The Washington times., 1911-04-28
TELEPHONE AND STREET
RAILWAY REGULATION.

Anderson, OF Fostoria, Ohio, to the
ranks of those who are battling for
something like decency and fairness to
the public from the public service cor
porations of the District of Columbia.
He has taken hold of the telephone
rate problem, the universal transfer
problem, and the children's half-fare
problem with an apparent determi-
nation to do some real effective work.
More power to him. May he keep his
nerve and may his confreres on the
District Committee find the courage
which he seems to possess.
The need of lower telephone rates,
fixed by law, the need of universal
transfers, and the need of reduced
street railway rates for school children
need no elucidation to the people of
the District of Columbia. Washing
tonians have been paying the freight
for years, and the burden bears down
upon them with convincing severity.
To most of the members of the District
Committee and to most of the mem
bers of the House, however, the prob
lens are new. We therefore commend
them to the new majority for con-
sideration. So manifest is the de-
mand for relief, we feel confident the
majority will appreciate it if it will
make even a cursory investigation.
AS to telephones, it is sufficient to
state that there is not one word of
law on the statute books by which
rates in Washington can be regulated.
The telephone company makes its
charges in conformity with that archaic
theory, "what the traffic will bear"
Considering that the people of Wash
ington have to buy telephone service
from this one company or 60 without
it, no diagram is needed to prove that
the traffic has to bear high rate This
can also be shown by documentary evil
dence.
The transfer question can be settled
to the satisfaction of any fair mind
ed person by an examination of the an
nual reports of the street railway COM
panies to Congress. Both companies
are prosperous. They are turning
thousands of dollars back into their
properties and paying dividends on a
huge volume of watered capitalization
every year. In a word, they can afford
to render the improved service which
the public would enjoy if passengers
could transfer from the lines of one
company to the lines of the other.
Exactly the same condition justifes
the demand for reduced rates for school
children.
Mr.. Anderson isn't going to find
smooth sailing for his program of
regulation. He's going to bump into
the adroit opposition of the lobbyists
for the public service companies. He
may as well make his mind up to that
The House has changed its political
complexion, but all shades and varie-
ties of compilations look alike to the
Washington public service corpora
tions. At this very hour their rep
resentatives are siding up to the new
forces in the House District Commit
tee and in the House itself. They will
sit lust as close as the new forces will
let them. They will present every
known argument against adequate
regulation of their properties in the
public interest, and they may spring
a few new ones, for they are very
clever.
For years these gentlemen have
been highly successful in keeping the
District of Columbia a decade behind
the rest of the country in the manner
in which it deals with those concerns
which render public service. They will
continue to draw salaries from theil
companies for trying to do in the
future the same sort of work they
have done in the past. Whether they
earn those Salaries will depend very
largely upon the new District Com
mittee and the new House of Repre-
sentatives.