The daily sentinel., 1913-03-12

Ar, Philip Hamlin, a vice presi-
dem OF the Mountain States Compa-
ny, went to Pueblo and attended this
mas meeting. Among other things,
Mr.. Hamlin said:
- have come to the conclusion
that a good deal of this campaign
against the telephone company in
Pueblo is sort of reflex of the Den
yer telephone situation. Now, |
don want you to make the mistakes
that have been made in Denver, and
don't want our company to make
the mistakes here in Pueblo that it
has there. You know that right
now today Pueblo is in the best
business condition of any city or
town in Colorado, and you must not
make the mistake of quarreling
among yourselves when you are 60
ing along so much better than the
other cities and towns in the state.
That's really what you are doing
when YOU quarrel with the telephone
company, because we are pretty
much OF a local concern-we have
nearly a million dollars invested
here We have lot of stockholders
who own considerable amount of
our stock residents OF this city, so
i'll measure when you quarrel with
us You are quarreling among your
selves: but so far as .the telephone
company is concerned there isn't GO
ing to be any quarrel That is the
mistake that has been made in Den
yer,
you see, Denver has been kicking
its public utilities in the face, so
n OF To hn
habit. The Water Company, the Gas
and Electric Company and the Tram
way Company-and now finally they
have got around to us. That sort of
thing hurts the public utility COM
panies of course, but by and by 1t
reacts People outside of Colorado
begin to, look upon kicking in the
face as brutal. and while they don't
give the utility companies much
sympathy, they get rather disgusted
e with brutal performances and they
get to Withholding their patronage
from the cities where that sort Of
brutality exists-by that | mean that
they quit putting up the money for
these brutal cities to go on With, and
that hurts US all alike.
Now, in the past all the utility
companies have fought back. 1t is
just human nature to do so, you
know, and we're all humap-but it
has got us all into a general scrap
py feeling that has hurt the whole
state. And so far as the telephone
company is concerned it has decided
to quit fighting back. When the
abuse gets so severe that we cannot
stand 1t we're going to law to pro-
teCt ourselves from injury-but if
"a 90 .l. ~ nt,,, trxt do
the public that it is bad policy to
quarrel. and we're going to do our
share of stopping these quarrels by
saying: OF course, this is your
prCperty-your citizens own it and
your money keeps it alive, and you
need it in your business every day,
so when you think it is being mis-
managed Or it is overcharging you.
or anythihg of that sort, you come
right 20 us, in a friendly way, and
point out our mistakes as you see
thenI,and we will try to show you, in
friendly way that they aren't mis-
takes, and in that spirit it will be
mighty easy for us to get together
for the best interests of all con-
Cerued.'
II don't know whether all of you
know that our company has some
eleven or twelve million dollars in
vested in this state, but it has. We
pay taxes on nearly four million,
and your are all familiar with the
fact that the basis of taxation in
this state averages about 80 per
cent of the actual values. | am told
that's what it is here in Pueblo coun-
ty. Our company as whole has
about thirty millions OF property, and
our capitalization is some three or
four million less than that. | want
that thought to soak in. We pay
dividends of Z per cent on less cap
ital than IS actually invested in the
property. We earn only z per cent
on the money we have out into the
business Now our rates cannot be