The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-06
PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS

PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS
 Tax Commissioner Corbin is again proving himself one of the most inl- pressive State officials Connecticut has had in many year. As Attorney Gen. eral Holcomb once said of him jocose- ly, when he was chided for being at his office on day when the State eap- itol was emptied of it's workers: sI am here because that new tax commission CT Governor Woodruff has appointed has queer notions. He is actually ob. sessed of the idea that he was ap- pointed to do the work required of the office" That is exactly the impression MT. Corbin has since made upon the State at large. His sense of thorough ness has completely dominated what in too many officials is a sense os humor.
 Commissioner Corhin made public yesterday a full statement of the tax ation levied upon the public service corporations of the State. Unlike too many State documents 1t can be un- derstood at one reading. It almost ex- cites the hope that in time those who have reason to report to the public and to stockholders the condition of the properties under their charge may make use of his methods. The total amount which these corporations will pay into the State treasury is S1,625.- 424.12, pretty penny or two, as the expression goes. Of this amount the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad company will pay in over a million and quarter The street rail- way companies follow with over a quarter of a million. Then the fall is sudden and precipitous until the tel egraph companies are reached which pay in a few dollars in excess of six thousand. The report as It relates to the street railway companies is bit Imaddening The capital of these com panies, which includes their common and preferred stock, amounts to over twenty millions, but their actual taxa ble value is less than seven million. In other words, these companies pos Isess in the neighborhood of fourteen millions of wind and water which to just that extent burden the man agement of them in their undertaking to give the public the service 1t de- Iserves, Incidentally, too, the figures l call attention to the slip-shod manner lin which the State issued charter rights to the companies and the blind way in which the railroad eommis- Ision viewed the whole proceeding
 If 1t were not for the indignation which every able bodied citizen of the State feels when he sees to what an extent high financiering has played havoc with the street railway situation 1t would be possible to consider these corporations az taxpayers to be regard ed with considerable gratitude. As it is the enormity of the offense committed by those who poured hogsheads of water into their capital stock has had the effect of making honestly organ ized corporations objects of suspicion
 just as the thoughtless and malicious attacks upon predatory wealth. and swollen fortunes" have depriyed ev- cry modest fortune, even though hon. orably acquired, of it's responsibility
 When it is remembered that these companies paid nothing for their fran. chises and that they are not taxed up.
 on the tremendous exclusive privilege: they enjoy it would take saint tt
 keep his temper. And when it is fur. ther remembered that the State is un. able to tax more than in the neighbor
 hood of quarter of taeir capital ever
 the saint ceases to speak in parlie- mentary language still on the whol,
 the people of the State of Connection have reason to rejoice that the cordl
 ton and prosperity of the public ser
 vice corporations are such that an ade
 quate revenue comes from them il
 recognition of the rights and privilege given them almost in fee simple, A the Hartford Courant justly says l Commissioner Corbin has made val } uable contribution to the tax literatur, ; of the State There is a lot in these fig f ures to think about"
 -----