History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 80

Author: Owen, Thomas McAdory, 1866-1920; Owen, Marie (Bankhead) Mrs. 1869-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 724

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"and to aid in securing the just, humane and economic management of all such institu- tions." He is empowered to require the erec- tion of sanitary buildings; to investigate the management of all such institutions and the conduct and efficiency of their officers or man- agers; to require that their buildings and grounds be kept in the best sanitary condi- tion; to condemn jails, prisons and alms- houses and prohibit their use until put in suitable condition; to formulate such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary for the government of the hygiene, sanita- tion, cleanliness and healthfulness of all in- stitutions under his jurisdiction.

As first established, the office was autono- mous, but the act of April 8, 1911, provided that after the expiration of the first six-year term, the inspector should be elected by the State board of health, and "discharge the duties of his office in connection with and as a part of the work of the State board of health."

Jail Inspection .- The movement for prison reform, or more exactly, for the improvement of the conditions surrounding prisoners in jails, penitentiaries, workhouses, and other prisons, of which the establishment of the of- fice of prison inspector in Alabama was a part, is a development of the last 20 years. It began to be recognized, not only by pen- ologists, but by the public generally in the State, that persons confined in city and county jails awaiting trial were entitled to health- ful surroundings and a reasonable amount of personal comfort, at least until proven guilty. In response to public opinion on the subject, the legislature created, March 4, 1907, the office of inspector of jails and almshouses, with a yearly compensation of $2,400 salary and the necessary traveling expenses. The inspector was appointed by the governor for terms of four years, and was required to visit every jail and every poorhouse in the State at least twice each year and oftener if he could, for the purpose of ascertaining the conditions obtaining in them, and taking such action as would secure proper care of the in- mates and the buildings.

During the four years following the crea- tion of the office, much was accomplished to- ward the betterment of jail and almshouse conditions; but the law was found to be in- adequate because of a lack of definiteness and an insufficiency of power to enforce the com- pliance with its provisions. The present statute is an attempt to remedy these defects.

The legislature in 1911 changed the of- ficial designation of the office to State prison inspector, and so modified the law as greatly to increase its effectiveness. The new law has been vigorously enforced, with notable improvements in the prison, charitable and factory systems of the State. In a paper read before the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, in Memphis, Tenn., May 13, 1914, Dr. W. H. Oates, State prison inspec- tor, said:

"Since its enactment, three years ago, the prisoners in the Alabama jails have received, at least, the consideration that is due a human

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being. In that time, thirty jails have been built and remodeled along scientific lines, and in most of the jails an excellent sanitary system has been insisted upon and attained. Light and air are freely admitted; conditions which made for infection have been removed, and food is served in many of the jails which may be eaten without the spur of extreme hunger."

Factory Inspection .- The law of March 4, 1907, provided for the inspection of cotton mills or factories as well as of jails and alms- houses. Every such manufacturing plant was to be visited by the State inspector at least twice each year. Most of the provisions of the present law were contained in the first, but they could not be enforced by the inspector against unwilling manufacturers. The law confers ample and more specific powers upon the inspector, besides authorizing the appoint- ment of deputies sufficient to insure the in- spection of all institutions under their juris- diction with necessary frequency and thor- oughness.

Child Labor Regulation .- The new law also added to the functions of the office the duty of inspecting all manufacturing plants which employ children, subject to the provisions of the child-labor laws. Records are kept and reports have been published giving lists of children who are ineligible for employment in mills, factories and manufacturing estab- lishments.

Inspectors .- Dr. Shirley Bragg, 1907-1908; Dr. Charles F. Bush, 1908-1910; Dr. William H. Oates, 1910-1917.

