The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-01

May Ask for Tube Fra: Twenty years ago after a long con- electrical companies the city of New York succeeded in forcing the wires underground on Manhattan Island. In order to do so it was deemed neces- sary to devise system of under ground conduits, and turn over their construction and maintenance to a private company by an exclusive con- tract. It was also necessary for the
 city officials to go out with their axes and wire cutters and chop down the
 poles of some of the companies. Later the low tension conduits were separ-
 ated from the high tension conduits,
 and a separate contract entered into
 for their construction and mainten-
 ance. Before many years, it developed
 that the company operating high ten
 sion conduits had fallen under the
 control of the New York Edison Com
 pany, and the company operating low
 tension conduits had come tosbe owned
 by the New York Telephone Company.
 The conduits. which were to be free to
 all wire-using companies on equal
 terms, had fallen into the hands of the
 two big monopoAies which had most
 use for them
 There was, however, a provision in the city's contracts with the conduit companies requiring them to turn in-
 to the city treasury all net profits in excess of ten per cent. cumulative on
 their actual cash investment. The city
 also reserved the right to take over the conduits after a certain date sub iect to outstanding mortgages not to
 exceed 50 per cent of their actual cost
 upon paying such cost plus enough to
 make up any past deficiencies in the
 10 per cent. annual profits Notice this
 thing! Ten per cent. per annum guar
 anteed on investment and then sale to
 the city at the full prices, subject to
 liens amounting to 50 per cent. of the
 investment besides.
 Perhaps the city thought it was
 making a fine contract that would al-
 low the purchase of a property earning
 ten per cent. dividends at $50 a share.
 Well, the city slept on it's rights until
 Mayor Lows administration, when an
 investigation made by the commis
 sioner of accounts revealed the fact
 that the conduit companies had played
 fast and loose with their books and
 the actual cost of the conduits was
 hopelessly lost in records that had dis
 appeared or had never been kept,
 while the properties had been bonded
 without any reference to the 50 per cent. limitation even taking the com panies' own inaf1ted figure of cost. The city commenced an action to force an accounting Six years of Tammany
 government have passed and the case is still pending.
 H.. 1n a local issue. but it is not! The high tension subway company is a dummy of the New York Edison Company; the New York Edison Company is dummy of the Consolidated Gas Com pany: the Consolidated Gas Company is a local manifestation of the Stand ard Oil Company; the Standard Oil Company's lighting interests ramify not only throughout the United States, but throughout the world. It is even supposed by eminent men like Chan cellor Day that the Roclefellers hold a controlling interest in the preferred stock of the Kingdom of Heaven.
 The low tension subway company in New York is a dummy of the New York Telephone Company; the New York Telephone Company is a dummy of the American Telephone and Tele- graph Company. which operates or controls the entire Bell telephone sys- lem or the OnIL0u SCdC0S. 1n0 b0l lines connect every subscriber with four million other subscribers scattered from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rockies and from the Lakes to the Gulf. But this is not all. The largest holder of American Telephone and Telegraph Company stock is the Mackay Com panies, which also controls the Postal Telegraph companies and the Commer- cial Cable Company covering the coun- try with their wires and the floors of the oceans with their cables. Further more, as recently announced. the American Telephone and Telegraph Company now has substantial control of the Western Union Telegraph Com pany. It is no wonder that a Tam many administration takes six years to get an accounting from the conduit companies, with no utward sign of progress at the end of that time. It is no wonder that legislative sessions drag out their scandalous existence without the extension of the jurisdic- ton of the Public Service Commissions of New York to cover telephone and telegraph companies.
 It is with strange fatuity that muni- | cipal reformers have looked so long | and insistently to- the separation of ma tional from local politics for the re- 1 demption of city government. Any | one who reads MT. Delos F. Wilcox's | chapters on the telephone and the tele- | graph as public utilities and follows | his detailed description of their fran chise conditions in various States and | cities cannot fail to see that municipal | franchise grants are not merely local | or even State issues. but rather issues of commanding national importance | How can a company's franchise be a purely local matter, when this com pany describes it's beneficent dominion 1 as the directors of the American Tele- | phone and Telegraph Company did in their annual report for 1908. '"The Bell | system,'' say they under an intelli- | gent control and broad policy has de- until it has assinilated itself | into and in fact become the nervous system of the business and social or ganization of the country. This is the result of the centralized general con- trol exercised by the company, the | combination of all local systems into 1 one combined system developed as a whole.''
 Mr. Wilcox in his new book on Municipal F'ranchises'' Engineering 1 News Publishing Co.,. New York;, gives | a large place to the telephone business, | which has had a more wonderful ex pansion during the last few years than any other public utility. He gives a full account of the most recent inves- | tigationS into telephone rates and com l