The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-01-12
COURT REVERSES
COMMISSION
Western Union, It is Held, Would Lose
on lntra-State Business-Method
to Find Profit.

Oklahoma City, Jan. "a general
order of the corporation commission
prescribing rules for transmission and
delivery of kilograms, and reducing
the rates now charged for telegraph
ing in Oklahoma, was reversed in great
part and in few instances affirmed
today by an opinion by Chief Justice
Turner of the supreme court in the
case appealed by the Western UnfN
company.
| The most important feature of the
opinion was that reversing the com
mission in fixing a new schedule of
rates which the court declared would
have caused the Western Union to
operate at loss, ard held that the
companies could continue their pres.
ent tariff rates. These, the court found,
yield a little less than 8 per cent on
the entire investment in the state.
Commission Rates Proposed.
Rates proposed by the commission
were 25 cents for distances of 175
miles or less; 80 cents for distances
of 250 miles, and owe rthat distance
1876 cents, with % cents a fiat rate for
night service, and 2 cents added fora
each word in excess of ten, whether.
the service be night or day. Accord
ing to the courts figures, the physi-
cal value of the property used in Okla.
homa for all classes of the Western.
Unions business is 1881, ,554, and the
income accredited to Oklahoma was
but $S,132, or less than per cent on
the investment Figuring strictly
from a standpoint of intrastate bust.
ness, but 24.4 per cent of the total in
vestment or $92, 2,52674, the court finds
is employed in such business, and that
the net income measured by the same
standard is but $1,93343 or little in
excess of 2 per cent, which represents
what the company is making at exist
ing rates. To permit the corporation
commissions rates to stand the comsssS
says the company would be operating,
at loss.
The court held that public service
corporation in this state was entitled
to earn on the value of its property i9S
the state devoted to state business
revenue and found that thL
value of its property in the state des
voted to state business was ascertain-1
ed thus:
Ascertaining Property Value.
1T is by dividing the capital of the
carrier invested in the business in pros
portion to the earnings of each thatg
the amount of capital invested in intra-I
state business is found, and upon which
the carrier is entitled to fair return,
and it is by dividing the total EXPENSE
both its interstate and intrastate bus,
mess on the same basis that the ex
pense of conducting each is found. That
the net profits derived from the intra.
state business, further reduced by the
application of the order fails to yield
q reasonable return upon the invest.
ment and the order is unreasonable
and unjust and will be reversed"
The court sustained that portion of
the commissions order requiring the
delivery of messages within a two-mile'
zone from the receiving office, provided
the place of delivery was inside the
city limits
Mail Office Order Modified.
The requirement that no mail office
If a telegraph company could be dis.
continued without permission of ~ "
corporation commission was modified
o require that the company give the
twenty days notice of in
ention to discontinue such office to
he end, the court says. of subserving
vi interests. The remainder of the
rider was affirmed with the exception
II that requiring one company to fori
ward a message offered by another
company for an additional charge Of
% cents added to the one-line rate !,
Which was reversed. One of the rules
lliirmed is that requiring the filing and
'eeeiving time to be shown on the mes.
,age