Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-09


business. He explained that nj
company was purely ioca
corporation. 1t controlled all telephone
companies on this coast. The gross IN
come from one telephone box was $o'
per annum, yet it cost only So 4O. MI
Young stated that for taxes the company
paid in this county $4,000 per annum.
City Assessor Hinton made state
ment as to how be had figured on the
valuation OF the plant of the telephone
company, and arrived at the figures he
did. He said that he had figured thai
the telephone company had only peen
assessed 80 that the corporation would
be called upon to pay taxes at the rate
of about per cent on its income. lie
was not assessing the corporation at the
figures he did, merely because 1T was q
corporation. He had assessed 1t at what
he thought was right.
Then there was quite tilt between
Senator Carpenter and the assessor,
Mr.. Hinton, as to how the auditor, Mr..
Morgan, should be examined. 1t was
settled, though, without bloodshed.
Continuing, Assessor Hinton stated
that no one would pretend to say that
the Bryson-B Bonebrake block paid $60,O00
income. Yet it was assessed great
deal higher than the telephone COM
pany. :.
Mr.. Morgan stated that the pay roll
OF the company amounted to about $loOO
per month. The expense of mainte-
nance. he said, was $2l, 900 for the year
1891. This was the expense incurred In
putting wires underground, in putting
in new poles, etc. This was virtually
putting in new plant. From this new
plant no additional revenue would be
obtained. 1t would cost more to main
tain an underground system than an
overhead system. Mr.. Morgan also ex-
| planned that the city was given the use
of fifty telephones free of all cost, which
of itself amounted to $4,000 per annum.
Mr.. Morgan stated that three years
ago the city and county assessment had
been at the rate of $50 per box, but the
company had not contested the assess
! ment, for the reason that it had no de-
sire to 60 to law. 1t had paid taxes last
year on similar assessment. In Yolo
and Tehama counties, where the COM
pany only had few boxes, they had
been assessed at the rate of $100 per box,
but they had not contested this ASSESS
ment, because the amount involved was
small.
Major Bonsall thought that the city
was getting more out of the telephone
company than it ever had before.
Senator Carpenter charged the city
assessor with having favored the Electric
Light company in the matter of assess
ment. He said that for their poles and
wires the Electric Light company had
been assessed $4,000, and the Tele-
phone company $4,000, and the wires
of the two companies were identical.
Assessor Hinton charged Mr.. Morgan
with making false statement under
oath when he was before the aupervis-
ors. He claimed that Mr.. Morgan had
stated to the supervisors that no charge
was made the patrons of the telephone
for putting in or taking out box, ETC.,
and that afterward it was conclusively
shown that the Telephone company did
make such charge.
Mr.. Morgan claimed that the assessor
had misunderstood him. Mr.. Hinton
claimed that he clearly understood Mr..
Morgan when he made the statement.
This little side issue was finally dropped.
The assessment, Mr.. Morgan said, OF
the Telephone company had been low
cred and cut down in every county in
the State except San Bernardino.
Assessor Hinton, producing the fig
| ures. showed that last year the company
had put in fifty miles of poles, and this
year they had given the assessor 561
miles of wire. This, he thought, looked
very strange. ee fa
Councilman McGarry came to the
front as mathematician. He figured
that if there was gross income from
each box of $55 per year, and the royalty
was $16 per year per box, this would leave
$50 per year per box net to the company.
Therefore the income from 1122 boxes in
this city was $43, $50. Deducting for la
Dor 900, this would leave $24,758 net
profit. He thought this was rather
good financial showing for the company.
On the whole the examination of Mr..
Morgan was decidedly refreshing. The
passages between him and the assessor,
and between Senator Carpenter and the
assessor, were quite warm. They re-
suited in neither one OF them being
bodily injured, but the provocation was
in several instances great.
Senator Carpenter then made plea
for the telephone company. His argu-
meDt for reduction OF assessment occu-
pied half an hour. He endeavored to
show that the corporation was poverty
stricken, and that it was subjected to
kfO6J Ga pClS0 W hCop i1o WliCc uP anu
in operation. He pointed out that the
company was spending $4,000 in put
ting down it's underground system, and
also the fact that the city got the use Of
| fifty telephones without cost. He
claimed that wires costing $3.50 per
mile were assessed at 500 per mile.
The company cleared less than $4,000 in
1891. The assessor had also included
many miles of wire which was being
taken down and thrown away by the
company. The boxes, the wires, the
poles and the franchise of the company
were all taxed separately. Separate
any one of them, and you render them
worthless.
The senator thought that other cor
poratione had been treated with more
favor than the Telephone company by
the assessor. The Electric company re-
ceived from the city above $40, 900 per
annum. 1t was safe to say that the
Electric Light company had gross re-
ceipts three times as great as the Tele-
phone company, yet the one corpora
tion was assessed at $4,000 and the
other at $134,000. This he claimed was
not fair to both parties. The judge
claimed that the assessor had COM
mitted an illegal act in raising the as
sessment of the Telephone company