Milo Roy Maltbie (born Hinckley, Illinois, April 3, 1871; died New York City, New York, December 22, 1962) was an American economist who specialized in public utilities. He is best known for his service as the chairman of the New York Public Service Commission from 1930 to 1949.
Maltbie was the third of four children of Henry Munson Maltbie (1836–1902) and his wife Harriet Delano Maltbie (1840–1915). He graduated from Upper Iowa University in 1892, received a Ph.B at Northwestern University in 1893 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1897. He taught economics and mathematics at Mount Morris College in Mount Morris, Illinois from 1893 to 1895. From 1895 to 1897 Maltbie was a fellow in administrative law at Columbia. [1] He was a student of legal scholar Frank Johnson Goodnow there and contributed an article to a 1935 volume of essays in his honor. [2]
Maltbie had become interested in municipal governance; in 1897 he published English Local Government of Today, A Study of the Relations of Central and Local Governments. From 1897 to 1902 Maltbie was the secretary of the City Reform Club in New York City; he travelled to Europe in 1899 to study the problems of municipal governance. He was also the editor of Municipal Affairs, the quarterly publication of the club on civic reform. In 1898 the club published his Municipal Functions ; A Study of the Development, Scope and Tendency of Municipal Socialism. In 1901 he edited and contributed to a study of the street railways of Chicago; in the introduction he was referred to as "...a well-known writer on municipal and economic subjects..." [3] Starting in 1901 Maltbie, building on the work of Henry Carter Adams on railroads, developed the idea of the "uniform system of accounts" for utilities, legally-required standards of accounting that required utilities to keep separate detailed records for each distinct part of their operations. [4]
From 1902 to 1907 Maltbie was the secretary of the New York City Art Commission. After another visit to Europe he wrote a report on "Civic Art in Northern Europe: A Report to the Art Commission of the City of New York" in 1903.
In June 1907 Maltbie was appointed to the newly created New York Public Utilities Commission, first division (Greater New York City), by governor Charles Evans Hughes. He was reappointed by successive governors until 1915. In 1916 he was appointed chamberlain of New York City by reform mayor John Purroy Mitchel. [5]
Maltbie was frequently called upon to consult on utility rates and testify in court proceedings involving rate setting. [6] Maltbie served as an advisor to the Federal Electric Railways Commission (1919–1920). [7]
In 1930 Maltbie was appointed as chairman of the reconstituted statewide New York Public Service Commission by governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a post he held until 1949. [8]
Maltbie married Lucia McCosh (1869–1957) in 1901; they had no children.
Maltbie donated over $500,000 to his alma mater Upper Iowa University in 1960 to build Maltbie-McCosh Hall, a men's dormitory. It was thought at the time to be one of the largest private donations in relation to the size of the university. [9]
The Progressive Era (1896–1917) was a period in the United States during the early 20th century of widespread social activism and political reform across the country. Progressives sought to address the problems caused by rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption as well as the enormous concentration of industrial ownership in monopolies. Progressive reformers were alarmed by the spread of slums, poverty, and the exploitation of labor. Multiple overlapping progressive movements fought perceived social, political, and economic ills by advancing democracy, scientific methods, and professionalism; regulating business; protecting the natural environment; and improving working and living conditions of the urban poor.
George Foster Peabody was an American banker and philanthropist.
Seth Low was an American educator and political figure who served as the mayor of Brooklyn from 1881 to 1885, the president of Columbia University from 1890 to 1901, a diplomatic representative of the United States, and the mayor of New York City from 1902 to 1903. He was a leading municipal reformer fighting for efficiency during the Progressive Era.
Arthur Lawley, 6th Baron Wenlock, was a British colonial administrator who served variously as Administrator of Matabeleland, Governor of Western Australia, Lieutenant-Governor of the Transvaal, and Governor of Madras. The fourth and youngest son of the 2nd Baron Wenlock, he attended Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, before joining the military. Serving in the Mahdist War, he reached the rank of captain before resigning his commission to pursue other interests. Lawley was then private secretary to his uncle, the 1st Duke of Westminster, and subsequently to the 4th Earl Grey, who he followed to Rhodesia.
Phillips Lee Goldsborough I, was an American Republican politician who was the 47th Governor of Maryland from 1912 to 1916 and represented the state in the United States Senate from 1929 to 1935.
Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes was an American architect. Stokes was a pioneer in social housing who co-authored the 1901 New York tenement house law. For twenty years he worked on The Iconography of Manhattan Island, a six-volume compilation that became one of the most important research resources about the early development of the city. His designs included St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University and several urban housing projects in New York City. He was also a member of the New York Municipal Arts Commission for twenty-eight years and president for nine of these.
Hazen Stuart Pingree was a four-term Republican mayor of Detroit (1889–1897) and the 24th governor of Michigan (1897–1901). A Yankee who migrated from New England, he was a successful Republican businessman turned politician.
Frank Johnson Goodnow was an American educator and legal scholar. He was the first president of the American Political Science Association. He was an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
The Philippine Commission was the name of two bodies, both appointed by the president of the United States, to assist with governing the Philippines.
The Taft Commission, also known as the Second Philippine Commission, was established by United States President William McKinley on March 16, 1900, following the recommendations of the First Philippine Commission, using presidential war powers while the U.S. was engaged in the Philippine–American War.
John Punnett Peters was an American Episcopal clergyman and Orientalist.
Samuel Seabury was an American lawyer and politician from New York. Seabury is famous for dedicating himself to a campaign against the corrupt Tammany dominance of New York City politics. He later presided over the extensive 1930–32 investigations of corruption in the New York City municipal government, which became known as the 'Seabury Hearings'. Seabury became a Georgist after reading Progress and Poverty.
William Mills Maltbie was a lawyer, judge, and chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.
Edward Webster Bemis was an American economist and a public utility expert. He was a proponent of municipal ownership.
Hollister Jackson was the 56th lieutenant governor of Vermont; he was killed in the Great Flood of 1927.
Delos Franklin Wilcox was a United States expert on municipal government.
Sir William George Toop Goodman KBE MICE MIEE MIEAust, was an engineer and administrator who supervised the installation of New Zealand's first electric tramway and went on to oversee the foundation and growth of the Municipal Tramways Trust in Adelaide, South Australia.
The Chicago Traction Wars was a political conflict which took place in Chicago primarily from the mid-1890s through the early 1910s. It concerned the franchise and ownership of streetcar lines. At the time it was one of the dominant political issues in the city and was a central issue of several mayoral elections and shaped the tenures of several mayors, particularly those of Carter Harrison Jr. and Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne.
Robert Brooke was one of two Members of the Parliament of England for the constituency of York between 1584 and 1586 and also between 1586 and 1588.
The Federal Electric Railways Commission was a United States agency established by President Woodrow Wilson in June 1919. The commission was charged with investigating the financial problems of the streetcar and interurban railway industry in the United States. The commission completed its business in July 1920 after submitting a final report to the President.