modity, transit, and other special contract rates, which are open to all shippers under similar circumstances and conditions.

8.32 Emergency Rates.

The laws of Alabama, Kansas, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin permit the commission to establish for such time as it may prescribe in the interests of the public and of the business of the railroads, etc., temporary emergency rates, and this provision in Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Wisconsin, is extended to apply to utilities other than railroads.

8.33 Classification of Messages.

The provisions requiring the transmission of messages by telegraph and telephone companies in their proper order and at nondiscriminatory rates is subject to the provision in Idaho that such messages may be classified into day, night, repeated, unrepeated, letter, commercial, press, government and other classes; in South Dakota, that precedence may be given to messages on public business, messages relating to sickness or death, and messages for immediate publication in newspapers, in the order here stated; in Nebraska, that dispatches may be transmitted during the night or for publication in newspapers at reduced rates; in Connecticut, that arrangements may be made with newspapers for transmission of news out of its regular order, and that communications for officers of justice shall take precedence over all other dispatches.

8.34 Rates Established by Pre-Existing Contract.

A provision common to many of the laws is that which provides that existing contracts for service or a public utility's product at reduced or special rates shall not be affected by the enactment. This provision is found in the laws of:

*As to telegraph and telephone companies.

As to contracts made by municipalities to supply water service in order to attract manufacturing establishments, and to the supply of free service or special rate service to municipalities under the franchise given to a public utility.

As to telephone companies.

If such contracts are by their terms terminable by the public utility, the commission is given authority to order the same terminated in Florida, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, and Washington. The date of the contract saved by this provision is specified usually either to be the day upon which the law takes effect or, in some cases, at some time previous thereto, presumably in order to prevent the making of discriminatory contracts by a public utility in anticipation of the passage and taking effect of the law.

IX

THE ESTABLISHMENT AND ALTERATION OF RATES

1. ORIGINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF RATES

9.1

Usual Provision.

In most of the state laws there exists a considerable uniformity of provisions relating to the original establishment of rates, the filing of schedules, publication and posting of schedules, the methods by which changes may be allowed to be made in rates, both by the public utility and by the commission at the instance of either the public utility or of complaining consumers or patrons. In general, these provisions follow the precedents set by the Interstate Commerce Act and the earlier state enactments, and in many cases, particularly when applicable to railroads and common carriers, the state laws are to a great extent literal adaptations of the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Law. As a rule, the original establishment of rates is the right of the public utility subject to the requirement as to filing copies of its rate schedules in the office of the commission. Rates so filed may not exceed those in effect upon a date set by the statute, and upon filing they become prima facie reasonable and valid and subject to change only by the methods provided by the statute. In a few states, however, as we shall presently see, the original establishment of rates is a duty charged to the commission.

2. PUBLICITY OF RATE SCHEDULES

9.2 Requirements as to Filing Schedules. California:

(a) . . . Every common carrier shall file with the commission and shall print and keep open to the public inspection

schedules showing the rates, fares, charges and classifications for the transportation between termini within this state of persons and property from each point upon its route to all other points thereon; and from each point upon its route to all points upon every other route leased, operated or controlled by it; and from each point on its route or upon any route leased, operated or controlled by it to all points upon the route of any other common carrier, whenever a through route and a joint rate shall have been established or ordered between any two such points. If no joint rate over a through route has been established, the schedules of the several carriers in such through route shall show the separately established rates, fares, charges and classifications applicable to the through transportation. The schedules printed as aforesaid shall plainly state the places between which property and persons will be carried, and shall also contain the classification of passengers or property in force, and shall also state separately all terminal charges, storage charges, icing charges, and all other charge's which the commission may require to be stated, all privileges or facilities granted or allowed, and all rules or regulations which may in any wise change, affect or determine any part, or the aggregate of, such rates, fares, charges and classifications, or the value of the service rendered to the passenger, shipper or consignee.

(b) Under such rules and regulations as the commission may prescribe, every public utility other than a common carrier shall file with the commission within such time and in such form as the commission may designate, and shall print and keep open to public inspection schedules showing all rates, tolls, rentals, charges and classifications collected or enforced, or to be collected or enforced, together with all rules, regulations, contracts, privileges and facilities which in any manner affect or relate to rates, tolls, rentals, classifications, or service. -Calif. Gen. Laws, 1920, Act 3775, Sec. 14.

9.3 Similar Provisions.

The substance of the first of the above paragraphs is taken from the Interstate Commerce Act, Section 6, and the second paragraph merely extends the general requirements as to filing and keeping the schedules open to public inspection to utilities other than railroads. So far as these provisions are applicable to the particular public utilities regulated in each of the following states, they have been incorporated, at least in substance, and in most cases with considerable literal exactness, in the laws of:

In the state of New Jersey the public utility is under duty to. file only if, and when, required so to do by the commission, and the same provision is made for common carriers in North Carolina, and for utilities other than railroads in Tennessee.

9.4

Rates not to Exceed Those in Effect on Day Certain.

In the states above enumerated the rates so filed become automatically the established rates in the absence of affirmative action on the part of the commission to suspend, modify, or disallow them. There are in several of the states limitations upon the schedules which may be originally filed, which usually take the form of a provision prohibiting the public utility from filing rates which exceed those in effect on a certain date, the date so fixed being usually prior to the taking effect of the law. Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Montana, Oregon, and Wisconsin have such provision; and Nebraska provides that on certain commodities freight rates shall not exceed 85 per cent of those in force January 1, 1907, and express rates not more than 75 per cent of those in force on the same date. South Dakota has a similar provision.

9.5 Approval by Commission as Condition Precedent to Validity of Rates.

In Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, the rates filed do not become established until approved by the commis

*As to telegraph and telephone companies.

As to common carriers.

As to common carriers, telephone, and telegraph companies, and commission may require other utilities to file, etc.

§As to utilities other than railroads.

As to railroads and express companies.

TAs to railroads.