606 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 335

added to Article 23 of Bagby's Annotated Code of the Public
General Laws of Maryland, title "Corporations, " sub-title
"Public Service Commission, " to be known as Section 364-A
and 364-B, and to come in immediately after Section 364, and
read as follows:

364-A. Whenever there shall be filed with the Commission,
by any public service corporation, company or individual, sub-
ject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, any schedule stat-
ing a new individual or joint rate, fare or charge, or any
new individual or joint classification, or any new individual
or joint regulation or practice affecting any rate, fate or
charge, the Commission shall have, and it is hereby given,
authority, either upon complaint or upon its own initiative
without complaint, at once, and if it so orders, without answer
or other formal pleading by the proponent or proponents of
said new schedule, but upon reasonable notice, to enter upon
a hearing concerning the lawfulness or reasonableness of such
rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation or practice; and
pending such hearing and the decision thereon the Commission,
upon filing with such schedule and delivering to said proponent
or proponents of said new schedule affected thereby a state-
ment in writing of its reasons for such suspension may suspend
the operation of such schedule and defer the use of such rate,
fare, charge, classification, regulation or practice but not for
a longer period than one hundred and twenty days beyond the
time when such rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation or
practice would otherwise go into effect; and after full hearing,
whether completed before or after the rate, fare, charge, classi-
fication, regulation or practice goes into effect, the Commission
may make such order in reference to such rate, fare, charge,
classification, regulation or practice as would be proper in a
proceeding initiated after the rate, fare, charge, classification,
regulation or practice had become effective. If any such hear-
ing cannot be concluded within the period of suspension, as
above stated, the Commission may, in its discretion, extend
the time of suspension for a further period not exceeding thirty
days. And if the proceeding has not been concluded and an
order made at the expiration of such thirty days, the proposed
change of rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation or prac-
tice shall go into effect at the end of such period, but in case of
a proposed increased rate or charge, the Commission may by
order require the said proponent or proponents to keep accurate
account in detail of all amounts received, by reason of such
increases, specifying by whom and in -whose behalf such