$150,000, including the salaries of engineers, inspectors, accountants and other assistants. Results of 40 It is not easy to review briefly the forty years of this regulation and do justice to the subject. Certain salient features stand out, however. So far as the public is concerned, the situation in Massachusetts with respect to public-service corporations is not at all discouraging. There have been no gross scandals in this field since the Addicks' gas invasion, back in the eighties. Such outrages as have characterized the traction companies of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and other American cities have been conspicuous by their absence. Minor instances of this sort of thing have occurred, to be sure, but they have usually pointed the way, under the leadership of the commissions, to new legislation making their repetition impossible. At the present time the corporations are in the hands of men, of whom many desire the good will and respect of the public and strive to earn it. Boston, for example, probably has as good street railway, gas and electric light service, together with as reasonable rates, as any large city in the country. In the whole state there are very few instances of inflated capital among the legal corporations. None of them is gross, and those which exist are survivals of the period prior to the passage of the anti-stock watering laws of 1894. This assertion should be somewhat qualified, it is true, by stating the fact that the entire capital stock of several companies is held in trust by certain anomalous voluntary associations, which in turn issue trust certificates on a highly inflated basis, which are bought and sold in the market like shares of stock. So far, these unincorporated associations have done little harm, since neither they nor their pseudosecurities are recognized by the commissions. Yet they do involve a danger, for the claims of the "widows and orphans" who invest in these inflated certificates with the acquiescence of the State may prove embarrassing in the future. On the whole, however, the day of the adventurer has gone by, and in general the people are contented and have no hard feeling against most of the corporations. From the standpoint of the corporations, the situation is also quite endurable. They have been well protected against destructive competition, while investors have discovered that publicity of accounts and the restriction of securities are in the end decided safeguards. Then, too, the commissions have always taken a conservative and reasonable attitude, and have made it a point to interfere in the management of a company only when the public interests seemed to require it. The following quotations from the reports of the railroad commission show this attitude very clearly: It is moreover of scarcely less importance to the community than to the body of immediate stockholders that every railroad should be amply remunerative. A poor, bankrupt or even needy company almost as a necessary consequence has a road ill-equipped, unsafe and insufficiently operated; and, indeed, all such as a rule constitute a heavy drawback on the communities which they are supposed to serve.' And again The board does not attempt to divide with the directors responsibility for railroad management. It is not its function to correct, if it could, errors of judgment in the determination of purely business questions. Such a task is impracticable without the knowledge and opportunity that comes only from the entire control of affairs. It has been the policy of this State, in connection with the private ownership of railroads, to establish a supervision that shall leave the business management of the roads to the owners unhampered, so long as it is conducted in a reasonable manner. As a consequence of all this, the corporations, as a rule, have a friendly feeling for the commissions and are disposed to concede the necessity and advantage of such regulation. It is a striking fact that at a recent National Electric Light Convention, representatives from Massachusetts were foremost in securing from that convention, against vigorous opposition, endorsement of the principle of commission control. The Railroad Let us, however, consider the separate boards. Massachusetts has always been proud of her railroad commission. In contrast with commissions in many other states, it has been remarkably free from political influence. Men have not received the office as a political reward, nor have they used it as a stepping stone to greater political honors. On the contrary, from the very beginning it has enlisted the services of high-minded men of marked ability, and this has been especially true of its chairmen. In the early days, Charles Francis Adams established the reputation of the commission for courage, enthusiasm and intelligence, and marked out for it a progressive and independent path. Looking back over the years, some of its achievements are notable. Its annual reports have contained vigorous discussions of railroad and street railway policy, which have had an influence far beyond the borders of the State. As President Hadley of Yale University once said, Its reports were strong enough to command respect and even obedience. The commissioners were by no means infallible. Some of their theories were wrong. But they had something better than correct theories; they had practical business sagacity. They abandoned courses which proved wrong; they followed up with successful persistence those which proved right. The vigor and forceof their arguments and the facts which they presentedhave placed