road Commissioners and the Commission of Gas and Electricity be abolished and that a new commission be constituted, with powers of regulation and supervision, within constitutional limits, of the corporations now subject to the existing commissions. The commission should have all the powers possessed by the present commissions and such additional powers as may be needed to insure proper management and operation. Its powers should be clearly defined and should embrace the power to act upon its own initiative as well as upon complaint; to pass upon the issue of stocks and bonds; to examine properties, books, and accounts; to require detailed reports in prescribed form; to prescribe reasonable rates; to require adequate and impartial service; to provide for the safety of employees and for the protection of the public; and generally to direct whatever may be necessary or proper to safeguard the public interests and to secure the fulfillment of the public obligations of the corporations under its supervision. Provision should be made for suitable inspection so that the commission may be advised as to all matters within its purview and be in a position to take action on behalf of the people without the formal institution of proceedings by complainants. A prescribed quorum should be entitled to decide all questions, and any one commissioner should be empowered to make examinations and investigations, and the proceedings and decisions of one, when approved by the board, should stand as its proceedings and decisions.

"The corporation guilty of disobedience to its orders, and all officers and other persons responsible for such disobedience, should be visited with appropriate penalties. The commission should also be entitled to institute legal proceedings for the enforcement of its orders and all such proceedings should be expedited by suitable preference in all the courts of the State. The Legislature should thus provide, within its constitutional power, adequate means for the entirely just and impartial regulation of these important public enterprises."

Speaking of conditions in Greater New York, the Governor

said:

"The problem of transportation in the territory of Greater New York demands special, prompt and comprehensive treatment. The configuration of Manhattan island. and the concentration of business at its lower end, together

with the rapid growth of population, have produced an extraordinary congestion. All the existing lines, surface, elevated and subway, are overburdened and the people suffer in mind, body and estate. The worst congestion is found at the Brooklyn Bridge, due to the convergence at that point of the Brooklyn traffic. The people of Brooklyn who do business in Manhattan are subjected morning and night, not only to exasperating inconvenience, but to such maltreatment and indignities incident to their disgraceful herding that relief in the most practicable manner should be afforded them at the earliest possible moment.

"Not only are new facilities needed, which should be planned with reference both to immediate and future needs, but there is urgent necessity for more strict supervision to secure better service on existing lines. In some portions of the city antiquated horse-cars may still be seen, giving picturesque emphasis to the disregard of the public convenience. Over-capitalization and the improvident creation of guaranties and fixed charges to suit the exigencies of successive combinations entered into for the purpose of monopolizing the traffic have produced their natural results. There are such unjust burdens upon earnings and the tendency constantly to effect economies at the expense of proper service is so strong that it is imperative that the people shall have vigilant representatives clothed with ample authority to compel the corporations to perform their public duty.

In 1891 the Legislature, for the purpose of providing for the development of additional transit facilities, passed the so-called Rapid Transit Act. It constituted a Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners, who were named in the statute. Numerous amendments have been made and additional powers conferred. The statute contains important provisions with reference to construction by the city. Through the accretions of years it has become cumbersome and extremely complicated. It needs revision. Pursuant to the provisions of this act the present subways have been constructed and plans have been made for further construction. By a recent amendment the board is authorized, with the consent of the board of estimate and apportionment of the city, to grant rights and franchises and to make contracts with reference to the construction and operation of the parts within the city of interstate trunk lines.

"We have thus in the city of New York an anomalous condition. Two boards created by the Legislature are exercising powers of the greatest importance with reference to

transportation. The Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners is dealing with the question of new facilities and is empowered to make contracts for construction and operation. It is also dealing with the question of the construction of trunk lines into or across the city. The State Board of Railroad Commissioners has general jurisdiction over the railroads of the State and has supervisory powers over the surface lines and the elevated roads in the city. It does not exercise jurisdiction over the subways, as these were constructed under the Rapid Transit Act. But while the powers of supervision are divided, the interests in control of the surface, elevated and subway lines are now united in a single corporation.

"This situation should be met by a comprehensive plan. All the operations of railroad companies in the territory of Greater New York should be under the supervision of one board. And the board that is to have the power to supervise generally these operations should have the power of initiating plans and of making contracts for the construction and operation of new lines. Instead of two boards dealing with different phases of the same problem, there should be one board empowered to deal with it in its entirety. As such a board would exercise important State powers of control and regulation, it should be a State board, and should be composed of men familiar with conditions in the territory affected. In my judgment it would not be advisable to put all these matters under the control either of the present Board of Railroad Commissioners or of the new commission which I have proposed to take its place. The urgent need of an increase in transportation facilities, and the unique conditions existing in Greater New York, justify the creation of a separate board to deal with the entire matter of transportation in that part of the State.

"I recommend that the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners be abolished and that a new board be created, to have all the powers now exercised by the Rapid Transit Board, and also to have powers with reference to operations within the territory of Greater New York,- or if deemed advisable, within a wider district embracing the adjoining counties into which certain lines of the surface railroads extend, similar to the powers which I have suggested should be conferred upon the new commission for the rest of the State. There would thus be included the regulation of gas and electric corporations. Provision should be made for the retention by the board of estimate and apportionment of the

city, of all the powers, including powers of approval, which it now enjoys. The commission proposed for the State generally should have jurisdiction over all traffic between points within the city of New York (or within the district as created), and points elsewhere in the State. It is believed that in this manner the whole question of transportation, and of gas and electric service, in the territory of Greater New York can be dealt with in an intelligent and efficient manner, and that to the fullest extent possible the just requirements of that great community may be satisfied."

The Public Service Commissions Law of the State of New York was passed as a result of these recommendations. It was drawn with more than ordinary care, and its history cannot be properly told without recording the carefulness with which the draft was prepared by Mr. Alfred R. Page in the Senate and Mr. Edwin A. Merritt, Jr., in the Assembly, with the constant aid of the Governor and his legal adviser, the late Dean Ernest W. Huffcutt, who finally broke down as the result of his conscientious fidelity in the performance of his duties.

The present book is designed as a working volume, adequately indexed, which will bring together in their relation to the New York law the important cases decided by our American courts in the matter of the regulation of public utilities corporations. It in fact constitutes an elaborate digest of the entire jurisprudence of the subject, but in the form of an annotated edition of the New York law.

It is offered to the profession and to legislators in the hope that it may be an effective aid in the interpretation, application and improvement of the law.

New York, September, 1908.

WM. M. IVINS.