Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-12-27
PUBLIC NOW TO GET
MONTHLY REPORTS
Documents Turned in by RoadJ
TO Interstate Commerce Com
mission to Be Seen.

Washington, Dec. 19.-Beginning with
January /, the long-delayed monthly
report of railroad companies to the In
t~erstate commerce commission VIII be-
gin to be announced regularly to the
public. These reports will be made I'M
der requirements of the new system of
uniforms and scientific accounting pre-
scribed by the commission, in compli-
ance with the provisions of the Hep
burn act.
The beginning of the formal an
nouncement of the reports Is expected
to be an occasion of decided import
ance. The Hepburn act took effect
August %. 1906, and even before that
date Professor Henry G. Adams, Stats
tician OF the commission, had begun
work on the formulation of the scheme
of uniform accounts. 1t was not till
July l, 1907, that he was ready to put
into effect the first part of his system,
and enforce compliance with 1t. Even
then, because the new scheme neces-
sarily disorganized TO considerable ex-
tent the established methods of the
railroads, it was decided not to make
too much haste about announcing &c
the public the results reported.
Odious Comparison.
Professor Adams had made require
ments, to comply with which would in
some respects make comparison with
previous years apear much to the dis
advantage of the roads. Therefore IT
| was deemed best when the first reports
under the new system came in to keep
them private, n make them the sub
| ject of careful study n analysis with
the view to perfecting the system, and
causing as little misunderstanding as
possible. The reason for doing this be-
came more apparent when the financial
furry came on, the stock market
promptly showed the effect. 70 project
into this already demoralized situation
a series of railroad reports that would
show decreases of net earnings, not be-
cause there had been decreases, but be-
cause q new accounting method had
been followed, might make matters still
worse.
An illustration of the possibility Of
thus being misunderstood may be given
by explaining the attitude assumed In
the new schedules toward depreciation.
II is required that accounting be made
each month of that months proportion
If depreciation in the value Of property.
The subtraction of this single Item
! alone from the net profits of a road
might make an apparent loss OF rev.
enue when in act there has been no
real change.
Accordingly, until the present. none
Of these new monthly statements has
been given to the public. But 1T is now
announced tina beginning in January
they will be announced. There VIII De
no comparisons with reports of CORE
spending months OF previous years; but
IL is of course certain that private
financial interests will make these COM
Parsons, and that they will be much
discussed, explained pro and con. and
will be used on both sides to bear and
bull the market.
u, mill nnalra M official
comparisons till the beginning of the
second year of the new scheme. Then
will be given comparisons with the
same month, quarter or half of the pre-
ceding "a
The reports for November just past
will be given out early in January 1908.
It takes just about a month to get the
figures drawn down from the railroads
accounts and ready for transmission tc
the commission. There will thus al.
ways be a month between the time fol-
which the report is made, n the Is
suance Of the report.
Total of Footings.
Il is proposed hat the commission
will keep the reports Of individual rail.
roads. accessible to the press and &c
private inquirers, but will not officially
Issue them. At 4 p. m. January 3 the
first official summary Of reports will
be given out. 1t will present the total
Of footings for all the roads whose re-
ports have been received up to 3 that
afternoon. in something like this form:
Reports for the month of November
1907, from 123 railroad companies, oper-
ating 1882 miles Of road. show:
Operating evenu ......... 1923, z34, SCI
Operating xpense ........... 5,234,57t
Net operating income. ....... .$34, $685. 91
The next day there will be given out
at the same hour, a like statement
showing all the roads received UP tC
that time; and so on each day until the
entire series Of reports for the month
has been summarized. 1t is believed
the new method of accounting and re.
porting will take effect without an
real jar to the financial situation
though it is fully realized hat there
will be ample opportunity for misun
Outstanding and attempts at mi5repre.
s~entation of the new figures.
The law requires that no other report
than that made to the commission. un.