Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-04-13
IS HERE TO STAY
Clntrol and Publicity for Public
Service Corporations.
VERDICT OF PROMINENT MAN
Theodore N. Vail, President of West.
ern Union and Telephone Compa-
MES, Recognized Rights of the
American Public.

Public regulation of public service
corporations has come to stay. 1t
ought to have come and it ought to
stay. That is the fat and unequivocal
assertion of Theodore n. Vail, presi-
dent Of both the American Telephone
and Telegraph company and the West
ern Union Telegraph company. It
came In the form of his annual re-
port to the seventy thousand stock
holders of the two great corporations.
Although Mr.. Wallis advocacy of full
publicity in connection with the affairs
OF such concerns was we'll understood,
nobody in financial circles had antici-
pated so frank an avowal of full pub
lie rights in the shaping of their gen.
eral conduct. 1t came consequently as
surprise, not only because of it's
novelty and squareness, but also on
account of the unqualified acquies-
cence of board of directors compris-
ing such eminent and conservative
f1nanciers as Robert Winson, of Kid.
der, Peabody & Co., and Henry L.
Higginson of Boston, Henry P. Davi.
w. Murray Crane, George F. Baer,
T. Jefferson Coolidge Jr, Norman w.
Harris. John l. Waterbury and others.
President Wallis declaration is her
aided as the first recognition by those
in high corporate authority of the jus.
uce of the demand that the public
be regarded as virtual partners
-, ~ ~
mon welfare. He goes directly to the
point.
Public control or regulation of pub
lie service corporations by permanent
commissions" he says, has come and
come to stay Control or regulation
to be effective. means publicity;
it means semi-public discussion and
consideration before action; it means
everything which is the oppo
site of and inconsistent with effective
competition. Competition-agg aggressive
effective mpetition-means strife
industrial warfare; 1t means conten.
ton; 1t oftentimes means taking ad.
vantage of or resorting to any means
that the conscience of the contestants
or the degree of the enforcement of
the laws will permit
Aggressive competition means du-
plication of plant and investment. The
ultimate object of such competition
is the possession of the field wholly
or partially; therefore it means eth
er ultimate combination on such
basis and with such prices as will
cover past losses, or it means loss OF
return on investment, and eventual
loss of capital. However 1t results,
all costs of aggressive, uncontrolled
competition are eventually borne,
directly or indirectly, by the public.
Competition which is not aggressive,
presupposes cooperative action, under
standings, agreements, which result
in general uniformity or harmony of
action. which, in fact, is not competf-
ton but is combination, unstable, but
for the time effective. When thor
oughly understood it will be found
benefits and public advantages, which
are expected to be obtained through
such ownership, and will obtain
them without the public burden of
either the public office-holder or pub
lie debt or operating deficit
When through wise and judicious
state control and regulation all the
advantages without any of the disad-
Vantages of state ownership are SO.
cured, state ownership is doomed"
IF Mr. Vail IL right" says
Harper's Weekly, in a concise sum-
mtng-up, then it seems pretty plain
that we are entered upon a new era in
both economics and politics. And it is
high time we did If evolution is to
supplant revolution as an efficient
force in the development Of civilizsr
tioR"