The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-05-21

the law goes further and turns over
the entire administration OF the COM
panies to commissions, you have the
worst possible form Of municipal W 2
ership-municipal ownership without
financial responsibility.
The Citizens and the Railways.
IN the building up OF American mu-
inequalities there has been no more
important factor thar the electric
railway. 1t has opened up new areas
to residence and business, and thus
has created taxable values n added
to municipal 1t has per-
formed a great work, but the task yet
to be performed Is even greater. There
are 10000 miles Of electric railway In
the United States. Yet we have only
scratched the surface Of the peoples
need in this regard. Only by the CO.
operation of the public can we place
this industry on a basis which will
enable us to meet every honest obIi-
CATION, maintain the high standard OF
efficiency which the public has a
right to expect, and obtain the capital
necessary for further expansion and
development OF these enterprises. The
citizens interest in the continued pros
perity Of public utility companies is as
great as that of the men charged with
the active conduct of these companies,
and between the companies the
public there should be, not hostility,
but a recognition of mutual needs, and
a united effort to meet them.
"Our mission on this journey is to
present these views and facts to the
public. We are ably assisted by our
ally, the American Electric Railway
Manufacturers association, which is
represented in our party by Charles
C. Pierce of Boston
crosby's Speech.
Oscar Il. Crosby, president Of the
wilmington & Philadelphia Traction
Co, said: To-day, only a short time,
as such things should be measured,
after the investment of large sums of
money in a riskful business, it is the
fashion for the public to set very low
limits to the earning capacity permit
ted to such capital. There can be no
doubt whatever that had there been so
much as a suspicion twenty-five years
ago that money thus risked in electric
railway enterprises would be now linn :
tied to an earning power Of 8 per cent,
no man would have ventured his
funds. 1t CHANGED that as general SUI
perintendent Of the Sprague Electric
Motor Co., the company which built
the first electric motor and establish
ed on a commercial basis the electric
railway business for the whole world,
/ had charge Of the manufacture of
the early installations. I say there
fore, as one having authority, that
those who put their money into street
railway enterprises from twenty to
twenty-five years ago were buying the
best and the worst motors possible at
the time, as they were the only motors
doing commercial work. Every detail
Of the art was full of vexatious uncer-
tainties. Nothing, therefore, was more
uncertain than the matter of return to
capital thus invested. A hundred bur-
dens have been taken up and borne.
All these burdens (including particu-
larry the greater length of ride for one
fare) tend to diminish the return to
capital. At the same time it has call
| ed for an investment so great and con
tinuous that only the superstition OF
the possibility of considerable profits
could have continued the stream OF
gold that has gone into the ground.
Very few franchises, save by i'm
plicatlon, contain any limitation upon
the possible return to capital. 1t is
in effect, a control of rates, though in
direct, and is the most general and
permanent expression which the pub
lie can give to a desired limitation OF
restraint upon the operations of g
public service company.
1T is n of the most common fea-
lures of our business that a rate Is
fixed in franchises for the performance
of a unit of service. Alas! this unit
has not remained stationary. 1t has
grown enormously. In the absence Of
any limitation upon return to capital
there is a presumption hat the com
pany, by accepting the limitation upoI
the rate of fare, is left to make sucl
profit rs may result from that rate
whether that profit be 5 per cent Of
SO per cent per annum upon the cap
itaI value, A confused conception
that large profits have been made
larger somehow than some one think
they should be-is now possessing tn,
public mind. 1t seems not improbable
If the facts were known, that the un
rest in this respect would be allayed
I believe it a be safely stated tina