The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1913-09-15

| mana SUCH respect 1TOIU DOIn the pubic
and the corporations that both will with
out question accept their conclusions.
We believe that the public would in
this way get all the advantages and avoid
all the manifest disadvantages of public
ownership.
We believe that centers of business and
population exist for the convenience of the
public as a whole, and that no such CEN
ter can prosper without sufficient and eff
cient means of intercourse with other CEN
tiers and tributary territories; that such
means can only be afforded by prosperous
utilities and service companies and that
fair rates are essential to prosperous COM
panies. We do not believe that any pub
lie either desires or can obtain, nor can
any service or utility furnish permanent
or effient service at less than cost, includ-
| ine capital charges. We believe that ul-
timately the public either directly or in
directly pays the losses involved in the
efforts to furnish such service at less
than it's fair cost, either through the loss
of the capital involved, the losses Incl
dent to poor service or the necessary
increase in charges required to pay for
duplication of capital
| we DC1lCVO LlldC lilo HIElCoI
value of the telephone service depends on
its comprehension the extent and COM
prehenSiveness of the facilities for inter
communication, not only between individ-
uals but between centers of population;
| that no isolated section can be considered
independently of any other section or of
| the whole; that rates must be so adjusted
| as to make it possible to obtain the maxi
mum development by making it possible
| for every one to be connected who will add
| to the value of the system, thus giving the
| greatest value to the greatest number;
| that the interdependence of the telephone
service and the value of complete and uni
verSal intercOmmunicatiOn justify and re-
quire some services partly at the expense
of the whole for the benefit of the whole.
We believe that this highest CONNER
| cial value can only be attained by one
system under one common control and
that it cannot be given by independent
systems unless they are operated under
agreements which result in one common
control and one common interest. in effect
making them single system.
We believe that rates should be so adj
justed as to afford the company sufficient
revenue to pay such wages and compen-
sation as will secure the most efficient ser
vice; to maintain the very highest and
most advanced standards of plant and ap-
paratus, to carry on such scientific and
experimental research and inventions as
to apparatus and methods as to insure
the highest standards, and to carry to re-
serve and depreciation such amounts as
| will enable the company at any time to
replace old plant and old methods with
new plant and new methods as fast as
they may be developed and found to
be to the advantage of the service.
We believe that in addition, such fair
charges should be paid upon the in
vestment in plant as will enable the
company at any time to obtain money
necessary to provide the plant re-
quired to meet the continuing demands
of the public; and in order that waste
and duplication of effort may be avoided
and uniformity of purpose and common
control be enforced that there should
be a centralized general administration
in close communication with and hav-
ing general authority over the whole on
matters common to all or matters of gen.
eral policy
We believe that any surplus beyond
that necessary to equaliZe dividends
on a fair basis should be used by the
company for the benefit of the public
and should be inalienable for any
other purpose, and should be either in
vested in revenue-earning plant until
necessary to substitute plant which may
become inadequate or obsolete, or
should be used to make the service
cheaper or better.