BIO: Frederick Charles Stevens; New York State
surname: Stevens

submitted by W. David Samuelsen (no relation)
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Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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An Illustrated Legislative Manual
The New York Red Book
Containing the Portraits and Biographies of the U.S. Senators, Governor, State
Officers and Members of the Legislature; also with the Portraits of Judges and
Court Reporters, the New Constitution of the State, Election and Population
Statistics, and General Facts of Interest.
By Edgar L. Murlin
New Constitution Compiled by R. C. Cumming, O. L. Potter and F. B. Gilbert
Published, Albany, J. B. Lyon Company, Publishers, 1909

Copyright by J. B. Lyon Company, 1909

     Frederick Charles Stevens, the Superintendent of Public Works was born
in Attica in 1856. He is a son of Hon. Robert S. Stevens, a former member of
Congress from the Wyoming county district, and grandson of Judge Alden S.
Stevens.

     After being graduated at the Attica Collegiate Institute, Mr. Stevens
completed his education at Cornell University. He then engaged in business
enterprises inv arious parts of the Unite dStates. While conducting business
affairs in recent years in Washington he yet retained his legal residence in
Attica, Wyoming county,and there had a fine farm. In 1902 the Republicans of
the Forty-sixth Senate district nominated him for State Senator and he was
elected, receiving 7,474 more votes than his opponent, the vote for Mr.
Stevens being 15,522 and for his Democratic opponent, Norman A. Seymour,
7,948.

     In 1903 Mr. Stevens was appointed a member of the following Senate
Committees; Chairman of the Committee on Roads and Bridges, and member of the
Finance Committee, the Villages Committee, the Banks Committee, and the
Agriculture Committee.

     Mr. Stevnes was re-elected in 1904, receiving 19,061 votes to 8,560 cast
for Norman A. Seymour, Democrat.

     Lieutenant-Governor Bruce in 1905 appointed Mr. Stevens as chairman of
the Committee on Banks, and member of the Finance Committee, of the Committee
on Internal Affairs of Towns and Villages.

     Senator Stevens, later in the year 1905, was appointed the chairman of a
joint committee of the Senate and Assembly, authorized to investigate and
examine into the organization and operation of the gas and electric lighting
companies of the city of New York. This was the committee that had Charles E.
Hughes, the present Governor of the State, as it scounsel. The resolution
creating the committee was introduced by Senator Page and recite dthe fact
that "there is general and widespread complaint in the city of New York of the
prices maintained by the gas and electric lighting companies operating therein
and of the quality of the service." and empowered a joint committee of three
Senators and four Assemblymen to investigate and examine into the organization
and operation of the gas and electric lighting companies and the
reasonableness of the charges maintaned by the gas and electric lighting
companies operating in the city of New York for services rendered the city and
its inhabitants, with reference to the cost of the service and the capital
actually employed therein; the conditions under which the business of the
companies is conducted, with reference to competition, the quality of the
service, the circumstances connected with the negotiation and execution of the
city light contracts in 1904, and any other phase of the gas and electric
lighting business as conducted in the city of New York deemed by the committee
to be germane to the purpose of such investigation and that the committee
report to the Legislature as soon as possible the result of their
investigation with such remedial measures as it may deem proper.

     Upon May 1, 1905, Senator Stevens presented a majority report of the
members of the committee, signed by himself, by Senator Alfred R. Page, and by
Assemblymen James K. Apgar, George B. Agnew, and Edwin A. Merritt, Jr. The
chief conclusion of the committee was that the price of gas could reasonably
be reduced to 75 cents per thousand cubic feet. The committee said: "From the
evidence which has been presented we are satisfied that the pric eof 75 cents
per thousand cubic feet will be fair to the consumer and will afford to the
companies, after allowing the proper costs for manufacture and distribution,
taking into consideration all the elements of such cost, a reasonable return
upon their captial invested in the gas-making business. This applies to the
Borough of Manhattan, the Borough of Brooklyn, and a large part of the Borough
of the Bronx."

     The committee recommended that the price of gas sold in the Boroughs of
Manhattan and Brooklyn and in that part of the Borough of the Bronx west of
the Bronx river should be fixed at a maximum of 75 cents per thousand cubic
feet. The also recommended that the price of electricity in the same territory
should be fixed at a maximum of 10 cents per kilowatt hour of current actually
consumed. They, lastly, recommended that provision should be made for the
creating of a Commission, the members of which should be appointed by the
Governor, with the consent of the Senate, to be paid by the State and to have
general supervisiono f all persons and corporations having authority to lay or
erect and maintain wires or pipes for the purpose of furnishing gas or
electricity for light, heat or power.

     The Legislature of 1905 passed an act, which became a law, declaring
that the city of New York should not be charged for gas more than 75 cents per
thousand cubic feet. A law was also passed fixing the price of electricity
sold to consumers in New York. In 1906 the Legislature passed a law reducing
the price of gas in the Borough of Manhattan and in the Borough of Brookyn,
except in two wards, to 80 cents a thousand cubic feet, and fixing the rates
also in other parts of Greater New York. The Leglislature of 1905 also created
a State Commission for the supervision of the gas and electric companies of
the State.

     In January, 1906, Governor Hughes nominated Mr. Stevens for
Superintendent of Public Works, and the nomination was unanimously confirmed
by the Senate as soon as it was announced. The disclosure of the Governor's
choice was accompanied by the following statement by Robert H. Fuller, his
secretary:

     "Mr. Hughes regards his selection of Mr. Stevens to be Superintendent of
Public Works as a personal appointment. Mr. Stevens is his personal friend and
a man of recognized integrity and business ability, who can be relied upon to
administer the duties of the office impartially, and to compel the honest and
faithful performance of the work that will be under his control. The Governor
is much pleased in having been able to persuade Mr. Stevens to undertake this
service."