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Show j AM IMPOTENT RAILROAD COMMISSION. . , ' Gov. Pardee message to the California Legis-V Legis-V ' lature relative to the railroad commission of that t State ought to be thoughtful reading to such people u want a railroad commission for Utah. r. He evidently doubts the efficiency of the commission, commis-sion, and think the salary paid it is a waste of public pub-lic money. He declares that it has been a matter of 1 common knowledge for several years that the j amount of business transacted by the board has been j small and the people, who think they had suffered grievances from the railroads, have manifested no ' disposition to submit them to that tribune. , During the last two years only about a dozen ; trivial complaints have been made to the commissioners, commis-sioners, and the authors of these complaints generally general-ly have dropped them when called upon to make a formal showing. There has not been a single contested con-tested case open, for the taking of testimony and hearing of arguments. The board has done no business, busi-ness, practically, because there is nothing for it to do. It has fixed no transportation rates, except upon up-on an agreed basis. It has declined to compile and publish railroad statistics of the State, ostensibly for want of funds. The conclusion is that if it cannot be made more useful than it is at present it should be abolished. The Governor finally recommends that the Legislature Leg-islature consider the advisability of submitting a constitutional amendment to that end. Probably no State in the Union has had more complaints of railroads than has California, but it seems that so soon as it got a commission to hear complaints and to adjust them, the men who had talked so much had nothing more to say. With that experience before us, we think that the railroad commission for Utah is. at least, most premature. pre-mature. The United States is doing what it can to stop discriminations on railroads and to regulate fares. While that is going on it seems to us it would be a good thing for the people of Utah to encourage the railroads here to do the best they can and to induce in-duce others, if possible, to come. |