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Uncontrolled Expansion in the Light and Power Industry
Smith, Richard
Smith, Richard
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Abstract
IT has been characteristic of public utility regulation in the United States to defer governmental interference with private management until abuses have become too flagrant to be ignored. Statutory control as established by Munn v. Illinois came only after reckless rate practices of railroads had goaded shippers of the middlewest into disorderly political agitation. Subsequent extensions of governmental authority have followed in the wake of newly discovered abuses. Improvident capitalization endangering the interests of consumers and investors has led to the supervision of security issues. Inadequate, if not misleading, corporate records have resulted in the prescription of uniform systems of accounting.- And the recently disclosed malpractices of holding companies have at last demonstrated the necessity for restraints upon intercorporate affiliations.