Monopoly in Consolidated Gas Company, Baltimore MD, 1910

Today, I read an article, The case of the City Against the Gas Company as Stated by Mayor Mayhool, The Baltimore Sun, Mon Feb. 28, 1910  detailing the struggle between the Consolidated Gas Company and the City of Baltimore. The Consolidated contended that new gas companies should not be allowed into the city because they would tear up the roadways or force the consolidated to buy them, which might cause further increase to the payment issued from the citizens of Baltimore, all of whom pay nearly double that of citizens from cities in similar circumstance. The Consolidated also wished for the portion of their pipes which had been granted an easement be considered as a franchise, and thus exempt from further taxation. The court disagreed, but concluded that they should not be the arbiter of evaluation, and thus cannot tax the Consolidate for the municipal land the pipes lie within. “Taxes by valuation cannot be apportioned without an assessment. "Without an assessment they have no support, and are nullities." Thayer v. Stearns et al., 1 Pick, 482.” Consol. Gas Co. v. Baltimore City, 101 Md. 541, 558 (Md. 1905)