146 VALUATION, DEPRECIATION AND THE RATE-BASE
that the Railroad Commission of California is now in effect a
public service commission.
Sec. 23 of Art XII of the California Constitution now provides:

“ Every private corporation, and every individual or association
 of individuals, owning, operating, managing or controlling any
commercial railroad, inter-urban railroad, street railroad, canal,
pipe line, plant or equipment, or any part of such railroad,
canal, pipe line, plant or equipment, within this State, for the
transportation or conveyance of passengers or express matter,
or freight of any kind, including crude oil, or for the transmission
of telephone or telegraph messages, or for the production, generation,
 transmission, delivery or furnishing of heat, light, water
or power or for the furnishing of storage or wharfage facilities,
either directly or indirectly, to or for the public, and every
common carrier is hereby declared to be a public utility subject
to such control and regulation by the Railroad Commission as
may be provided by the Legislature, and every class of private
corporations, individuals or association of individuals hereafter
declared by the Legislature to be public utilities shall likewise
be subject to such control and regulation. The Railroad Commission
 shall have and exercise such power and jurisdiction to
supervise and regulate public utilities, in the State of California,
 and to fix the rates to be charged for commodities furnished,
or services rendered by public utilities as shall be conferred upon
it by the Legislature, and the right of the Legislature to confer
powers upon the Railroad Commission respecting public utilities
is hereby declared to be plenary and to be unlimited by any
provision of this Constitution.”
The California Public Utilities Act by an amendment in effect
August 10, 1913, provides:
“ The Term ‘ public utility,” when used in this act, includes
every common carrier, pipe line corporation, gas corporation,
electrical corporation, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation,
 water corporation, wharfinger and warehouseman, where
the service is performed for, or the commodity delivered to, the
public or any portion thereof. The term ‘ public or any portion
thereof,’ as herein used, means the public generally, or any limited
 portion of the public including a person, private corporation,
 municipality or other political subdivision of the state, for