Arizona republican., 1912-08-28
Complaint of the Citizens
 League Against Pacific Gas and Electric Go. Un- ! der Investigation by Cor
 poration Commission
VALUATION OF THE
 CO.'S PROPERTY
Report Submitted by the Commissions Expert and the Beginning of His Tes- timony in Support of the Document

The hearing before the corpora tion commission of the complaint by the Citizens league against the Pa cific Gas and Electric company that it's charges for light, power and gas are unjust, unreasonable and dis crimatory, began yesterday forenoon in the supreme court chambers. It will be continued at o'clock this morning and bids fair to last two or three days. As is we'll known the ownership of the company has recently changed hands and in mak ing answer to the complaint the admission was made that there had been some discrimination and the company seeks to cooperate with the commission in securing a fair schedule of rates It was denied. however, that the rates in general are too high and that the charges made are unjust. The day was consumed by the reading of a re- port of the valuation of the com panys property, made by an expert in the employ of the commission, and by a partial examination of the expert who was on the witness stand all afternoon. The nature of the questions asked indicated that the company sought to establish that he figures he gave for the valuation Of their properties, on which req sCnabIe percentage of profit is li- censed to be made, are entirely too small
 The assembIage of citizens was not as large as had been expected. though there was a goodly number outside of the persons directly con cerned in the hearing. The three members of the commission. Chair man Geary w A. Cole and F. A. Jones occupied the chairs of the three supreme court justices. A stem ographer was ready to take com plete record of the proceedings while Lewis T. Carpenter, assistant attorney general, appeared for the commission and the complainant w. F.. Velie. vice president of the com pany. R. S Hasson, the general man. ager and Attorney L. H. Cham bers appeared for the defendant.
 After the preliminary of the an- nouncement of the complaint and the response of defendants attorney Mir. Carpenter placed c. w. kolner on the stand and he qualified as an expert in electrical engineering lie had prepared for the commission a report on the valuation of the com rany's property, which report was accompanied by exhibits showing the valuation of each class of property in detail This tabulated matter was mt entirely completed and adjourn mont was taken until afternoon tC give the expert an opportunity to fin ish his tables MT. Koiner is con nected with the Riverside, Cal. municipal plant. Some two weeks ago the commission forwarded tc him a list of the company's property which it had prepared in response to the request of the commission From his personal information II such matters and with the aid O catalogues. and correspondence witt manufacturers. MT. Koiner estimated the cost of duplicating the machln cry and property of the company and also estimated what in his judg ment is a fair depreciation.
 Arriving here three or four day ago. MT. Koiner has since devoted himself to checking up the com pany's property to see if it ha all that it listed, and also to inves tigating some local matters, such labor costs and conditions, that en ter into the calculations on installa tion costs, and which data he re ouired before he could complete m tables.
 He was ready by the time the al ternoon session was called and
 summarv of the tables as shown o the first page follows:
 ECTRIC PLANT