716 COEPOEATIONS. [ART. 23

1910, ch. 180, sec. 2 (p. 342).

414. There shall be a public service commission, and the same is
hereby created and established, which said public service commission
shall be vested with and possessed of the powers and duties in this sub-
title specified, and also all powers necessary or proper to enable it to
carry out fully and effectually all the purposes of this sub-title.

The said public service commission shall consist of three members,
all of whom shall be appointed by the governor, and one of whom shall
be designated by the governor to be and, upon being so designated, shall
be the chairman of said commission.

Each commissioner, at the time of his appointment and qualification,
shall be a resident of the State of Maryland, and shall have resided in
said State for a period of at least five years next preceding his appoint-
ment and qualification, and he shall also be a qualified voter therein and
not less than twenty-five years of age.

One of said commissioners shall hold1 office for two years from the
beginning of his term of office and until his successor shall qualify; one
of said commissioners shall hold office for four years from the begin-
ning of his term of office and until his successor shall qualify; and one
of said commissioners shall hold office for six years from the beginning
of his term of office and until his successor shall qualify. The term of
office of each commissioner shall begin on the first Monday of May, in
the year nineteen hundred and ten (1910), and the appointment of
each of said commissioners shall be made and announced by the gov-
ernor not less than ten days before said first Monday of May, nineteen
hundred and ten. The governor, at the time of making and announcing
the appointment of said three commissioners, as well as in the commis-
sion issued by him to each of them, shall designate which of said com-
missioners shall serve for the term of two years, and which shall serve
for the term of four years, and which shall serve for the term of six
years, as aforesaid, and also which shall be the chairman of said com-
mission.

Upon the expiration of each of said terms, the term of office of each
commissioner thereafter appointed shall be six years from the time of
his appointment and qualification and until his successor shall qualify.
Vacancies in said commission shall he filed by the governor for the
unexpired term. Each commissioner shall be eligible for reappointment,
in the discretion of the governor.

In the event that the term of office above ascertained .and prescribed
for each of said commissioners, or the term of office hereinafter pre-
scribed for the general counsel, shall in respect to any of said commis-
sioners or the general counsel be held and decided by the courts, and
particularly by the court of appeals of Maryland, to be in excess of
the period or term of office allowed or permitted by the constitution
of Maryland, then, in such event, the term of office of each of said
commissioners, or said general counsel, shall, and this sub-title hereby
declares and determines that the term of office of each of them shall be
for the period of two years from and after the first Monday of May,