Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1914-03-20
WILL APPEAL TO COURTS
Vice President Hall Tells Why order
Cannot Be COMPLIED with


grapb company made the following
statement OF the position of that COM
pany 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 recommended
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 oper-
ates. as well as in justice to the COM
pany itself, the officers of the COM
pany feel that it is their duty to APP
peal from the decision Of the majority
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 England
company on its Vermont business al
the present time represents less than
a 2 percent return on the value OF the
property located in Vermont. The re-
auctions proposed by the majority OF
the commission would practically
wine out all of this net revenue.
Although the commission admits IN
its opinion that the company is en-
titled to earn at least percent, it
undertakes to establish, by the order
of the majority, a set of rates under
which it would be impossible to earn
even l percent, provided the company
continued to maintain its plant and
the quality Of its service.
The majority opinion seeks to 1ustl-
fy these apparently contradictory con-
| illusions by arbitrarily reducing the
value of the company's property, as
shown by the uncontradicted evidence
in the case, to a figure far below Its
actual cost and far below what Il
would cost to replace it in its present
condition. 1t then proceeds to arbi-
trarily reduce, on paper, various ac-
tual costs of maintaining the PLAN
and furnishing the service by makins
various assumptions as to values am
costs which are not only not basec
on any evidence presented at the
hearing, but which are distinctly con
trary to the uncontradicted evidence
in the case.
The majority of the commission
then present a compilation of figures
based on these various assumption
which they argue justities the reduc
tions suggested and which, the!
argue. shows how the company nigh
get a 6 percent return on this theoreti
cal investment. BY carrying thes'
| assumptions still further and by arbi
trarily. on paper, reducing the value
of the company's property by 80 per
cent instead of by rs percent,
would obviously be possible to justi
ty, on paper, still more liberal re
! duction in the rates.
Unfortunately for the company
however, upon whom rests the re
sponsibility of furnishing the service
these assumptions do not help yer,
much in the actual conduct of tn
business. If an article costs dolla
it costs a dollar, and its value is no
changed by an arbitrary assumption
on paper. that it costs so cents; an
the fact remains that if the rat
| schedule as proposed by the majOrit,
! OF the COMMISSION had been in effec
! during the year ending June 30, 1918
the company would have been lief
I without any margin OF profit whateve
! over and above the expense OF fur
| nishing service in the state Of Yer
| mont.
Under these circumstances Their
seem to be four possible courses opel
to the company:
Ito acquiesce in the majority de
cision OF the commission and under
take to have the loss on its Vernon
business carried by the telephone us
ing public Of the other states. w
! do not believe that this is fair to tn
other states, nor do we believe tina
the people of Vermont would wish t
have their telephone service upO
any such basis Furthermore, unde
this proposition the company woul
be furnishing certain grades of ser
vice in Vermont at lower rates tha
the company would be charging 10
the same grades OF service furnishe
under similar conditions In othe
states. The company knows of n
way in which it could justify any sue
discrimination
2-lf, on the other hand the com
pany should adopt for similar grade
of service in similar communities i
the other states, the reductions sug
gested by the majority of the com
mission, the aggregate loss in the com
pany's revenue would more than wip
out the small margin now resultin
from the total business Of the com
pany, This margin is already S
small as to be a source of serious con