ida state road department are limited | Agriculture Circular No. 52, prepared to those of an advisory and super- by the Division of Road Economics, visory nature in regard to road work Office of Public Roads and Rural Enin the various counties. The funds gineering, give the state and local of the department are derived from expenditures, mileage, etc., more 15 per cent. of the county motor- fully than can be expressed in any vehicle registration revenues. other form. The value of the convict labor and statute labor, which is estimated at a grand total of $15,000,000, is not included in these tables. Mileage, Appropriations, and Expenditures. The accompanying tables adapted from U. S. Department of WATERWAYS AND HARBORS The Appropriations.-As was the case dustrial uses. Railroad yards will with the River and Harbor bill of be provided with special track con1914 (A. Y. B., 1914, p. 278), the nections with warehouses and facbill of 1915, containing appropria- tories. The new plan will permit tions of almost $50,000,000, failed of uniform development on both the enactment, and Congress for a sec- East Boston and the South Boston ond time appropriated a lump sum sides of the harbor channel. for river and harbor improvement. flats from Jeffries Point to GovernThe amount appropriated was $25,- or's Island will gradually be filled 000,000, but it was provided that un-in, providing an additional frontage expended funds heretofore appropri- of more than a mile, which will be ated might be transferred to present developed on a unit basis. projects up to the amount of $5,000,000, making an aggregate of $30,000,000 available for use during the fiscal year 1916. As was done in 1914 the Chief of Engineers has apportioned the funds among various projects the undertaking of which has been decided upon. The Sundry Civil Act of March 3, 1915, carried an appropriation of $3,982,000 for the continuance of river and harbor improvement already under contract. The total appropriations for river and harbor improvements since the establishment of the Government amount to $853,737,950.82. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915, the Government expended $43,771,509.76 on river and harbor work. Boston. The board of port directors of Boston, which came into of fice in 1914, is making plans for a comprehensive development of the port. The Secretary of War has approved its suggestion as to changing the harbor lines, so that about 30,000,000 sq. ft. of land in East Boston may be reclaimed and equipped with shipping facilities. New 1,600-ft. piers are to be constructed; back of the piers warehouses and an anchorage basin are to be provided, and beyond these a large area is to be devoted to manufacturing and in New London.-The sub-structure of the new state pier at New London is about finished and the superstructure of steel sheds and concrete warehouses is being built. The dredging to connect the slip areas with the 33ft. channel to be provided by the Government is more than half completed. New York. The Federal Government is continuing the improvement of Staten Island Sound, Newark Bay and the Passaic River, is removing the obstructions in East River, and is deepening the Hudson River adjacent to the New Jersey shore. A channel 30 ft. deep and 800 ft. wide will be dredged off Ellis Island along the pierhead line to Newark Street, Hoboken. When this is completed vessels 500 ft. in length can dock safely at Jersey City. The city has provided for the appointment of a commission of three experts to make a thorough survey of the port and suggest a more efficient system of terminal facilities; the money necessary for the work of the commission has not yet been appropriated, however. The legislature has authorized the construction of the Brooklyn Marginal Railroad, which is to be built at a cost of $15,000,000. The road, which will be operated jointly by the (p. 280). The city of Trenton has appropri ated $100,000 for the development of its river front and $50,000 for the construction of a municipal dock, work on which was begun in May. trunk-line railroads entering New | described in the YEAR BOOK for 1914 York, will link together all the great terminals of South Brooklyn, including those of the Bush Terminal Co. and of the New York Dock Co. A large freight yard will be established at Red Hook, close to the Barge Canal Terminal. The construction of three new municipal piers in South Brooklyn, at Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth and Thirty-fifth streets, has been authorized by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. The largest of the piers will be 1.779 ft. by 150 ft. Arrangements have already been made for leasing the piers. (See also XI, Public Services.) Newark.