But in commission government the official authority, in a sense, both makes and administers the law.

The commission is empowered to use its own discretion about many matters, such as rates, service, equipment, and the like, in relation to which the law places the corporation absolutely in its hands.

Such official interference is of a kind which can hardly fail in the long run to go wrong.

It is based on a false principle, and interferes with individual liberty, not necessarily in an unjustifiable way, but in a way that can hardly be liberating in spirit or constructive in result.
The need for regulation should not be made the excuse for bestowing upon officials a responsibility which they cannot in the long run properly redeem.

In so far as the functions of such commissions are really regulative, like the functions of the bank examiners, they may for the present perform a useful public service.