rated or not, operating automobiles or motor cars, or motor vehicles, for public use in the conveyance of persons or property within this State; and every municipal corporation of this State engaged in the business of manufacturing and supplying or of supplying gas or electricity for other than municipal purposes shall be included within the terms "gas corporation" and "electrical corporation" as defined in the next preceding section of this Act and shall be subject as other gas and electrical corporations are to the provisions of this Act.

1916, ch. 272, sec. 14.

413B. The term common carried when used in this Act shall likewise include all bridges now or hereafter erected over a stream or river dividing two counties in the State of Maryland or between this State and another State, by any corporation authorized to charge and collect toll from persons using the same as foot passengers and for vehicular traffic of every kind.

1910, ch. 180, sec. 2. 1914, ch. 750, sec. 1.

414. There shall be a public service commission, and the same is hereby created and established, which said public service commission shall be vested with and possessed of the powers and duties in this sub-title specified, and also all powers necessary or proper to enable it to carry out fully and effectually all the purposes of this sub-title.†

The said public service commission shall consist of three members, all of whom shall be appointed by the Governor, and one of whom shall be designated by the Governor to be and, upon being so designated, shall be the chairman of said commission.

Each commissioner, at the time of his appointment and qualification, shall be a resident of the State of Maryland, and shall have resided in said State for a period of at least five years next preceding his appointment and qualification, and he shall also be a qualified voter therein and not less than twenty-five years

of age.

† Chapter 180, Section 2, of the Acts of 1910, is Constitutional. Thrift vs. Laird, 125 Md. 56. The amendment made by Chapter 750 of the Acts of 1914 is Constitutional. Thrift vs. Towers. (Daily Record, January 6, 1916.) Decided by Court of Appeals on November 11, 1915.

One of said commissioners shall hold office for two years from the beginning of his term of office and until his successor shall qualify; one of said commissioners shall hold office for four years from the beginning of his term of office and until his successor shall qualifiy; and one of said commissioners shall hold office for six years from the beginning of his term of office and until his successor shall qualify. The term of office of each commissioner shall begin on the first Monday of May, in the year nineteen hundred and ten (1910), and the appointment of each of said commissioners shall be made and announced by the Governor not less than ten days before said first Monday of May, nineteen hundred and ten. The Governor, at the time of making and announcing the appointment of said three commissioners, as well as in the commission issued by him to each of them, shall designate which of said commissioners shall serve for the term of two years, and which shall serve for the term of four years, and which shall serve for the term of six years, as aforesaid, and also which shall be the chairman of said commission.

Upon the expiration of each of said terms, the term of office of each commissioner thereafter appointed shall be six years from the time of his appointment and quailfication and until his successor shall qualify. Vacancies in said commission shall be filled by the Governor for the unexpired term. Each commissioner shall be eligible for reappointment, in the discretion of the Governor.

In the event that the term of office above ascertained and prescribed for each of said commissioners, or the term of office hereinafter prescribed for the general counsel, shall in respect to any of said commissioners or the general counsel be held and decided by the courts, and particularly by the Court of Ap peals of Maryland, to be in excess of the period or term of office allowed or permitted by the Constitution of Maryland, then, in such event, the term of office of each of said commissioners, or said general counsel, shall, and this sub-title hereby declares and determines that the term of office of each of them shall be for the period of two years from and after the first Monday of May in the year nineteen hundred and ten (unless removed

from office) and until their successors, respectively, qualify according to law.

The Governor may remove any commissioner for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or misconduct in office, giving to him a copy of the charges against him and an opportunity of being publicly heard in person or by counsel, in his own defense, upon not less than ten days' notice. If such commissioner shall be removed, the Governor shall file in the office of the Secretary of State a complete statement of all charges made against such commissioner, and his findings thereon, together with a complete record of the proceedings.