-Newark has purchased 930 acres of meadow land with a frontage of 4,000 ft. along lower Newark Bay at a cost of $300,000, and contracts have been let for dredg ing a channel 200 ft. wide and 20 ft. deep connecting the shore line with the government channel and continuing 2,500 ft. into the meadows. The excavated material will reclaim 156 acres of marsh land, which can be used for industrial purposes. Contracts have also been let for bulkheading a portion of the new terminal area, for the construction of a dock 4,500 ft. long, and for dredging an additional length of 200 ft. along the entire length of the channel. The total cost of the harbor improvement will be approximately $2,000,000, which has been authorized by the legislature. At Bayonne the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co. is building a huge ore pier to handle the ore brought from Chile by the Bethlehem Steel Co. Philadelphia.-The Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, has allotted $1,000,000 for the continuation of the dredging of the 35-ft. channel of the Delaware River below Allegheny Avenue. The city is improving the Schuylkill River, aided by a state appropriation of $250,000. The two new Southwark municipal piers were dedicated on Oct. 16. The piers are 550 ft. by 180 ft. and cost approximately $1,850,000. Philadelphia now owns seven modern commercial piers. The contract has been let for the construction of the first of the ten Moyamensing piers, which are a part of the project for port development Baltimore.-Baltimore has expended $6,161,000 on municipal docks and has available $5,000,000. The city now owns 13 piers with a wharfage front of 26,000 ft., and is planning to extend the system. South Atlantic Harbors.-Work on the harbor of refuge at Cape Lookout, N. C., has been started. The Chief of Engineers has allotted $235,000 to the work on the harbor of Savannah during the current year, and $350,000 to the improvement of St. Johns River below Jacksonville. New Orleans.-The great municipal cotton warehouse of New Orleans is rapidly nearing completion. The plant covers an area of 100 acres and will have at the outset a capacity of 2,000,000 bales. The capacity will ultimately exceed 4,000,000 bales. The city has sold bonds to the amount of $1,250,000 for the construction of a grain elevator, which will be located adjacent to the cotton warehouse. The board of commissioners of the port of New Orleans now controls 42 miles of river frontage and over 20 municipal wharves, valued at $2,200,000. The Chief of Engineers has allotted $400,000 for continuing the work of improving the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi during the fiscal year of 1916. Galveston. The city of Galveston was visited on Aug. 16 with a hurricane approximating in severity the one which nearly destroyed the city in 1900; the great sea wall successfully withstood the storm and as a result the damage to property was relatively small (see also XXI, Civil Engineering). In August the Houston terminal facilities of the ship channel from Galveston to Houston, including a turning basin, a municipal wharf and a warehouse, were completed, and Houston took its place as a Gulf port. The channel to Galveston which was dredged in Buffalo Bayou at the joint expense of the Federal Government and Har ris County, Texas, is 50 miles long, | navigation during the year. Freight 200 ft. wide and 27 ft. deep. Sev- shipped by barge from Chicago to eral factories are being constructed La Salle, via the Illinois and Michalong the canal. igan Canal, will constitute the chief portion of the freight traffic of the new service. Pacific Harbors.-The Federal Government is improving Humboldt Harbor and Bay and Grays Harbor. Nearly $2,000,000 has been allotted to the continuation of the Columbia River improvement below Portland; and that city is deepening its harbor area to 30 ft. The canal connecting Lake Washington with the outer harbor of Seattle is almost completed. Lake Harbors.-Extensive improvements will be made by the Army engineers during the current year at Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Conneaut, Racine and Indiana Harbor. At Cleveland the new passenger and freight terminals of the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Co. and the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Co. were opened on June 6. Under the terms by which these improvements were constructed they will revert to the city in 40 years. Rivers. The work on the construction of the dam and lock in the Hudson River at Troy, which was interrupted because of the filibuster over the 1914 River and Harbor bill, has been resumed, and it is expected that the lock will be ready for service at the opening of navigation in 1916. Large sums of money are still be ing devoted to the improvement of the Mississippi River System. Nearly $6,000,000 have been allotted for the continuance of the work on the Mississippi River itself above the head of the passes. Two more of the Ohio River dams were finished during the year, bringing the total number completed up to 15. Of the appropriation for river and harbor improvement contained in the Sundry Civil Act, $3,200,000 was for the locks and dams of the Ohio; and the Chief of Engineers has assigned $3,330,000 of the regular appropriation to this work. The improvement of the navigation of the Missouri River has been subjected to much criticism during the year, but the deepening work already planned will be completed. The inauguration of steamer service between La Salle, Ill., and New Orleans was the chief feature of the progress of Mississippi River The completion of Dam No. 17 in the Warrior River has given active water communication between the great Warrior coal field and Mobile and New Orleans. The channel depth of six feet is now available as far as Cardova, Ala., on the Mulberry fork of the Warrior, and as far as Nichols, Ala., on the Locust fork, each approximately 425 miles from Mobile. A New Orleans company is now operating a barge line on this route, and a considerable through and local coal traffic is being built up. On April 28, 1915, the Dalles-Celilo Canal around the rapids in the Columbia River at Dalles was opened to navigation. This work, which cost about $6,000,000, permits navigation from the mouth of the Columbia River to Lewiston, Idaho. The minimum depth to the mouth of the Snake River is six feet, thence to Lewiston 30 in. The second canal and third lock in St. Mary's River between lakes Superior and Michigan have been completed, and about one-fifth of the work on the fourth lock has been done. The new lock, which was authorized in 1907, is 1,350 ft. long, 80 ft. wide, and 245 ft. deep. The fourth lock, which was authorized in 1912, will have the same dimensions. Of the two older locks the Weitzel, which was completed in 1881, is 515 ft. by 80 ft. by 18 ft. and the Poe, opened in 1896, is 800 ft. by 100 ft. by 21 ft. New York Barge Canal.-The work of constructing the New York State Barge Canal is almost 90 per cent. completed, and about 160 miles of the new system are in use. The official opening of the state canals to navigation in 1915 was also the occasion of the opening of the section of the new canal from the Hudson River at Waterford to the entrance into the old canal at Rexford. Five electrically operated locks having a combined lift of 169 ft. are included in this section, which is 17 miles long. On account of the excess of the There cost of construction above the orig- | through the canal (see also XX, Merinal estimate of $101,000,000, due to chant Marine). The net tolls colincreased cost of labor and mate- lected from vessels during the first rials, changes in the plans of locks and 11 months of operation amounted bridges, and the necessity of meeting to $4,909,150.96, and the gross tolls, heavy damage claims, it was neces- including the tolls on vessels of the sary for the state to supply addi- United States Government which tional funds for construction work. were not collected, aggregated $5,A legislative appropriation of $3,- 023,236.85. During the fiscal year 654,000 was made to complete the (102 months) ending on June 30, contracts already entered into in ex- 1915, the tolls collected amounted to cess of available funds, and a popu- $4,343,383.69 as compared with canal lar referendum on a further bond is operating and maintenance expenses sue of $27,000,000 was authorized. amounting to $4,066,727.31. The proposal was approved by a large was, therefore, an excess of revenue majority on Nov. 2, and sufficient amounting to $276,656.38, but this funds are now assured for the com- does not include any allowance for pletion of the waterway. Of the interest on the investment, depreciaproceeds of the new bond issue al- tion of plant or other non-operating most one-half will be needed for con- expenditures. The total operating struction work, and the remainder revenues and expenses during the fiswill be used to extinguish damage cal year 1915 (Aug. 15, 1914, to June claims and to reimburse the state 30, 1915) were as follows: treasury for the legislative appropriation of $3,654,000. Because of the lack of available funds it has been impossible to let contracts for the work yet necessary for the completion of the canal, and the time needed for the work has consequently been extended. The remaining Operating expenses, Panconstruction will now soon be provided for, and it is hoped that the entire canal system will be finished early in 1917. (See also XXI, Civil Engineering.) Panama Canal.