Norwich bulletin., 1909-06-02

 repeat these deplorable conditions. lie took LID the subject of electric lighting at some length, and this provoked con- troyersy with MT. Robbins, who claim ed the mayor was not talking 10 the bill but rather was vaguely searching for something to meet the tnlilSs He wanted done.
 The three speakers had gone some what technically into the subject, and when they had concluded no one else appeared for tie proponents.
 Then MT. Robbins in remonstrance read a letter from President Mellen. , President Melen Protests Against "PoIiticaI Dictation" of New Haven's Finances.
 Hartford, Conn, June 1.-Charles s. Mellen, president of the New fork' l New Haven and Hartford railroad, to- day submitted to the legislative com mittee in charge of the proposed pupnc utilities bill in which he calls attention | to the fact that his company is already subject to many restrictive laws ana that it Is now proposed that political hoard shall have management Of its l finances. He says that such control would inevitably act injuriously, as all | plans of the company would nave 10 pc l prematurely revealed to the world at a | public hearing, which would De serl | OuSIy QeUlnleuldl lO tAiS iAb~iAS "AN 1 much more so than in the case Of prl-
 vate concerns.
 MT. Mellen says that under the bill political board would dictate prices | which the company must receive for US | securities. He objects to the Dlu also [ on the ground of it's artificial hmlta- | tions on the borrowing power or the | company ana the provision that 1t can | not issue bonds in excess of its nom | inal capital stock. As applied, the pro l vision means that the corporation
 would be forbidden to issue bonds for more than one-t third of the actual value | Of it's property Moreover, the bill
 takes no account of the fact that 1t is 1 often a. measure of the soundest finance | 10 issue bonds which will later be con-
 verted into stock If the company mad been forbidden to issue it's convertible
 bonds it would have had to issue stock l carrying eight per cent. dividends and a heavy burden placed upon its earning | power.
 MT. MelIen also says that it seems to | him clear that the proposed law will 1 injure financially weak corporations as well as those financially strong; that | there should not be public interference with methods of raising new capital, even if the nominal capital of the com
 pany is greater than it need be, and | that no statute should be nassed in | juriously affecting the financial future | of his great company because some other company has followed unsound principles in finance.
 MT. Robbins in Opposition to the l Measure.
 : In opposition to the passage of the | measure MT. Robbins stated that the
 passage of the bill as at present fram- | ed would prevent the issuance by the Il road of all convertible bonds, for the
 very simple fact that under the law | no one could be found to purchase | them. He stated that the raising of | funds for certain purposes would by | such a method absolutely prevent the | carving out of those purposes. He said that the road had at one time | believed it had purchased the Connec- | ticut River road, but that undue pub | licity had foiled the attempt, and that | another road which the New Haven | company had wanted to purchase had
 been snapped up by pool of several | trunk lines.
 1 Some time ago." said MT. Robbins, | "there was a disposition on the part | of some of the trunk line roads and | the coal roads to raise the price of | coal in New England. The charges | for transportation would have been in- creased to such an extent as to have | effected the price of coal in our terri | want to increase the rates, for the | welfare of the road Is bound up in | the welfare of the people we serve. l New England, as a center of trade, is | at a great natural disadvantage. The raw material must be brought here | from a distance. and the manufactured | goods must be shipped away again | The New Haven road fought to keep | the prices of coal down, not as phil | anthropist, but as a matter of busi- l ness. In order to keep the price down, | the road bought the Ontario & West
 ern, a road having an entrance into | the coal fields and an outlet on the | great lakes. From that day to this, | there has been no talk of raising the | price of coal in New England 1 He stated that the workings of the | Massachusetts public service commits | sion had resulted An the taking away | from Massachusetts most of it's public | utility corporations which are now in | most instances in the hands of hold l ing companies. He said that the req | son why the Boston & Maine stock | had been bought by the New Haven | road was because of the workings of | the public service commission in Mas | sachusetts. The Boston & Maine road | could not issue securities with suffi-
 cient freedom, and the result was that
 the money at first came from the l StUCkHOlQGlS. OLn6T were | made for money and the stockholders | began to feel as if there must be an
 end to it, and were disposed to sell l their stock.
 This stock" said he, went either
 to the New Haven road, or Hartman,
 or someone else. When you pass this | bill you will sound the death knell | of the New Haven road as an fnde- | pendent road, not perhaps today, or to- | morrow, but some time, surely" | He stated that there is at present | law enough on the statute books to | punish the malefactors and that there are no evils at present in the state | which would be corrected by supervis-
 ing the financing of corporations. He stated in answer to questions that so | long as the laws are as they are that | it would be practically impossible to | buy the New Haven road and that he | had been told that the purchase of | 1000 shares of it's stock would send
 the market up ten points. He did not l think that over pitalization leads to deterioration of the equipment of a | road.
 | Another Hearing Today. \ The hearing will be resumed tomor- row afternoon, at which time a dele l gation of business men from different | parts of the state are to be heard.