Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-12-15
HEARING ON CAS-
RATES QUESTION
IS POSTPONED
CONTINUED from First Page,

-
sight and careful management, which
entities them at least to the customary
profit-the public getting its benefit in
reduced rates and better service. To
deprive the companies of that profit. or
the prospect of it, would lake away
their just reward, destroy irducement
to Improvement, and discourage or pro-
hibit the investment of capital in en-
terprises which are indispensable to tho
convenience and welfare of the people.
says Rates Are Uniform.
1t is h established policy of the
Public Service gas and electric COM
panies to charge uniform rates through
out the territory in which their bust
ness extends. If they did not it would
be extremely difficult, perhaps impose
sible, to determine when a particular
rate should be charged or changed in
a given locality, and the companies
would be constantly subject to criticism
for alleged discrimination between
municipalities.
ut must be admitted that absolute
equality in rates, tested only by dem
sity of population in different localities,
is impossible, but the objection MAJ
be alleged just as plausibly in the APP
p~lication Of a uniform rate to different
parts of a municipality as between diff
ferent municipalities. Approximate
equality in this particular is all that
can be attained. A street railway
company charges the same rate of fare
for a ride of a single block as it does
for q journey of five miles or more,
not because it is strictly just to do Sc,
but because it is practically impossi-
BILE to do otherwise, and that necessity
controls other public service corpora
lions.
1.-THE public utility law expressly for
bids undue discrimination, and prior
to the passage of that law discrimfna-
ton in rates among localities by such
companies probably would have been
held unlawful.
THE practise inaugurated by the
companies attracts to our suburban
towns population from the larger
cities in our n~eighboring States,
and that population contributes to the
prosperity of our own cities. There is,
and always must be, a community of
interest and much intercourse among
cities n their suburbs which would
render discrimination in rates invidious
If not unjust.
"The policy of chargin uniform
rates was not adopted by the COM
panies until after careful study of their
legal duties and the actual conditions
prevailing throughout the whole terri
tory, Nearly all the special charters
creating gas companies authorized the
construction of works to supply gas
in Soma Cffr+ fnnd ite t.iafoi4t- ar lin
adjacent municipalities some charters
covered entire counties-and it thereby
became the legal duty of the companies
to charge the same rate in all the ter
ritory covered BY their charters. The
legislature never authorized a gas COM
pany to discriminate between localities.
The same obligation arose in cases
where electric companies were or
ganized in pursuance of the general
corporation act. Their certificates of
Incorporation are, in legal substance,
special charters %. %, supra, and per-
nit no discrimination between munich
palities or localities or individuals
within the territory covered by such
certificates. The rate must be. judged
from the standpoint of the individual
and the charge for every particular
service must be reasonable.
Therefore. it would seem to be IN
lawful to abolish the uniform rates.
Besides 1t would have a DEPRESSING and
injurious effect on many localities. 1t
is obvious that if uniform rates are to
be abandoned so that the inhabitants
of densely populated places may pay
q little less, then those who live in
the smaller communities must pay con-
siderably more. A slight reduction in
the rate in denseiy-populated COM
munities would call for "A much larger
increase in the smaller communities.