-Minor slides on both sides of Gaillard Cut caused the suspension of traffic on the Panama Canal from Aug. 7 to 10, and from Sept. 4 to 9. A huge slide from the east bank of the cut directly north of Gold Hill completely closed the channel on Sept. 18, since when traffic through the canal has entirely ceased, except for the passage of a few vessels of light draft through a channel opened temporarily on Dec. 20. The labor force on the canal on The Aug. 25 numbered 25,424 men. work of terminal construction at each end of the canal is progressing rapidly, new piers, fuel oil stations and a dry dock at the Pacific entrance being added to the existing facilities. Up to Aug. 15, 1915, which marked the end of the first year of operation, 1,317 vessels with a gross tonnage of 6,494,673 tons, had passed EXPENSES Operation and mainte- operations Canal Zone Government.. ama Railroad Steamship Cost of commissary opera- Cost of operating Hotel Cost of operating planta- Tolls .... $4,066,727.31 2,469,642.42 288,887.60 2,607,479.26 2,142,603.68 6,595,410.50 97,546.76 15,018.19 Total expenses...... $18,283,315.72 Panama Canal, other busi- Canal Zone revenues. $4,343,383.69 2,413.241.64 186,684.46 Pan- 2,787,056.83 2,642,457.10 ama Railroad Steamship Receipts from commissary Receipts from Hotel Wash- Land rentals collected.. Total revenues.. 6,666,644.84 78,436.45 6,362.83 112,550.23 $19,236,818.07 953,502.35 The excess of $953,502.35 is purely an operating excess, no allowance being made for interest on the investment of nearly $400,000,000. XI. PUBLIC SERVICES RICHARD C. HARRISON PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONS ute in Wisconsin, where it appears that certificates of convenience and necessity for new companies have almost uniformly been denied. During 1915 a proposition to extend the powers of the Ohio commission to cover control of competition was defeated by a very large vote in the state legislature (see infra). General Tendencies in Utilities Reg-veloped against placing the commisulation. The year 1915 was one in sions in a position where they could which most of the states held legis- prevent any form of competition in lative sessions. It was, therefore, a their discretion. Attention was called test year, by which it could be deter- in the YEAR BOOK for 1914 (p. 290) mined just how much advance the to the practical working of the statplan of regulating public utilities by state commissions was making in those states which had not adopted the plan. Although bills were introduced in the legislatures of most of these states, providing for the establishment of more or less strong commissions, but one new public-utilities commission was created during the year. There was a slight strengthen- There has been no change in the ing of the law in a few of the states, tendency noted in previous years in while in certain others legislative the matter of changes in personnel proposals to add to the powers of in the commissions. There seems to the commissions were defeated. The be a growing disposition on the part year has been marked by continued of state executives to regard publicunrest and dissatisfaction in a num- service commissionerships as spoils ber of the cities of the country with the substitution of state control for local power in the matter of regulating strictly municipal utilities. This has been the case notably in Pennsylvania, where strong efforts were made either to repeal the Public Utilities Act or to confine the activities of the state commission to matters which affected the entire state. of office and to make appointments without regard to particular fitness or experience in office. The displacement of the last original commissioner in the New York City commission, a man widely esteemed for ability and experience, was unfavorably commented upon in the local press and was almost universally regretted (see infra). The most important event affecting utility regulation during the year was probably the investigation of the two New York commissions, described in detail under the notes on that state (see infra). One of the important problems in connection with public-utility commissions has always been whether these bodies should be placed in the position of protecting monopolies in public-utility service. One strong fac- On Dec. 30, 1914, there was inaugution has always contended that pub-rated in Philadelphia an interesting lic utilities are natural monopolies experiment in coöperative effort by and that the state commissions should the various municipalities throughbe given authority to prevent com- out the country in the establishment petition, which would lead to needless of a Utilities Bureau. This bureau duplication of plans and a corre- was the outcome of a general consponding economic waste. An almost ference of mayors of American cities equally strong sentiment has de- held in Philadelphia in November, |