or compensation thereof to be ascertained by subsequent agreement or adjustment. Each commissioner and each person appointed to office or employment by the Governor or by the commission, with the approval of the Governor or by the general counsel to the commission, shall before entering upon the duties of his office or employment, take and subscribe to the constitutional oath of office. No person shall be eligible for appointment or shall hold the office of commissioner, or be appointed by the commission, or by the general counsel to the commission to or hold any official relation to any common carrier, railroad corporation, street railroad corporation, gas corporation, electrical corporation, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation, water company, heat and refrigerating company, transportation of property or freight company, or other public service corporation subject to any of the provisions of this sub-title, or who own stocks or bonds therein, or who has any pecuniary interest therein.* 1916, ch. 713. 414A. The salary of each of the commissioners of the Public Service Commission of Maryland created by Chapter 180 of the Acts of 1910, shall be six thousand dollars ($6,000) per annum, and the salary of the general counsel to said Commission created by said Act shall be forty-eight hundred dollars ($4,800) per annum; that each of the members of the State Industrial Accident Commission of Maryland, created by Chapter 800 of the Acts of 1914, shall receive a salary of five thousand dollars ($5,000) per annum; that the salaries of the members of the State Tax Commission of Maryland, created by Chapter 841 of the Acts of 1914, shall be as follows: To the chairman of said Commission the sum of six thousand dollars ($6,000) per annum, and to each of the other two members the sum of five thou sand dollars ($5,000) per annum. And a sum of money sufficient to pay the salaries of the said members of the Public * The salary provision is not governed by Act of 1914, ch. 750, so far as incumbents at time of the passage of Act are concerned. The Act of 1910, chapter 180, section 2, 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, Jan. 6, 1916, decided by Court of Appeals on November 11,1915, but see section 414A of this Article. Service Commission, and the counsel to said Public Service Commission, the members of the State Industrial Accident Commission and the members of the State Tax Commission by the State of Maryland be, and the same is hereby annually ap propriated out of any moneys in the Treasury of Maryland not otherwise appropriated for the purpose of paying said salaries. 1916, ch. 713. 414B. The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore shall not pay, and they are hereby relieved from payment, of any portion of the salaries of the members of the Public Service Commission of Maryland, the general counsel to said Commission, the members of the State Industrial Accident Commission and the members of the State Tax Commission, anything in any provision of any existing statute in this State to the contrary notwithstanding. 1910, ch. 180, sec. 3, par. 346. 415. The jurisdiction, supervision, powers and duties of the public service commission herein created and established shall extend under this sub-title.* 1. To railroads and street railroads lying within this State, and to the person or corporation owning, leasing, operating or controlling the same. 2. To street railroads, any portion of whose lines lie within any incorporated city or town within this State, containing not less than two thousand inhabitants, and to all transportation of persons or property thereon, and to the person or corporation owning, operating, controlling or leasing the said street railroads. 3. To such portion of the lines of any other railroad as lie within this State, and to person or corporation owning, leas ing, operating or controlling the same, so far as concerns the construction, maintenance, equipment, terminal facilities and local transportation facilities and local transportation of persons or property within the State.† * Public Service Commission vs. Northern Central Ry.. 122 Md. 355, 372. There is nothing in the Public Service Commission Act which in terms authorizes the Commission to determine whether a railroad crossing should be at grade, above grade or under grade, but under its general provisions the commission has the power so to determine. City etc., R. R. vs. W. W. & G. R. R. Co., 122 Md. 655, 656. 4. To any common carrier operating or doing business within the State. 5. To the manufacture, sale or distribution of gas, natural and artificial, and electricity for light, beat and power, within the State of Maryland, and to the persons or corporations owning, leasing, operating or controlling the same; and to gas and electric plants, and to persons or corporations owning, operating, leasing or controlling the same. 6. To all telephone lines, as above defined, and all telegraph lines as above defined, and to every telephone company, and to every telegraph company, so far as said telephone and telegraph lines are and lie, and so far as said telephone companies and said telegraph companies conduct and operate such line or lines, respectively, within this State. 7. To all water companies and to the land, property, dams, water supplies, canals or power stations thereof and the operation of the same within this State.* 8. To all persons, corporations or partnerships engaged in the "transportation of property or freight," as above defined, within this State. 