PUBLICATIONS .- Copies of reports of Dr. Bragg, inspector of jails, cotton mills and alms- houses, July, 1907, pp. 16; 1st annual report, 1909; Annual report, 1912; Special report, 1914; Children ineligible for employment in mills, factories and manufacturing establishments of the State, 1912, 1913, 1914; Extracts from the code of 1907 pertaining to care and manage- ment of county jails and almshouses (1910) ; Extracts from code and acts pertaining to county jails, city prisons, almshouses, etc. (n. d.) ; Child labor law, Alabama, 1909, 1911; W. H. Oates, M. D., State prison inspector, The county jail, paper read before National Con- ference of Charities and Correction, Memphis, Tenn., May 13, 1914, pp. 16. 12 vols.

See Child Labor; Cotton Manufacturing; Factories; Health, State Board of.

REFERENCES .- Code, 1907, secs. 7212-7222; Gen- eral Acts, 1907, pp. 333-339; Ibid, 1911, pp. 356- 365; Ibid, 1915, pp. 117, 195, 198, 200; Gov. Emmet O'Neal, Message, Jan. 12, 1915 (Legis- lative Doc. 1), pp. 116-120; Prison and factory inspection in Alabama, estimates of its worth- one hundred letters (1914, pp. 96) ; publications supra.

PRISONS. See Convicts, Board of Inspec- tors of; Crimes and Punishments; Jails.

PROFILE COTTON MILLS, Jacksonville. See Cotton Manufacturing.

PROTECTED HOME CIRCLE. A frater- nal insurance organization, whose purpose is

to provide protection to the home in times of distress and want; uses in its insurance pol- icies the National Fraternal Congress table of rates based upon 4% interest. The organ- ization was chartered August 7, 1886, in Sharon, Pa., and in 1917 had 100,000 mem- bers, with a reserve fund of $12,000,000. The first Circle in Alabama was organized in Blr- mingham, January 29, 1915, and three years later there were 14 Circles with a total mem- bership of 543. The Grand Circle of Alabama was organized March 17, 1912, at the Tut- wiler Hotel, Birmingham, following meet- ings to be held at the call of the president.

REFERENCES .- Letter from W. S. Palmer, Su- preme Secretary, Sharon, Pa., in Department of Archives and History.

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. .See Episcopal Church, The Protestant.

PROTESTANT ORPHAN ASYLUM. Child Welfare.

See

PSI DELTA. Local college fraternity; founded at Howard College in the fall of 1901, where it maintains an active chapter. It has a total enrollment of 132.

REFERENCE .- Baird, Manual (1915), p. 641.

PUBLIC PRINTING. See Printing, State. -

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, ALA- BAMA. A State executive commission, reor- ganized under that name, September 25, 1915. It was first established, February 26, 1881, with the official title of the Railroad Commission of Alabama; and its powers and duties have been enlarged from time to time to meet the new conditions incident to the development of transportation and public service interests.

At the date of reorganization in 1915, it was "charged with the duty of supervising, regulating, and controlling all transportation companies doing business in this State, in all matters relating to the performance of their public duties, and their charges there- for, and of correcting abuses therein by such companies, and the commissioners shall from time to time prescribe and enforce against said transportation companies, in the man- ner herein authorized, such rates, charges, classification of freight, storage, demurrage, and car service charges, rules, and regula- tions, and shall require them to establish and maintain all such public service, facilities, and conveniences as may be reasonable and just, which said rates, charges, classifications, rules, regulations, and requirements the com- mission may, from time to time, alter or amend."

The new legislature not only involved a change of name, but it embodied a definite policy whereby all public utilities and indus- trials should be brought under State regula- tion. The act of September 25, 1915, en- larged the existing powers, therefore, by providing "That in addition to any powers under the laws of this State, now conferred

COUNTY COURT HOUSE AND CONFEDERATE MONUMENT AT HUNTSVILLE

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upon or exercised by the Railroad Commission of Alabama, the Alabama Public Service Com- mission, upon which has herein been con- ferred all the authority, rights, powers, du- ties, privileges and jurisdiction thereof, shall have and exercise exclusive jurisdiction, su- pervision and authority over the rates and charges, with full power to regulate, super- vise and control said rates and charges, of all street railway companies, telephone com- panies, telegraph companies, electric compan- ies, gas companies, water companies, hydro electric or water power companies, heating companies, combination gas and electric com- panies, combination electric and water com- panies, combination electric and heating companies, combination electric, heating and gas companies, combination electric, heating, gas and water companies, operating or doing business for hire in this State, either as a person, firm or corporation, but nothing herein shall be constructed as a regulation of or interfering with interstate commerce; pro- vided that the provisions of this act shall not apply to municipally owned utilities."

