The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1914-03-19
COMPANY WILL APPEAL
viii Not Abide by Order Reducing
Telephone Rates

graph Company made the following
statement of the position of that
Company relative to the order issued
by the majority of the Public Service
Commission OF Vermont.
Never before in the history of the
New England Telephone and Tele-
graph Company has it taken any APP
peal from any order or recommends
ton by any Commission, either State
or Federal Circumstances surround
ing the present case, however, are
peculiar and the finding Is one which
the company is unable to understand,
in view of the facts and the evidence
presented to the Commission.
In justice to the telephone using
public in the state of Vermont and
the other states where the company
operates, as well as in justice to the
company itself, the officers Of the
company feel that it is their duty to
appeal from the decision of the ma
jority of the Commission in this case
and wish to state frankly why such
an action seems TO be the only
course fairly open to them.
The net revenue of the New Eng
land Company on its Vermont bust
ness at the present time represents
less than per cent return on the
value of the property located in Yer
mont. The reductions proposed by
the majority of the Commission
would practically wipe out all OF
this net revenue.
Although the Commission admits
in its opinion that the company is en-
titled to earn at least 6 per cent, II
undertakes to establish by the order
of the majority set of rates under
which 1t would be impossible TO earn
even 1 per cent provided the COM
pany continued to maintain its plant
and the quality of its service.
The majority opinion seeks to
justify these apparently contradic-
tory conclusions by arbitrarily re-
ducing the value OF the companys
property as shown by the uncontra-
dicted evidence in the case, TO a
figure far below its actual cost and
far below what 1t would cost to re-.
place it in its present condition II
then proceeds to arbitrarily reduce,
on paper. various actual costs of
maintaining the plant and furnishing
the service by making various as
symptoms rs to values and costs
which are not only not based on any
evidence presented at the hearing,
but which are distinctly contrary to
the uncontradicted evidence in the
case.
The majority OF the Commission
then present a compilation of figures
based on these various assumptions
which they argue justiiies the reduc-
tons suggested and which, they ar.
que, shows how the company might
get 6 per cent return on this theore
teal investment. BY carrying these
assumptions still further and by ar
bitrarily on paper reducing the value
OF the companys property by 80 per
cent instead of by 20 per cent, il
would obviously be possible to justi-
fy, on paper, a still more liberal re-
duction in the rates.
Unfortunately for the company,
however, upon whom rests the actu-
al responsibility of furnishing the
service, these assumptions do not
help very much in the actual conduct
of the business If an article costs
n dollar it costs dollar and It's
value Is not changed by an arbitrary
assumption, on paper. that it costs
so per cent and the fact remains that
II the rate schedule as proposed by
the majority of the Commission hao
been in effect during the year ending
June 30, 1913, the company would
have been left without any margin o.
profit whatever over and above the
expense of furnishing service in the
state of Vermont.
Under these circumstances there
seem to be four possible courses
open to the company.
/. To acqufesce in the majority
decision of the Commission and UNI
dertake to have the loss on its Yer
mont business carried by the tele-
phone using public of the Other
states. We do not believe that this
is fair TO the other states, nor do We
believe that the people of Vermont
would wish to have their telephone
service upon any such basis. Fur
thermore under this proposition the
company would be furnishing certain
grades of service in Vermont at low
err rates than the company would be
charging for the same grades of ser
vice furnished under similar condi
tons in other states. The company
knows OF no way in which it could |
Justify any such discrimination.
?. If, on the other hand, the com |
pany should adopt for similar grades
Df service in similar communities in |
he other states. the reductions sug
gested by the majority OF the Com
the aggregate loss in the |
revenue would more than |
wipe out the small margain now re-
,ulting from the total business of the |
Thfc ~.a~of, Il ,lroad,- q, Il