Year: 1965
Type: article
Abstract: The problem of the public utility rate probably is one of the most serious in our scheme of government.Its solution seems to measure whether we can justify to the world the competence and virtue we profess for it.The enormous spendthrift drain on official time and expense is legion.'At stake is not only the system of private property in its several significances but also the organization and process of the scheme of government which is involved in the confusion of the judicial and legislative process contrary to the doctrine of departmentalization.These are hazards of maladministration by the engineer and not defects in the engine.When we reassociate these processes, the machinery of government will be ready to digest the grist of rates.II We are looking only at the list of industries usually captured in common understanding as public utilities.It is not that these are any different than other private properties but only that the condition of compulsory application of the owner's profit to the consumer's relief has been justified by the facts.It is for simplification for discussion here that the easy list of transportation, light, water, etc., is made exclusive so as to escape the companion problem of whether new categories ever can be added,' or, once captured, can escape.3 We need the feel of this accordion pleat folded in the cloth of the Constitution through Block v. Hirs1 4 to Chastleton Corp. v. Sinclair 5 and back again in order to grasp the full teaching of Munn v. Illinois 6 that we cannot enter through government unless we have to do so as disclosed by the jurisdictional facts.That Munn gives jurisdiction only to the extent of the necessity is made clear in the Railroad Comnn Cases.'We may vaccinate but we cannot enslave.When the public servitude of entry is exhausted, confiscation begins.
Source: Marquette law review
Author: James B. Smith
Institution: Marquette University
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1603962418