Evening star., 1913-11-13

/ koAOuAu AIS ACO1Ss
| The Commissioner declared that it is q
| fundamental principle of finance, or
| economics. of sociology, that one ought
| to pay ones debts, and that no individual
| can prosper and make healthful progress
unless he reckons with his Indebtedness
and Systematically makes provision for
4 its payment.
| This is just as true of a street railway
company as II is of an individual" he
| said, and yet the report OF the agent OF
| the public utilities commission to the com.
/ mission was to the effect that the Wash
| ington Railway and Electric Company in
stead of setting aside from It's earnings
! every year a sum of money sufficient to
| pay off its SIS 100000 of bonds by the
| time they are due, was using those earn
| ings for the payment of dividends to
stockholders and that upon this occasion
| ii proposed to pay an extra dividend.
I'VE are going to find out whether that
report is correct. and if ii is We are go-
ing to go the extreme limit of our author
ity and resources to require this company
to be honest with its stockholders and
with the public that supports it by making
adequate provision from year to year to
meet its Indebtedness when that indebt-
other depreciation matter, every street
railway company should make secondars
the interest of Its stockholders and
primary the public service which must
be concerned by economic and honest ad-
ministration.
said he was going to tell what he had
been doing and learning yesterday.
ON the 14th of October 1t was report
ed to us-I mean to the Eommlss- -onerS
Wash ngton Railway and Electric Com
pany was about TO declare an extra
dividend on its stock. We had an ac-
countant examine the reports OF the
Washington Railway and Electric Com
pany to ascertain whether ii was in such
condition as to justify increasing It's
dividend rates, The demands OF recogn z
ed economic and proper street raiiH ay
adm niStratlon require the maintenance
OF an adequate depreciation account anu
a sinking fund. The report We received
did not show that this was being done
Utilities Board Snubbed.
I'VE, therefore, wrote letter to the
Washington Railway and Electric Com
pany, calling its attention to the Ia"
which requires all street railways to
maintain an adequate depreciation ac-
count and informed the company that
it was the belief of the public utilities
commission that ii should not declare
the proposed dividend until IL could
show that an adequate depreciation ac-
count had been esta blished. That was
October Is. We sent that letter Dy
registered mail to make sure that the
company got it and to make sure that
We would know that the company got
it. October 16, the next day, the di-
rectors of the company met and de-
clared the proposed extra dividend,
payable, if l remember correctly. De-
cember /. a few days thereafter we
received a reply to our letter SUB
stan tally as follows:
. The Public Utilities Commission,
Washing ton, u. c.
Gentlemen: Yours, of such and such
Il date informing us of the provisions of
such and such law, received. In reply
vised as to the requirements of that
law. Very truly yours
In other words, when we called the
attention of this company to what We
believed might be violation OF law
the company practically told US it was
none of our business | want to digress
here for a moment to explain,
see it, the relations between a street
railways sinking fund and deprecia-
ton account TO the rank and file of the
people of the community which depends
upon ii for street car transportation.
THE experience of older cities in
Europe and the experience Of American
cities has demonstrated as an incon-
trovertible fact that economic and honest
administration of a street railway COM
pany demands that the street railway
company shall set aside every year out OF
its earnings enough money to restore
and bring up to par the natural defects
which develop in the system from every