PUBLIC UTILITIES-POLICY AS TO COMPETITION BETWEEN UTILITIES

Authors

Abstract

The older view held that the public would be most benefitted by stimulating a vigorous competition among all occupations, including public utilities. An example of such cut-throat competition is to be seen in United Railroads of San Francisco v. City and County of San Francisco, 249 U. S. 517, 39 S. Ct. 361. There, a street railway which had been operating for forty years was paralleled by a municipal railway, though the volume of business did not warrant such a duplication. Another striking example is discussed in Niagara Gorge R. Co. v. Gaiser, 109 Misc. Rep. 38, 178 N. Y. S. 156. This case shows the stages of legislation in New York. Under the statutes of 1913 a certificate from the commission was necessary in order to operate over the highway in motor transportation. By the law of 1915 the jurisdiction of the New York Commission was greatly reduced, with the result that suburban railways were subjected to such competition that it nearly threw them into bankruptcy, and fares were greatly increased. The legislature, however, seeing the injustice and disadvantages of such a condition, gave back to the commission a considerable part of its control by the law of 1919.

Recommended Citation

PUBLIC UTILITIES-POLICY AS TO COMPETITION BETWEEN UTILITIES, 24 Mich. L. Rev. 393 (1926).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol24/iss4/6