April 18, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



691 



it is important that the states cooperate 

 with one another, and the federal govern- 

 ment can serve as a valuable aid and co- 

 ordinating force in this cooperation. 



The results that are being attained in 

 this way are only beginning to be realized. 

 They will be of invaluable benefit, not only 

 to the public served, but to the companies 

 themselves, and to the cause of good gov- 

 ernment. With the utility companies un- 

 der the control of business-like state com- 

 missions, the business is better managed," 

 discriminations in rates are eliminated,^ 

 the utilities are taken out of local polities 

 and the possibility of pure municipal gov- 

 ernment in America is enormously en- 

 hanced.* 



' B. H. Meyer, speaking on the Wisconsin Public 

 Utilities Commission at the Pittsburgh meeting 

 (1908) of the National Municipal League, said: 



' ' The utility law is working a revolution in 

 business management. . . . Many of the utility 

 companies have not been operated on a business 

 basis; in fact, it is probable that a good many of 

 the managements did not have the remotest idea 

 as to the exact standing, from a business point of 

 view, of the plant they were operating. Uniform 

 accounting and rules governing the service and 

 the regulation of rates, compel the adoption of 

 business and scientific methods. This is resulting 

 in nothing short of a revolution in management." 



' The whole state of Wisconsin was literally 

 streaked and plastered with discrimination in the 

 rates of utilities, and in all the rest of the coun- 

 try, where the extent of the discriminations have 

 not yet been determined, as they have been in 

 Wisconsin, it is quite probable that discrimina- 

 tions similar in character and extent likewise exist. 



° Governor McGovern has this to say regarding 

 the utilities and polities in Wisconsin : 



' ' Times were in Wisconsin when the railroads 

 ran or tried to run the government of the state, 

 and the minor utilities sought to boss the cities, 

 towns and even villages. They contributed lib- 

 erally to campaign funds, urged their supporters 

 and lobbyists to become candidates for public 

 office, and in close election districts colonized 

 voters in the old conventional way. Now, one and 

 all, they are in this sense absolutely out of poli- 

 tics. There is, indeed, no reason now why public- 



One of the best results of the method of 

 regulation by public-service commissions 

 is the publicity it secures of the affairs of 

 the company and the confidence it estab- 

 lishes in the public mind in the various 

 utility companies. The suspicion and dis- 

 trust which Senator Root emphasized so 

 strongly in his New York address is every- 

 where felt toward these companies when 

 their affairs are kept secret, and especially 

 when the service is poor and the dividends 

 good. Controversies arise which some- 

 times degenerate into bitter and partisan 

 feuds. Who can feel kindly toward the 

 management of a street railway company 

 if he is usually compelled to ride as a strap- 

 hanger, or toward a gas company if the 

 rates are excessive or he believes that his 

 meter races, or toward any company that 

 appears to regard its franchise as the deed 

 to a private monopoly. If the service is 

 improved or the rates reduced as the busi- 

 ness grows more prosperous, the people as 

 well as the stockholders derive benefits from 

 success. The public soon realizes that 

 utilities so conducted are in effect partner- 

 ships between the public and the stock- 

 holders, and are willing that the latter re- 

 ceive increased dividends with increased 

 prosperity if the public is permitted to 

 share the fruits of success. The sliding 

 scale of prices for gas is a successful ex- 

 ample of this system, but it is also realized 

 in many cases where a sliding scale of 

 prices has not been fixed in advance. The 

 regulation of prices by a commission gives 



service corporations in Wisconsin should wish to 

 dabble in public affairs. Their relations to the 

 people of the state have been definitely and finally 

 determined. They no longer have anything to 

 gain or lose by intermeddling in politics, and 

 apparently they have decided to retire for good. 

 What the elimination of public-service corpora- 

 tions from participation in political campaigns 

 signifies in the purification of public life, no one 

 here needs to be reminded." 



