THE REGULATION OF PUBLIC UTILITIES AND THE DECLINE OF THE "BLACK HORSE CAVALRY"

ADDRESS, AUGUST 25, 1915

In a brief article on legislative corruption, the method of corruption particularly referred to by Mr. Root in the address printed below is thus defined:

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"Strike" bills, or "regulators" which are introduced by legislators attack some interest for the purpose of being bought off. Behind them is frequently to be found a "combine" of members, usually bi-partisan, organized for purposes of plunder. A combine of this nature in New York earned for itself the expressive title of the Black Horse Cavalry." This body was particularly active in state legislation at the time when Boss Tweed was a state senator and practically in control of the legislature. (Cyclopedia of American Government, vol. i, p. 478.)

SYMPATHIZE very fully with the most of what both Mr. Wickersham and Mr. Wagner have said. I do not think that we are in a position to legislate in detail about the Public Service Commissions, and that we ought to leave that to the legislature which created them.

There is a committee of the state senate, I understand, that is considering that subject.

Mr. WAGNER. Yes, there is.

Mr. ROOT. They know a great deal more about it than I do, and I do not doubt that they know a great deal more about it than most of the members of the convention. The method of exercising the jurisdiction of these commissions is still in the stage of development. But I do not think we should lose the opportunity to put into the constitution enough to make it impossible for any legislature ever to abandon the system of regulating public service corporations through a commission, or commissions, whose business it is to deal with the subject, and to go back to the old method

of leaving public service corporations unregulated, except by the passage of laws in the legislature.

The public service commissions, both in this state and in other states and in the nation, were created to meet and deal with very great and real evils. In this state before we had that system, if a man was unjustly treated by a railroad, he had no recourse, except a lawsuit that was beyond his means, or a complaint to his representative in the legislature. A lawsuit by a single individual of moderate means against one of these great corporations was hopeless. The complaint to his representative in the legislature would result in the introduction of a bill founded upon, perhaps, just complaint, and those bills accumulated. A great deal of the time of the legislature was taken up by them.

The duty of holding these corporations accountable was a burden upon the legislature which it ought not to have been called upon to perform. But, worse than that, this multitude of bills, founded upon just complaint, brought after them a multitude of strike bills introduced for the purpose of holding up the corporations, holding them up and calling them down.

Many of us can now remember the dreadful days of the "Black Horse Cavalry" which came as an incident mainly, to the performance of this duty by the legislature. Further still, the fact that the great transportation companies were being attacked, the great public service corporations were being attacked in the legislature, justified them in their own minds in going into politics and electing, or furnishing the money to elect, members of the senate and assembly. Good men, good citizens, honest, law-abiding men justified themselves in the directorates of these railroads and other public service corporations in spending the money of the corporation to elect senators and assemblymen who would protect them against strike bills. The whole system became a scandal and a disgrace, and it was to remedy that here in New York and

all over the country that this system of regulation by a commission created by law was established.

The results have been most beneficent. No greater reform has been wrought in the public life of our country than has been wrought by the transfer of this attempt to regulate these great corporations from the legislative bodies of the country to public service commissions. Now if a poor fellow is injured by a railroad company, he has somebody to go to, and the company can be held accountable. Now there is no cloud of strike bills in the legislature. Now there is no justification for the New York Central or the Erie or the Delaware and Hudson or the electric light companies or the telegraph or telephone companies to go into politics and spend their money with the idea that they must protect themselves in the legislature.

We can regard with greater respect the government of our state than we could. We never should permit a return to the old and vicious system. We should not now lose the opportunity to make the return impossible, because men forget. The generation that knew the old, evil days of the "Black Horse Cavalry" is passing away, and when it is gone a new generation which knows not the cause for the creation of this system will arise; and, ignorant of the evils to which they would be returning by destroying it, they may wipe it out. So I hope that we, who know the reason for the creation of this system of regulation by commission will put into this constitution enough, just enough, to make it impossible for any legislature ever to destroy it and return to the old, evil days, leaving the real legislation for the further development of the system to the legislature.

INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT

SPEECH ON THE SHORT BALLOT AMENDMENT, AUGUST 30, 1915

In the states of the American Union, most of the public officers are elected by popular vote. As candidates for the elective positions are nominated by the different parties, and as the names of all the candidates are printed on one and the same ballot, the ordinary voter finds himself in the presence of many names, among which he must select if he wishes the election of a particular person instead of the election of the party ticket. The idea of the so-called short ballot is to restrict the number of officers to be elected by the people at any one election, in order that the voters may concentrate their attention upon a few candidates and thus select those believed to be best qualified for the positions; to allow the officers thus elected to appoint other public officers, and to hold the elected officers responsible not only for their own conduct, but for the selection and conduct of their appointees. It is believed by the advocates of the short ballot that by this method some of the evils of what has come to be called " Invisible Government" will be eliminated.

In behalf of the short ballot, and of honest, open government, Mr. Root delivered the following address:

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HAVE had great doubt whether or not I should impose

any remarks on this bill upon the convention, especially after my friend, Mr. Quigg, has so ingeniously made it difficult for me to speak; but I have been so long deeply interested in the subject of the bill, and I shall have so few opportunities hereafter, perhaps never another, that I cannot refrain from testifying to my faith in the principles of government which underlie the measure, and putting upon this record, for whatever it may be worth, the conclusions which I have reached upon the teachings of long experience in many positions, through many years of participation in the public affairs of this state and in observation of them.

I wish, in the first place, to say something suggested by the question of my friend, Mr. Brackett, as to where this short ballot idea came from. It came up out of the dark, he says.