The act provided broad inquisitorial pow- ers, required frequent examinations, and di- rected the commission to "assemble and keep on file, available for the use of the public, full statistics on the foregoing, as well as on all other matters or things con- nected with such utility as is necessary to a full knowledge of their business and affairs."

The commission is composed of three members, a president and two associates, who are elected by the people, and serve four-year terms, beginning on the first Mon- day in March after their election in Novem- ber preceding. The salary of the president is $3,500 per year, and of each associate commissioner, $3,000. Authority is given to employ a clerk at a salary of $2,400, a stenographer at a salary not exceeding $1,- 200, and "such experts as may be necessary to perform any service it may require of them." Under the act of February 23, 1907, which governs the commission as at present established, subject to the reorganizing act of 1915, it is provided that the president shall be elected at the November election 1908, and the two associate members at the November election 1910, thus avoiding a complete change at one time.

Genesis of Railroad Regulation .- The the- ory of railroad regulation by means of a commission with delegated authority was a gradual evolution in the State, and the first railroad commission was practically a cen- tralization in an executive office, of the su- pervisory and regulative powers, which from the beginning had been exercised by the leg- islature. At first these regulations were in- corporated in the provisions and inhibitions of the charter granted railroad companies, but more complete and further regulation of their activity was soon found necessary. This was accomplished by amendatory laws, through which changes were made in the charter. Later on, when the necessity arose for similar modifications of the privileges,

duties, responsibility or prohibitions set forth in the charter of the several different companies, resort was had to general acts applied to all roads, or in some cases to certain stipulated roads, irrespective of the terms of their charter.

The functions of the commission were of an advisory character; and it was without power to enforce compliance with its own decrees, except by litigation in the State courts, which was required to be instituted by the individual or corporation claiming to have been damaged. It could compel the attendance of witnesses and the giving of testimony, consider evidence, make deci- sions, and issue orders based on its findings; but it was dependent upon special laws enacted by the legislature, upon the com- mission's recommendation, and administered by the courts, for the enforcement of its rulings, if not voluntarily complied with by the railroads.

At the time the sponsors for the commis- sion form of State railroad regulation intro- duced their bill, the legislature was not ready to adopt too vigorous a policy of control; and, accordingly, the bill as finally passed was a modification and an adaptation of the provisions contained in the Georgia Rail- road Commission law, an example of the "commission with power," on the one hand, and the Massachusetts Commission law, an example of the advisory or "weak commis- sion," on the other. The legislators believed that they had succeeded in picking out and adapting to Alabama's needs the best feat- ures of both, but the subsequent history of State regulation did not bear out this belief in the efficacy of the composite law to solve the problems of internal commerce.

First Commission .- The formal beginnings of regulation by commission date from the act of February 26, 1881. A president and two associates were selected by the Senate from lists submitted by the governor. An interesting feature of this act was the dec- laration in the very first section, "that the main track of every railroad in this State is a public highway, over which all persons have equal rights of transportation for pas- sengers and freights, on the payment of just compensation to the owner of the railroad for such transportation." Extortionate or discriminatory transportation charges were declared to be punishable by damages in twice the amount of the extortionate charge, plus a reasonable attorney's fee, with the proviso that the act shall not "be construed to prevent contracts for special rates for the purpose of developing any industrial enter- prise, or to prevent the execution of any such contract now existing."

