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 pro- 
vides: 
“ Every private corporation, and every individual or associa- 
tion 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, gen- 
eration, 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 Com- 
mission shall have and exercise such power and jurisdiction to 
supervise and regulate public utilities, in the State of Califor- 
nia, 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 corpora- 
tion, 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 lim- 
ited portion of the public including a person, private corpora- 
tion, municipality or other political subdivision of the state, for