commis- 

 sion, with the result that Mr. Sundberg's $2.50 

 casting cost the three companies $26,000,000 a year 

 in reduced revenues. The commission has revised 

 the tariffs of the companies and reduced them to the 

 extent that the people will save this much annually. 

 And here, too, is the parcel post. If the express 

 companies had been less grasping for profits and 

 more considerate of their patrons, the parcel post 

 would still be slumbering among the dead archives 

 of congress. As it is, the parcel post is of some 

 benefit on small packages and for short distances 

 and the people will not let it rest until we are get- 

 ting the full rates such as European countries have 

 had for years. Ex. 