The salary of each of said commissioners shall be three thousand dollars ($3,000) per annum, payable out of the Treasury of the State of Maryland; and in addition to said sum of three thousand dollars per annum, each of said commissioners shall also receive the sum of three thousand dollars ($3,000) per annum, which shall be paid out of its funds by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to the members of said commission as employees of said municipal corporation.*

The Governor shall, upon the recommendation of the commission, appoint an attorney-at-law of the State of Maryland to be and act as the general counsel to said public service commission. The term of office of said general counsel shall be six years from the beginning of his term of office. His term of office shall begin on the first Monday in May, 1910, and his appointment shall be made and announced by the Governor not less than ten days before said last-mentioned date. The Governor may remove said general counsel for inefficiency, neglect of duty or misconduct in office, giving him a copy of the charges against him and an opportunity of being publicly heard in his own defense, upon not less than ten days' notice. He shall be eligible for reappointment by the Governor. He shall be allowed and have the right to appoint an assistant, who shall be a member of the bar of the State of Maryland, to

This paragraph is the Amendment of 1914, ch. 750. and held to be constitutional in Thrift vs. Towers. Md. Court of Appeals, decided Nov. 11, 1915, D. R. Jan. 6, 1916, but see Chapter 73 of the Acts of 1916, being sections 411A and 414в of this Article.

aid him in the performance of his duties, and said general counsel may remove such assistant at pleasure.

The Governor may, if at any time he deems it necessary, authorize and empower the general counsel to employ other attor neys-at-law as additional assistants to said general counsel for the performance of such extraordinary legal services for or in behalf of the public service commission at such special compensation for such additional assistants as the general counsel, with the written approval of the Governor, may ascertain and prescribe. Said general counsel may also employ a stenographer and assistant stenographer in connection with the work of his office. The annual salary of such general counsel shall be three thousand dollars ($3,000), and the annual salary of the assistant employed by him shall be three thousand dollars; and the annual salary of the chief stenographer employed by him shall be one thousand five hundred dollars; the salary of each of the other stenographers employed by the general counsel shall be ascertained in the manner herein prescribed for the ascertainment of the compensation or salary of the general employees of the commission.*

The general counsel shall also receive, as additional compensation, the sum of $1,800 per annum, which shall be paid out of its funds by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, to said general counsel, as an employee of said municipal corpo⚫ration.

It shall be the duty of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, and it is hereby directed and required to pay out of its funds the salaries and compensations provided and prescribed by this sub-title to be paid by it, and it shall pay said salaries and compensations to the said several commissioners and general counsel of said commission in monthly installments, payable at the same time and in the same manner in all respects as the salary and compensation of the Mayor of said municipal corporation is paid to him by it.

The said commission shall have a secretary, to be appointed by it and to hold office at its pleasure. It shall be the duty of

* See sections 414A and 414в of this Article, being chapter 713 of the Acts of

1916.

the secretary to keep a full and true record of all the proceedings of the commission, of all books, maps, documents and papers ordered filed by the commission, and of all orders made by each of the commissioners, and of all orders made by the commission or approved and confirmed by it and ordered filed, and he shall be responsible to it for the safe custody and preservation of all such documents at its office. Under the direction of the commission, the secretary shall have general charge of its office, superintend the clerical business and perform such other duties as the commission may prescribe. He shall have power and authority to administer oaths in all parts whatsoever of the State, so far as the exercise of such power is properly incidental to the performance of his duties or that of the commission. The secretary shall designate from time to time. one of the clerks appointed by the commission to perform the duties of secretary during his absence, and during such time the clerk so designated shall, at the office, possess the powers of the secretary of the commission. The annual salary of the secretary shall be three thousand dollars ($3,000).

The commission shall have the power, subject to the approval in writing, by the Governor, in each and every instance, to employ such officers, clerks, stenographers, typewriters, inspectors, experts and employees as it may deem necessary to carry out the provisions of this sub-title or to perform the duties and exercise the powers conferred by law upon the commission; no person, however, shall be appointed or employed by the commission in any position whatsoever, unless the commission shall certify to the Governor that it deems such appointment or employment, and the compensation or annual salary which it proposes shall be paid in each instance, actually necessary for carrying out the purpose and requirements of this sub-title, and unless the Governor shall thereupon approve in writing such appointment or employment, and such compensation or annual salary or salaries. If in any case the commission can not ascertain in advance the value of any service to be rendered to it or the proper compensation to be paid therefor, it shall certify such fact to the Governor, who may authorize the employment or acquisition of the service in question, leaving the value