Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-03-18
RAPID TRANSIT
Continued from Page ~

company expects - 10 Calm q Few
things not in sight. At any rate, the
company is going TO stick ty its bond
In his first statement last Friday he
said, with reference 10 a square deal
by the pubic. I submit that our
franchise or contract alone deter
mines what this square DEAL SHALL
be- In mis- statement this morning
he quotes the law as constituting the
contract between the public and the
company and says: This contract
came be altered or abridged except
by the consent of the company That
is just it. The company mas a good
thing and proposes to make the bess
oft, hut the public should not permit
itself to be deceived into granting an
extension Oh that contract until il Is
made equitable. 49,. ~. .
He also makes the contention
which, predicted he would make when
the time came, although | hardly
thought he would make it so soon, that
the company can build its road on
bonds or earnings and issue watere.i
stock to the amount of the entire cost
plus % per cent, then pay off the
bonds and the stock out of the earn.
ings and keep the road besides and
ask the public to pay for II again if
il wants it; in other words, that the
pdblic may have to pay at least three
and a quarter times the cos; of the
road to company that has either not
put anything into it or has taken
everything out that it has put into 1t
and drawn good dividends besides.
Supports My Prediction"
HE further supports my prediction
by showing that the company con-
tends that even now under the law it
can issue $1,408.750 additional of wa
tered stock to it's stockholders with
out their putting any additional CAPT
tai into the business, and it may be
expected to- do this, IL permitted to
do it, as soon as it becomes to it's in
interest to do it. He seems to concede
that the company has already issued
100000 of stock to the stockholders,
for which they have paid nothing.
bad supposed it was less amount.
"He quotes the figures thus far
as If they were any criterion to go by
for the future. In my original state
ment ! showed that the proposed ex.
ktension would be the fat period for
the company, after the company had
passed its developing stage and the
city had grown to two or three times
its size at the time the franchise was
granted, and yet it shows that even
! during this early developing period
the company has paid in dividends
1851, 2S6.95 on capital investment by
it's stockholders of $707,500, besides
issuing a 100000 stock dividend and
besides paying off $4,000 of bonds,
putting large sums into extensions of
/ its property and making other in
vestments. E.si.ss
81 note also that his company now
advances another contention which
had not supposed it would advance,
even later on, and that is that its
present franchise will not expire until
June 25, 1880, that is, so years after
| its approval by the president Of the
United States, whereas the franchise
itself is by its own terms to continue
| thirty years after the railway author
lied by this act shall have been COM
menced, ; and the construction of
said railway must commence within
one year after the passage of this act
and this act shall take effect and be-
come law from and after the date of
it's approval that is, by the president
of the Republic of Hawaii, which was
| on July z, 1898, which would make
the franchise terminate about 2
years earlier than the company now
contends.
AS / said in my original statement,
the substitute bill prepared by me was
prepared somewhat hurriedly and
might be improved upon /. 1t was pre-
pared by way Of suggestion to the
committee which had the company's
/ bill in charge and was not at that
time intended to be introduced as an
independent bill. 1t was prepared at
the request of one of the members of
the committee. In my first statement
i pointed out two or three respects in
which it might be improved and since
then | have looked over portions Of
the original franchise &C; more care
fully and the more | go into it the
more fearful and wonderful l find
it to be- A number of other sections
should be amended before any extern
sion of the franchise is granted be-
cause they contain widely separated
provisions relating to the same mat
ter, any one of which is apt to be
very misleading unless read in con-
junction with the others. J.. -.
For instance, one thing that the
company has done lately shows an
additional contention on it's part
which, if sound, would enable the
company to invest all surplus earn
ings in stocks OF other companies and
thus pile up great mass of invest
ments to divide among it's stockhold-
ers upon the termination of it's fran
Chise and never pay to the public a
cent of its earnings. This gives also
an added interest to the joker in its
bill by which it confines the earn
ings in which the public may share to
-