Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1909-12-15
PUBLIC SERVICE
HEAD ATTACKS
CITY OWNERSHIP
Thomas N. McCarter Makes
Striking Speech at National
Gas Association Meeting.
THEME OF ADDRESS IS
1.-THE SIGNS OF THE TINES"
Regulation of Rates and ShOrt=
Term Franchises Also
Menaces, He Says.

llcTIIdl AdS lAGIO1l1AiCA ~ $1,000
Square Garden Concert Hail last night,
Thomas n. McCarter, president of the
public Service Corporation, declared
that the radical wave of the past five
wears which had caused some public
service flames to burn so flereely that
many were seorched, was gone forever
Other speakers were George B. Cor
teivou. former Secretary of the Treas
my and now president of the Console
dated Gas Company. and Dean Joseph
Francis johnson, of the New York
University School of Commerce. Mr..
Mccarter's subject was 1.-THE Signs of
the Times and he spoke as follows:
MIR. McCartcr's Speech.
sIn casting about for a subject for
the short discourse which l shall pre-
sent to you tonight, 1 have concluded
that the thought which 1 will endeavor
to lodge in your minds may properly
be expressed by the phrase, The signs
Of the times
ssThe country has been through a
period of five years or more of urmo1l
Around those of us engaged in any
kind of public service work the flame
has burned sa~vagely-so fiercely, IN
fact, tina many of the great properties
of the country have been severely
scoeched, and certain conspicuous sys-
TENS entirely consumed.
TT is, perhaps. idle to speculate on
the cause of all this agitation. One
thing is certain. the distinguished neo-
phyte in our business-Mr. Cortelyou-
who is with us tonight. can say with
truth All of which I saw, and a part
of which ] was Nor can we deny that
some good has arisen from it all. In
bridled prosperity for a period of years
breeds license, and perhaps a disregard
of the public welfare. Insofar as the
country has been brought to a realiza-
ton of real abuses, and has demanded
their cessation, it is the gamer, and
the business, too, in the long rum, will
be benefited. To the extent, however,
that the country, in its excitement,
has impulsively followed and enacted
INTO legislation the captivating but
speeious reforms urged by political ad-
yenturers, neither the country, our busi-
ness nor the political adventurer has
been benefited; and the reason is easy
TO understand, for the sound develop
ment of the country, and the prosperity
of the public service business must GO
forward in parallel lines, and legisla-
ton which initiates against the latter,
over a period of years, will retard the
former. The adventurer is not bene-
flied, for when his demagogery is en-
acted into legislation, he has lost his
issue and his opportunity to keep him.
self before the public, until he can
frame up something new and more
startling.
The indications are that the agita-
ton to which 1 have been referring has
reached its maximum height, and that
the wave of radicalism is subsiding.
The country seems to want repose and
an opportunity for the quiet and ener-
getic prosecution of its business and
the development of its Per-
haps the best expression of this chang
ing public sentiment is the placid tone
Of the recent message of President Taft.
eff the storm has spent it's force it
Is perhaps well for those of us who
have embarked for our life work upon
the public service vessel to examine
into the condition of the old ship after
the storm, to investigate what has hap
pened to her, and to see how she is
equipped for the balance of the voyage.
within the scope of Il short address
OF this character l can Of course but
touch upon the main points, which,
however, can easily be amplified and
applied by you all in the light OF your
own experience.
aReferring first to the more agreeable
matters-the fetish of municipal own
ership has apparently made no head
way in this country. Various small
municipal electric plants have singu-
larry failed and some have been aban-
doned and sold. The comprehensive in
v~estigation made abroad under the aus
pices OF the Civic Federation failed to
demonstrate the efficiency of this sys-
tenn, at least as applied to conditions
on this side of the Atlantic. The fail
ure of Tom Johnson's plan in Cleveland
has been Illuminating. and this most
un-American doctrine, which three or
four years ago was hailed as the
panacea for all abuses, real and mag
mary, seems to have become possessed
of the paralytic microbe in it's infancy.
1t does not follow, however, that the
child will not outgrow this first attack
and again present itself for serious con-
gideration before the American people,
hut that it an, during your lifetime or
more, ever seriously prevail I do not
believe, and for this o~vershadowing
reason, If for no other. One of the
greatest problems threatening the coun-
ny is municipal extravaganza and
municipal financing. The expenses of
municipal government connected with
the absolute essentials thereof, such as
water supply. paving, education, the
development of parks, etc, are running
into such vast sums, and in SO many
cases threatening municipal insol-
vency, not to speak of c~onfscatory
taxes, that the public will surely hesi-
tate to embark upon new, untried and
unnecessary municipal operations at the
behest of theoretical doctrinaires.
The Rate Regulation Menace.
PA more serious condition threatening
our business is that of rate-regulation
by whatever duly constituted authority
the power may be exercised. The exist
ence of this power as a legislative func-
ton, provided 1t is not carried to the
limit of c~onfscation, seems now to be
definitely settled. and the Supreme
Court OF the United States has decided
in the Consolidated Gas Company case
that a rate only yielding approximately
8 per cent. upon the true value of prop
erty actually used in the business is not
50 conf1scatory as to invalidate the stat
ufe prescribing the rate. This has be-
come the established law Of the laid,
oud fhe rasiff ie that we musf all roo