Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-02-10
Municipal Control of Gas and Electric
Companies
RECOMMENDED BY THE COMMISSIONERS
Cheaper Gas and Division of Sur.
plus Profits.
AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT


theory of municiral ownership of gas. tele-
phone and electric plants, and practically
points out control of all conduits. 1t also
provides for a share of the gas companies
earnings going to the District, and for 81
gas for consumers. The report is as fol-
lows:
The Commissioners of the District of
Columbia, to whom was referred for con-
sideratioE Senate bill 1915, to incorporate
the Columbia Telephone Company. have
the honor to submit the following report
and the accompanying substitute .-< said
bill:
The object of this bill Is to charter a new
telephone company in the District of Co
luplbia, with all the powers and privileges
necessary and usual for such companies
to exercise, including the right to lay and
maintain conduits and electrical devices
and appliances in such of the public
streets as 1t may choose to occupy. The
ground upon which it asks for this val
liable concession is that it proposes to
furnish better service than the Chesa-
apeake and Potomac Telephone Co. gives
to the public for about one-half the price
charged by the latter company. The
representatives of the Columbia Company
alIege that they are enabled to thus un-
derbid the Chesapeake and Potomac Co.
by reason of the expiration of the Bell
telephone patents, which make them pub
lie property, while they claim that the
Chesapeake and Potomac Co. are so en-
barrassed by excessive capitalization and
burdensome contracts with the parent COM
pany as to be unable to materially reduce
IN Ine present rates for telephone service;
They also allese that the Chesapeake and
Potomac Co., by reason of its high rates,
has failed to occupy the field, except to a
very limited extent, and point 10 the fact
that that company faS but ], 100 subscrib-
ers at present, which, it is asserted, is 800
or more less than it had two or three years
ago, as proof of their allegation. A COM
pany that mas thus failed i'll its duty to
the public, and which must continue to do
so for the reasons stated should no longer
be permitted, they contend, to enjoy a
monopoly Of the telephone business in the
District of Columbia.
There is considerable force in the state
ment that the public are entitled, as COM
pensation for exclusive grant of the kind
held by the Chesapeake and Potomac TeIe-
phone Co, to the best and cheapest service
that the state OF the art Will permit; and
that, if that company is unable or unwilling
10 furnish such service, it should not be
permitted to stand in the way of another
company which promises to do so and pro-
poses to pay per cent on gross receipts and
grant free telephone service to the District
besides.
Public Interest.
The Commissioners, however, in reporting
upon all similar bills, proposing to grant the
privilege of tearing up the streets for the
purpose of laying gas pipes or conduIts
therein, whether for the use of a telephone
company Or an electric light company, have
taken the ground that it was against the
public interests to grant privileges of this
kind to new companies That the business
carried on by such companies was under
such conditions as to make a monopoly de-
Sirable, If not necessary. That aside from
the great damage to the pavements and the
inconvenience to the public occaSioned by
digging up miles of streets, it is not neces-
sary wise to duplicate any gas pipes or
conduitS in the public streets, for Congress
has full power to regulate the rates to be
charged by such companies, as we'll as to
correct any other evils. The same majority
in Congress which determines that a new
telephone company, q new gas company or
a new electric light company must be char
tered to give the public its rights can bring
about the same result by controlling exist
ing companies, and with much less incon-
venience to the public. Indeed, whether a
new company be chartered or not, the pub
lie must be permanently protected, if at
all, through the limitations provided by
Congress rather than by competition.
except under conditions hereinafter men
toned. So far as the gas company
Is concerned. its pipes are laid in
every important street in the city and
suburbs, and there is no thickly settled
section of the District where a new COM
pany could find support without occupying
streets which already have double line of
gas mains. Not so. however, with the tele-
phone and electric light companies Meth
er of the latter companies has as yet oc-
Cupfed but a compare lively small number
of the more important streets and there is
plenty of room for new companies to Law
three times the number of miles of conduits
owned by the existing companies without
laying foot of conduit the same side
of any street occupied by the latter COM
panieS. Conduits for telephone and electric
light wires should always be laid on both
sides of paved streets, so as to avoid cut
ting the pavement for the purpose of max
ing house connections, with the added ad-
vantage, in case of the electric light con-
duits. that 1t gives competition for public
lighting. Moreover. wires of these COM
panies and all other electric wires !nclud-
ing telegraph wires, should be laid in the
game cOnduitS, which would reduce TO a
minimum the cutting of pavements The
struggle, however, between rival companies
for the privilege of laying gas pipes and
conduits In the public streets suggests an
important fact of which We have already
Rad abundant proof. that should be careful
ly considered in connection with this and
similar bils-the great and ever increasing
value of these franchises. for which exist
ing companies pay into the public treasury
practically nothing.
Value of Franchises.
Contrast this exemption from the bur-
dens of taxation with the system which OBJ
tains in European cities. and we not only
get some Idea of the value of the fran
ehises which we throw away, bat we learn
something of the rate of taxation which
ought to be imposed on these companies as
compensation for the valuable privileges
which they enjoy
In Paris the charter of the gas company
was renewed in 1870 for forty years.
flpeS must be laid each year wherever
the public authorities determine
Ihere must be two lines of piping along
eacn street that IS paved with asphalt, no
matter how narrow
Ihe company must furnish gas to ind;-
Vlduals at price not exceeding a fixed
maximum. 1t must supply gas for nuhlIc
use at what is practically the cost of
manufacture. 1t must pay the city oUW. .Hn
ultimately 250,000 francs a year for the
right TO pipe the streets. 1t must pay a tax
OF two francs per 100 cubic meters of gas
supplied to Paris. Further it must NOT
water its stock, but must keep its can
ftal1zation at S4,oO0.oGO francs. and after
paying 13i2 per cent out of net profits as
dividends to the shareholders, it must di-
vide all remaining profits with the city
FINALLY, at the expiration of the charter
an rights revert to the city, which becomes
also the owner of all subways, piping, etc.
that pertain to the plant.
ne city's share in the profits has steadi-