The commissioners were empowered "to consider and carefully revise all tariffs of charges for transportation submitted" to it by any person or corporation owning or operating a railroad in the State; to hear all complaints against railroads for violations of the provisions of the law; to adjudicate such cases and correct abuses where shown to exist; to keep a record of their proceedings;

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to be at all times open to inspection by the public; and to maintain an office at the State Capitol. Free transportation was required to be furnished the commissioners and offi- cers of the commission by the transportation companies. Numerous additional powers were granted, all directed to the regulation of the transportation lines of the State so as to secure a maximum of service, at rea- sonable rates and charges, and without discrimination.

At the very beginning of their labors, they were confronted with problems growing out of a revision of existing freight and pas- senger tariffs, which involved the necessity of fixing upon the then present actual value of railroad property, as a basis for deter- mining the reasonableness of rates. The roads were slow to respond to calls for information in reference to values, and some of them even denied the jurisdiction of the commission. Some even denied the right of the State, under the terms of their charter, to undertake the regulation of their busi- ness. Thus hegan a struggle between the commission and the railroads, which has in a way marked the history of regulation from that date to the present time.

Railroad Legislation .- Part of the work of the commission while still in its advisory stage, was the suggestion of appropriate legislation for the accomplishment of the objects which the legislature had in view in creating it. Accordingly, laws were passed upon its recommendation "to prevent monop- olies in the transportation of freight and to secure free and fair competition in the same;" "to provide for the comfort and ac- commodation of passengers at each of the passenger depots along the line of every railroad operated by any rallroad company, or person, in this State;" "to confer police power upon the conductors of passenger trains in this State, to provide a punishment for a neglect of their official duties, and for other purposes;" "to punish the taking of rebates;" "to empower the Railroad Commission of Alabama to recommend joint local rates on freight to railroad companies and persons operating railroads in this State;" "to pro- vide that any determination of any matter by the Railroad Commission of Alabama, in the course of proceedings before said Com- mission relating to the regulation or super- vision of railroad companies, * * * proof of the fact of such determination so made by the said commission shall be received in all courts, or other proceedings at law, or in equity, or before any officer as prima facie evidence that such determination of such matter by said commission was right and proper;" "to define the liabilities of employ- ers of workmen for injuries received by the workman while in the service of the em- ployer;" "for the protection of the traveling public against accidents caused by color blindness and defective vision;" "to require locomotive engineers in this State to be ex- amined and licensed by a board to be ap- pointed by the Governor for that purpose;"

and several other laws applying to various details of railroad service.

Three amendments of the railroad com- mission law itself were passed during its existence as an advisory board, for the pur- pose of clarifying its intent and purposes, or perfecting its machinery. Two of them were enacted in February, 1883, when the commission was still young, and the third in December, 1886, after it had learned much by actual experience in trying to enforce its rules.

A "Strong Commission" Recommended .- With the growth of the transportation inter- ests of the State and the increase in the volume of traffic handled by the railroads, it became more and more apparent that an "advisory commission" was inadequate to the needs of the situation. Twenty-two years of attempting to regulate the details of rail- road operation and transportation rates with varying degrees of success had demonstrated the inefficacy, in cases where the interests of the railroads were extensively involved, of a commission with semi-legislative and judicial but with no executive powers. The com- mission could, as has been seen, hear and adjudicate complaints when filed with it, but could not take the initiative, nor enforce its rulings when the railroads opposed them. Depending upon special acts of a biennial legislature for the enforcement of its orders had proved too slow and cumbersome a plan to yield tangible and prompt results.

In its twenty-second annual report the commission stated: "While the powers of the commission to make rates is ample, yet the remedy afforded against carriers refus- ing to comply with the rules and orders of the commission seems to us inadequate. The defect in the present law lies, not so much in the power to make a rate, but in the power of the commission to enforce it. If any order is made reducing the tariff and the carrier fails or refuses to comply with such order, the present remedy is by suit by the aggrieved party against such carrier for the excessive charge, or an indictment by the grand jury for extortion. In nearly all cases the amount involved is so small to each individual that no one would bring the suit, or go before the grand jury to prefer an indictment against the carrier. While it is true that the loss to one person might be small, yet, in the aggregate, it would be very heavy to a community or city. When the law confers upon the commission the power to fix rates, it should also confer the power to take such steps as are necessary to enforce such rates.