upon the statute books sound and progressive legislation. The great weapon of the commission, however, has always been an enlightened public opinion. In order that the people might know just how matters stood and make proper comparisons, this Board compelled the corporations for the first time in this country to keep their accounts on a uniform basis and to make returns that meant something. Under its guidance laws have been passed which prevent the construction of useless roads built only for speculative or blackmailing purposes; improvident or dishonest leases and consolidations have been made well-nigh impossible; and the looting of street railway properties by companies organized under the laws of other States has been nipped in the bud. The railroads have been encouraged to give proper consideration to local as well as to through business, and to bring in raw materials for manufacture at low rates; cheap suburban fares, greater uniformity in passenger rates, 500-mile tickets and the gradual adoption of a maximum fare of two cents a mile, have all been advocated and to a large extent secured. Accidents have been investigated promptly and thoroughly, and, as a result, the railroad companies have been forced to adopt safety switches, improved bridge and track construction, automatic train and engine brakes, safety couplers and platforms, steam heat for passenger cars, improved rules for employees, tests for color-blindness, proper inspection of locomotive boilers, and finally automatic block signals throughout. Electric cars have been fitted with fenders and vestibules, must be well heated, and operated under speed rules nicely adapted to special circumstances. Practically all these improvements have been forced upon protesting and unwilling companies, as the records well show; but the commission did more, for it took the initiative in securing from Congress the present law requiring automatic couplers and brakes on freight trains. Nor should any record of achievements fail to record its effective work in preventing all new and dangerous grade crossings, and in securing the present admirable legislation for the gradual abolition, with state aid, of those already existing, for in this respect Massachusetts leads the country. In addition to this, the commission has always given prompt attention to complaints of all sorts. Probably ninety per cent or over are adjusted without the necessity of any formal action, sometimes over the telephone, but in several hundred cases public hearings have been held and formal recommendations made. As a result, rates have been reduced, new station buildings have been constructed, additional train service has been installed and a host of other improvements in facilities for travel have been secured. Obedience The recommendations of the board have been followed almost to the letter. In the rare instances where they have not been followed, the legislature has compelled action by special act. For instance, radical changes in rates were at one time recommended upon the old Housatonic Railroad, now a part of the New Haven system. They were not made and the legislature immediately invested the board with full power to fix rates upon that line and enforce them. As a matter of practice, the recommendation of this board, made in a specific case after investigation and a hearing, There has been much The recommendation is not very different from a positive order. confusion of thought upon this matter. is a more courteous form of procedure; it saves the feelings of the railroad managers, but behind the velvet glove is the iron hand. The board early took this position, When the board is asked to give a formal recommendation under the statute, it is not enough to show that the course is unwise. To call for such action it must be so unreasonable that if the recommendation is not heeded the board will be ready to follow it by calling upon the General Court for legislation. Railroad managers in Massachusetts, up to the present time, have fortunately been susceptible enough to public opinion so that they have rarely had the temerity to brave any such process as this by disregarding a formal recommendation. Moreover, in the case of street railways, such disregard is the more dangerous because of the power which the local authorities possess to revoke locations. To illustrate what has been done in Massachusetts without the use of drastic orders, I need give only three typical instances which have occurred within the last few years and which involve radical and far-reaching changes in passenger rates, methods of railroad operation, and the character of administrative policy. The recommendations of the board brought the sale of 500mile ticket books at $10 a book upon all the railroads of the State, remodeled rules governing train movement and methods of signaling upon the Boston and Maine, and occasioned the overturn of the management on the Boston and Albany division of the New York Central, together with a definite change in the administrative policy of that road. When the board of railroad commissioners decides that certain things ought to be done and issues a specific recommendation to that effect, its recommendations have, so far at least, been respected. Of course, this commission has made its mistakes, and it has not been altogether free from popular criticism, although there has been on the whole remarkably little. The criticism which is heard turns, in the main, upon this question: How far may the commission be charged with a failure to keep the Massachusetts railroads up to the highest level in equipment and |