Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-05-02


eighteen years have suffered death to
walk our streets and human suffering
to wreck the homes and happiness of so
many of our people, rich and poor.
You might expect it from them. But
the sneers lessened and the supercili-
BUSINESS turned to respect and the con-
tempt went out of this case when men
| like Whipple and Hazen and Fuller and
Herring. the greatest talent in the
| United States,-an exhibition of talent
| such as none of us will ever see again
| in a court of Maine-came here and
| demonstrated the wrongful weakness
| of the present position of this company,
without craftsmanship, governed only
| by the cold rules of truth, 50 pilloried
this company that they end their case
with no denial. The truth, Mr.. Chair
man, can never be denied. l leave the
story of their tampering with the
public health as ore that cannot be
measured in money. There is no ac-
counting for their illegal rates-no ac-
| counting between the public and this
| company for the thousands upon thou
sands of people lost in days of disease:
| the thousands upon thousands that are
| always lost when human life goes out,
the thousands upon thousands which,
| as a grave judge once said, no human
mint can coin into money when you
seek to estimate human pain and suf-
| fering.
We shall have to return to the cold
| financial questions of this case and let
these men who have financially
wronged us settle with their own con-
sciences FOR what 1 say advisedly and
coolly and with no heat of human
speaking and with no desire to be I'M
| fair but with every desire to be fair,
constitutes degree of negligence-if
Wilful they are to be pitied; if unin-
territorial they are equally to be pitied.
1 thank God, Mr.. Chairman, it is upon
their cCnsciences and not upon mine to
add to the loss that every weak human
being must necessarily bear.
The basic item is the fair value Of the
property. Independent Of franchise
value, which by the districts table is
s2169i1O6
The annual maintenance item of de-
probation, is, under the opinion to be
charged to the takers as a part of the
cost of production. The company has
unlawfully divided as a part of their
dividends s27,436.3S, the total present
depreciation from whole value, in
other words, they have divided the
plant itself to that extent. We have
paid in eighteen years from S20,012.50 to
$50. 1926 in our rates to meet annual
maintenance or depreciation" Gl-
lawfully divided. the company must
make it good by suffering a reduction
of present value to that extent
To compute a lawful income the an.
nual depreciation must be determined
AT Clio of l per cent. adopted by us, on
$216971.0G it would be 81, 301.S6
Next they have a right to charge to
their customers current operating ex-
pcnses." For the year ending June 80,
1904, Mr.. Pride found these to be $S,974.-
49,
The next element assessable on the
public is a fair income based upon the
fair value of the property at the time
it is being used for the public" We
submit fair income is per cent. for
reasons stated. The excessive charges
of this company can readily be seen
from the following table which we SUBJ
nit:
Annual depreciation, 81 so. Sc
Operating expenses. 1914 43
FAIR income so on SIG 81 .06, 10,S4S.S5
Gross income, s21.l2514
Income charged. $3S4l1. IS
Less lawful gross. y, 125 II
Excessive charges, s17.oS674
1t is interesting to see what they did
with this unlawful income of s17.2SG74
To state it in the form of a table:
INCOME ITEMS RECEIVED.
Annual depreciation. S1.3O1. Sc
so return on property value, 10Sf8.S So
Excessive charges, 17,2S67 "A
$29,437. As
Discussed.
80 to bondholders, $4,000
SO to- stockholders, 1880. 90
Cash to balance, 2.6S7.45
RESULTS.
Net income received, 500. 1915
Lawful net income. 10,84S.S IS
In fact this company has never had
from the first a lawful earning capacity
sufficient to pay the interest on the
bonds it put out.
The court said in allowing reasona-
BILE rates something might be added
'for the risks of the original enterprise,
if there were any," Here as we Have
shown the stockholders took no riek
they contributed nothing. The invest
ors, (the bond holders), have annually |
received their interest, and the PROPERTY
they loaned their money on less the de-
probation loss unlawfully abstracted
by the stockholders, is still in exist |
ence. 81
The court also said: eff allowance
be sought on account Of this, element of |
original risk, we think it will be per-
missible at the same time to inquire |
to what extent the company has al
ready received income at hates in ex-
cess of what would otherwise be rea-
sonable and thus has already received |
compensation for this risk" The lille
gal withdrawal in dividends of more |
than 100000 more than eompensates |
them for a risk they meyer took. The
rule itself applies only Pin the early |
years of a company before the lawful
net earnings reach the maximum al /
lowed by law upon the property in use.
and that for the current year, assum-
ing the system to be dfficient and sup
~, q