The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-28

l Every passenger who does not pay
 his fare-steals. Every conductor who 1 does not turn in fares coliected- | steals. Thou shalt not steal.' This ] is the legend" says he, 'that was posted in the cars of the Third Ave- 1 nue Railroad system in New York l City by the receiver when he began i to operate the property early in 1905
 after ita lease had been cancelled by the Metropolitan interests. In the i face of the revelations then recent,
 these words read like a mockery. The
 receivers for the Metropolitan system 1 ct about the SaTnc time estimated 1 their annual loss from the dishon l esty. of condC ctors and passengers at | between one and two millions of 1 dollars Street railway companies 1 everywhere complain of the abuse of l transfer privileges by unscrupulous Lp2 ssenEers ald not infrequently con | dUctorS and motor 7HGn. are found to
 be involved in consoiracies to rob the 1 company. Whatever the cause of
 these delinquencies may be, it is cer- l tainly an evil of tremendous import ] to have public service corporations 1 conducting their business under such | conditions as to make thieves whole
 sr le. We suspect that the cheating
 Cf companies on a large scale, either | by their employees or by their pat 1 rons, is largely the result of the bad 1 regulations of the men at the top With the scandals of stock jobbery
 financial manipulation and robbery in l the millions on everybOdy'S lips until | they have become almost 8 tradition 1! it requires a very tender conscience to keep a conductor from protecting | himself against losses that would re-
 suit from his mistakes in ringing up fares. Having gone thus far he is not likely to mourn if he finds a few
 extra nickels in his pocket at night I Furthermore, passenger who has | frequently been outraged by abomin-
 able service and been compelled to
 ride home after a hard days work l jostled and almost crushed by a
 strap-hanging crowd, can hardly be | expected to hunt up the conductor l who has passed him and pay his l nickel which he has reason to believe
 will be expended, in large part, not
 in improving the service, but in bol-
 stering up the fictitious securities ou: of which millionaire highwaymer have made their fortunes. No doubt, l for his own sake, every passenger
 should pay his fare and every con- i ductor should scrupulously account to
 his employer for every penny collect
 ed, steadfastly refusing to learn at the
 school of theft conducted by the bandits organized under the name of
 street railway company"
 Enormous as is the municipal debt : of the city of New York, it is much ! less than the outstanding stocks and bonds of the companies holding fran | Chises and operating fixtures in the
 streets of New York. When we come 1 to Detroit we find the outstanding l stock and bonds of the street rail-
 way company alone amounting to | three or four times as much as the l entire municipal debt. Dr. Wilcox holds that the issue of bonds or cap- l ital stock against a. public utility 1 operating under a franchise should be
 scrutinized as carefully by the pub
 lie authorities as is the creation of 1 new bonded debts by the city. "The
 capitalization of franchises and other 1 intangible property so-called, has | frequently been carried to grotesque
 extremes" says MT. Wilcox. "The 1 first result has been the unloading on l the public of a great mass of securi- l ties with nothing substantial behind | them, with immense profit to the in- slders, but with no advantage to the business being done under the fran chise By getting these securities about among innocent investors,' the original promoters of the company give color of truth to the claim that
 the owners of the property have put G great amount of money into it and
 that the widows and orphans who depend on the dividends paid cannot 1 with justice have the value of their IL.
 In this way, by floating just as many securities as possible, a double ad-
 vantage is gained by the promoters
 First, they line their own pockets
 With organization profits. Second,
 they deceive the public as to the ac-
 tual amount of investment, make the
 profits of the enterprise look small and thereby ward off legislation de- signed to reduce rates or improve and | extend service The essential dishon- of t1n 1ccs1I <@e 1 bonds bearing on their face the inn print of value to the amount of a cer- tain number of dollars when this inn | print bears no relation to actual in
 vestment or to actual value is evil dent. The floating of securities for
 the public to buy, when the basis of these securities is intangible and eVanescent, works a great injustice
 upon the public, which under modern industrial conditions is compelled to | look to stocks and bonds as a prin- cipal avenue for investment and say ing. The instability of value attach ing to these securities founded on l dreams and hope is constant men, ace to business conditions and com
 nerciai integrity. Furthermore, by the increase of capitalization until | dividends are nominal or non-eXistent
 and without publicity of accounts to l reveal the fraud, connanies are often
 nabled to keep up their rates to an l unreasonable point and refuse to inn prove service to the point of efficiency that may be justly expected of them .} Indeed, the bonds of public utility
 companies secured by property ana I rights in the streets become semi-
 public obligations and should be I counted in with the municipal debt
 in any estimate of the burdens one
 generation is saddling upon the next
 for public improvements"
 REV. I. ". WILLIAMS TESTIFIES.
 Rev. I. w. Williams, Huntington, w. Va, writes us as follows: This is
 to certify that I used Foley's Kidney l Remedy for nervous exhaustion and
 kidney trouble and am free to say