The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-26
Bridgeport Consumers Forced To Pay Interest On Fic- titiOuS Valuation Of
 Securities.
PETITIONERS DEMAND
 75 GENT GAS FOR CITY
Company Seeks 8 Per Cent While Petitioners Say 6 Per Cent Would Be Fair Return Under 75 Cent
 Rate.
CspeciaI to The FarnerO

E-y
 Hartford, Nov. 2e-A small but in- terested audience assembled in the rooms of the Public Utilities Commits sion, yesterday afternoon, to hear the arguments in the Bridgeport gas cass. which is the first case Of it's kind un-. der the Public Utilities law, and which, has attracted much interest tnrough-i out the state because the prfucfp1egi laid down in its decision are likely to- become precedents.
 The Bridgeport Gas Light company. whose prices are under fire, was rep. resented by Marsh, Stoddard Ss Day. The petitioners were represented bv. Representatives John H. Bc1durray and Lynn w. Wilson, of Bridgeport.
 The argume ments indicated that the Bridgeport Gas Light Company has had typical history of stock promo ton.
 The company was owned by Bridge porters, up to 1901. They took ten per cent. dividends for many years. They had put s5OO,OOO into the prop erty.
 Then came some New York men, whom Rep. Wilson, described as ~city chaps" They paid the Bridgeport men $90O.0 for their stock and took control of the company
 Most of the Bridgeport men, with one or two exceptions, went out of the directorate, and the New Yorkers went in.
 These New Workers had promoted a. gas interest known as the Citizens Gas Company. This company had the right to sell only fuel gas. It had A miles of pipe and about 1000 custom CTS and failed.
 The property was sold under the hammer for SS5,oO0 to Hanford S. Weed. who merely represented the bondhoIders- These sDondhoIders were the men who bought out the Esrfdze-s port owners of the present gas com pany.
 Things moved pretty fast when these new men got control They step ped in at o'clock on the afternoon of Oct. 31. At 3:15 on the same af- ternoon they declared tf1emseIves in a stock dividend for $70O, 900. They got two and one-third shares for every share they had. The treasury of the company got nothing.
 They also voted to buy their own property of themselves, and paid for the remains of the property of the old Citizens Gas company. S1,505, 900.
 This property had been sold for but $S5,O0O to Weed, but it was worth $400,0 900, for the court had appraised it for this amount
 At the end of this fifteen minutes of swift work MT. Wilson's "city chaps'f had increased the securities of the old conservative Bridgeport company
 
 that the gas business had to show for it was the mains of the defunct com pany and it's other property.
 The $50,0OO in bonds which the old company had was turned into a mil lion of bonds. The s30O.OOO of stock which the old company had was turn ed into $1,1O0,ooO of stock
 Upon this assorted paper and upon the assorted assets of the bankrupt Citizens company the people of Bridgeport have since paid about O million dollars in interest and divi- dends.
 The petitioners claimed that the actual value of the property employ ed by the Bridgeport Gas Light Com. pany for the benefit of the public, does not exceed $1. 6OO.o 900. even allowing the full value of the property acquired from the Citiens' Co.
 This property, the petitioners claim. should not be allowed at it's full value, because the purchase of it was waste full and unnecessary, and that waste cannot be charged to the public under the law.
 The petitioners also asked the com mission to take into consideration that the value of the property as 1t aD- peared on the company's books failed to include depreciation for 60 years. During all this period the company had written on to it's books every thing that it spent. without wrfting anything off for decayed plant. Ur waste.
 Some time was devoted to a con sderation of the proper rate of re- turn. The company asked for at least eight per cent. The petitioners assert ed that six per cent would be just com pensation.
 The petitioners said that resson- able price to be charged for gas here after will be 75 cents per thousand cubic feet which, they said, would yield a. full return upon the value of the property used for the public. would provide ample depreciation. and sume for the payment of both legiti- mate and illegitinate interest.