AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
with only nominal capital, with the expectation that as need arose the capital could be increased. In other words, it was speculation in chartered rights. The Donora Light, Heat and Power Company, with a capital stock of only one thousand dollars, a hundred dollars in the treasury, entirely insufficient for the work proposed to be done, desired a charter and I refused approval, holding that there must be a capital stock of at least five thousand dollars. This was an arbitrary sum of my own fixing, but it meant that there must be five hundred dollars in the treasury, enough to ensure good faith. There ensued a great hubbub and outcry among the lawyers. The governor had no such power. It was his duty to approve. A public hearing was asked in order that a re-consideration might be secured, and was granted. Lawyers from over the state, including Robert Snodgrass of Harrisburg and Richard C. Cochrane of York, gathered before me and argued at length the questions of the power of the governor and his relation to the granting of charters. I wrote an opinion holding that the approval by the governor was not intended to be merely that he should see that the paper was in proper form, but meant his assent to the granting of the power contained in it. There was much professional and newspaper talk about the necessity of my receding and about compelling me to approve by mandamus. Had such a writ come, I should not have given it the slightest attention, holding that within his sphere the governor is entirely beyond the control of the courts. However, the profession finally accepted the decision gracefully. My successors followed the precedent which had been established, and since that time no corporation has been chartered in Pennsylvania unless it had a capital of five thousand dollars, with five hundred dollars in the treasury. The reform was real and important.
The next jolt was with the Republican organization of Dauphin County, supported by both of the United States Senators. A vacancy occurred in the court of common