9. To all corporations and persons whatsoever subject to the provisions of this sub-title as herein defined. And to such other and further extent, and to all such other and additional matters and things, and in such further respects as may herein appear, either expressly or impliedly. * In Yateman vs. Public Service Commission, 126 Md. 513, the Court held that the person who by contract undertakes to supply water for at least 100 houses sufficient for the needs of the people, is performing a distinctly public service, and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission by virtue of Sections 413 and 415. "Bearing.this rule in mind and looking to the manifest intent of the Legislature, it is perfectly apparent that the purpose was to place all corporations han dling public utilities under the supervision and control of the Public Service Commission, and with power in the commssion to regulate the rates charged for service, but that until the commission did so regulate the charge, any Act or Acts in force respecting them should remain unimpaired." Gregg vs. Public Service Commission, 121 Md. 30. The B. & O. R. R. is at least, to some extent, included under this control of the Public Service Commission over companies furnishing public services or operating public utilities. Laird vs. B. & O. R. R., 121 Md. 179. Commission has certain police powers. Laird vs. B. & O. R. R., 121 Md. 179, 184. "Through all of these," said the Court, referring to section 415 in the case of Laird vs. B. & O., 121 Md. 179, 184, "runs the same fundamental idea that the 1910, ch. 180, sec. 4. 1914, ch. 445, sec. 4. 416. That the principal office of the commission shall be in the City of Baltimore, at such place therein as said commission shall select and determine from time to time. The commission shall hold stated meetings at least once a week during the year at its office. The commission shall have an official seal, which shall be prepared and furnished by the Secretary of State. The officers of the commission shall be supplied with all necessary books, maps, charts, stationery, office furniture, telephone and telegraph connections, and all other necessary appliances and incidentals, to be paid for in the same manner as other expenses authorized by this Act. The offices of said commission shall be open for business between the hours of half-past eight o'clock A. M. and half-past five o'clock P. M., on every secular day of the week except Saturday, when they shall be open between the hours of half-past eight o'clock A. M. and twelve o'clock noon, and one or more responsible persons, to be designated by the commission or by the secretary, under the direction of the commission, shall be on duty at all times, in immediate charge thereof. The commission shall promptly and duly organize. A majority of the commissioners shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business, for the performance of any duty or for the exercise of any power of the commission, and may hold meetings of the commission at any time and place within the State. Any investigation, inquiry or hearing which the commission has power to undertake or hold, may be undertaken or held by or before any one of said commissioners, upon condition, however, that such commissioner shall have first been authorized by the commission to undertake to hold such investigation, inquiry or hearing; and all investigations, inquiries or hearings of or by a commissioner shall be and be deemed to be the investigations, inquiries and hearings of the power and control of the commission exists as to the matter of service, transportation and rates within the State, and full power over that is expressly given to the commission. This necessarily includes many matters which are not the subject matter of an exercise of the police power. The questions of traffic or fares or the adequacy or inadequacy of service or facilities with regard to business conducted wholly within the State, may properly come within the jurisdiction of the commission." commission; provided, however, that each and all decisions of a commissioner upon any such investigation, inquiry or hearing undertaken and held by him shall not become and be effective antil approved and confirmed by the commission itself, and ordered by the commission to be filed in its office; and upon such confirmation and order by the commission, such decision shall be and be deemed to be the decision and order of the commission. 1910, ch. 180, sec. 5. 417. The salaries of the commissioners, the general counsel of the commission, the assistant to the general counsel, the stenographer to the general counsel and the secretary to the commission, shall be paid monthly by the State Treasurer upon the warrant of the Comptroller of the Treasury, out of the funds provided therefor.* The commissioners, general coun sel to the commission and his assistant, the stenographer to the general counsel, the secretary of the commission and its officers and clerks, inspectors, experts and other employees shall have reimbursed to them, by the State Treasurer, upon the warrant of the Comptroller, all actual and necessary traveling and other expenses and disbursements incurred or made by them in the discharge of their official duties. The salaries or compensation of all other officers, clerks, inspectors, members and employees of the commission, and all persons appointed by the general counsel to the commission, shall be fixed by the commission, subject to the written approval in every case of the Governor. The sum of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) annually, or so much thereof as may be necessary annually for the maintenance of said commission and the payment of the salaries of the commissioners, the general counsel, assistant counsel, secretary, stenographer, clerks, inspectors and all other employees whatsoever of the commission, and for investigations and hearings and all its necessary and incidental expenses, is hereby appropriated, and shall be payable on the order or orders of said commission, drawn upon the Comptroller at monthly intervals and at such other times as the commission may deem *See Sections 413A and 413в of this Article. |