The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06

You will note that the deprecia- tion above referred to is that which was accurately ascertained by reason of the rebuilding or reconstruction Of property within the period under re- view, and dose not take into account any depreciation on the balance of the, property: which, while it in fact exists, will not be apparent until it becomes necessary from time to time to rebuild or reconstruct parts of the plant a'The telephone company claims that the annual depreciation is per cent, which, for this three-year period, would be represented as follows:
 Depreciation ascertained in recon struction, 1.75 per cent; depreciation on balance of property now existing, but which will only become apparent as property is reconstructed, o.25 per cent: total, per cent. If the com peny's estimate of depreciation is cor 1ect the result would be: Entire bus Piness. three years loss, 1851 per cent, average. .617 per cent: exchange bus mess only, three years loss, 5.6S4 per cent, 1895 per cent; entire business, 1910. gain. .245 per cent; exchange bus mess only, 1910, loss, 1.045 per cent. "Inasmuch as I do not know any thing about this feature and am there fore not qualified. I will not venture to express an opinion as to the cor rectness of the amount of deprecia- tion claimed by them.
 Tt is unquestionably true, however, that there is a depreciation over and above that already ascertained, and such depreciation should be talk en into account.
 "trhis statement contains compar-
 ison of my statement No. 1 with the company's statement No. 1, on all items
 except that of depreciation, and shows
 a difference between our statements of
 c ,,,ir, oh nxxyif or
 that much less than theirs and con-
 sists of the following: Net real estate
 revenue on Birmingham building.
 s9,535.32 during 1908. Operating and
 maintenance was charged and real es-
 tate revenue was credited with a
 monthly rental on the Birmingham.
 East Lake and West End buildings, and
 the ianitor service, lights. rent, etc,
 charged to real estate revenue; so that E that S9,53532 represents the net fn- come from such rental.
 k This net income should therefore | have been deducted from the ex- penses as it was on their own build Hing. and have thus handled it. Un- collectible accounts for 1907 charged
 to general expense account in 1908 less
 uncollectible accounts 1910 charged in 1911, s4,10S.40.
 "Ina smuch as this was not an expense incurred during the period under re-
 w.. |
 station on discontinued stations. s13,-
 PSI
 This represented the value of the Inc
 side wiring and equipment left in the building and which were abandoned when
 the satons in such buildings were dis
 continued.
 "The company charged this to current repairs. but as I am of the opinion that | it was a depreciation expense, I deducted Il A .t,, aha aterA ' to depreciation
 "The failure to credit the first two Items was. am sure. an unintentional oversight on the part of the bookkeeper, who pre- pared the statement but who did not
 analyze the accounts as I did: while the
 disposition of the 8 charge was in ac-
 cordance with their opinion as to the
 proper account to charge it to.
 This is comparative statement of
 Birmingham rates and cost of investment
 per station with Atlanta, Ga, Savannah