"We recommend, therefore, for the en- forcement of all orders made by the com- mission in the exercise of its lawful powers, that this commission be authorized to in- stitute suit, either by mandamus or injunc- tion, mandatory or preventive * * and # that service thereof be perfected as in other suits of tort or breach of contract against the company."

On February 12, 1903, Gov. William D.

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Jelks sent a special message to the legis- lature, in which he recommended enactments in accordance with the suggestions of the commission. In the meantime, considerable agitation had arisen over the State for the adoption by Alabama of virtually the entire Georgia Railroad Commission law and its schedule of rates. Under this plan the commissioners would be elected by popular vote instead of by the senate, upon the nomi- nation of the governor. Gov. Jelks made no recommendation as to the method of select- ing the commissioners, hut strongly urged increasing their executive powers.

An Elective Commission, 1903 .- On Feb- ruary 28, 1903, the legislature adopted many of the foregoing suggestions, and provided for the election of the president and two associate commissioners by the qualified vot- ers of the State, for terms of four years commencing on the first Monday in March after their election in November, beginning at the expiration of the terms of the incum- bents. Aside from the change in the mode of selecting the commissioners, the lengthen- ing of their terms of office from two to four years, and the extension of their powers to include the enforcement of their rulings, the new law was practically a re-enactment of the law of 1881 and of its several amendments.

Rate Litigation .- Within 30 days after the passage of the new commission law, cita- tions were issued to all railroads doing busi- ness in the State to show cause why rates on grain and grain products should not be reduced. Upon the day set for the hearing, a petition was filed with the commission by Hon. B. B. Comer and others, praying that (1) the Georgia freight classification and tariffs be put in effect in Alabama; (2) that just and reasonable freight rates be made and maintained from points on the Tennessee River; (3) that reasonable joint rates be established between boats plying said river, and railroads which connect with them. The commission, in an opinion writ- ten by Associate Commissioner W. T. Sanders, denied the first two requests, and did not rule upon the third because of the lack of jurisdiction. In his opinion, Mr. Sanders summed up the theory of rate making, as developed in the Railroad Commission law, as follows:

"Section 10 of the act of the legislature of Alabama, approved February 28, 1903, prescribes that the commission shall exer- cise a watchful and careful supervision over all tariffs and their operation, and revise the same, from time to time, as justice to the public and the railroads may require, and increase or reduce any of the rates, as ex- perience and business operations may show to be just, but in revising the tariff the com- missioners shall take into consideration the nature of the service performed, the entire business of the railroad, and its earnings from passenger and other traffic, and so re- vise the same as to allow a fair and just return on the value of the railroad, its ap- purtenances and equipments. This legisla- tive enactment imposes a limitation upon

the authority of the commissioners *

It will therefore be seen that the commis- sion's power is not arbitrary in the premises, and that no rate can he established and enforced, which does not yield to the rail- roads 'a fair and just return of the value of the railroad, its appurtenances and equip- ments.' "

With the commission's denial of this petition there began in Alabama an era of rate litigation and agitation which continued for many years and exercised a potent influ- ence both in its economic and its political history.

Mr. Comer soon after offered for the office of president of the commission on a frankly antirailroad platform, and was elected. Dur- ing his incumbency of the office, he under- took a thoroughgoing regulation, or control, of all features of railroad operation, using the most drastic means to that end. The State and the railroads were involved in expensive litigation, some of which, after being carried from court to court, was never finally settled but compromised during a later administration. Before the expiration of his term as president of the railroad com- mission, Mr. Comer was elected governor; and during his administration of that office, 1907-1911, the law governing the commis- sion was again changed so as to broaden its jurisdiction and to increase its powers, as will appear from act of February 23, 1907.

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 80

Author: Owen, Thomas McAdory, 1866-1920; Owen, Marie (Bankhead) Mrs. 1869- Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 724

Author: Owen, Thomas McAdory, 1866-1920; Owen, Marie (Bankhead) Mrs. 1869-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 724