Evening star., 1915-01-10

~ iAA1Gs w ~ l. ~ Az
public utilities as street railways, tele-
phones. gas companies and electric
| light companies with the hope behind
it that ultimately these concerns would
pass from private to public ownership.
and third. the reorganization, read
1ustment and reform of the taxation
methods of the District.
| BY the socia1ization of the instru-
mentalities and functions of the Dis
trict government I mean the develop
ment to the greatest and most effective
degree of the idea that the purpose OF
the District government is to serve the
people of the District of Columbia.
| When Jefferson said that the best gov
! erned people were the least governed
people, the popular idea of government
was entirely different from the twen-
| tleth century conception of govern
ment.
| AT that time government was sup
posed TO be some superior power, which
handed down benefcent privileges of
government to the people. Today in
the United States we know that gov
plment is nothing but an organiZat on
maintained by the people themselves to
serve themselves for their own pur-
| poses 1t is true that the more of the
OLD Kind of government handed down
from above. that the people got. the
worse off they were, for there is no su-
perior intelligence capable of playing 8
mamma and papa to the mass of hu-
manlty. The mass of humanity must
40 the 1ob itself, and it can do as much
or as little as it pleases We all know
| .nat IN the United States the mass of
humanity has made up it's mind to do a
great zeal for itself, and it is therefore
nus,te nant .he mark to consider govern
lient by quantitive measure. My idea
OF the District government is that it is
an organization paid for by the people
to serve the people.
Police Mere Servants.
| 1T is perfectly obvious to all of you
that this is the theory upon which the
police department is operated Nobody
Tor moment conceives the police de-
partment to be superior agency en-
doWed by God to regulate the people
or the District. We all know that the
ponce department is merely an organi-
"a'io' "a maintained by all of US to serve
.,ii VI US. IN thousand different ways
tee poIlce department performs what I
nave designated as social service for
the community.
would like to have the spirit and
the fact of every department OF the
District like the spirit and the fact of
the ponce department in this respect
would like to go farther. ] would
Ike 10 have the people of the District
OIL columbia look upon all of our Off
Way-not as superior agencies endow-
ed with divine power to govern them,
put as very human agencies owned and
controlled by them for their conven-
ience and accommodation.
10 such an extent as it is DOSSible to
do, we are trying thus to socialize the
government of the District, and / know
that we are constantly progressing to-
ward that ideal. This is a work which
does not attract attention. 1t is not
4 raof ro
the newspapers. 1t is almost always
manifested in little things, but the
spirit and substance are there.
The second plank of my platform,
the regulation of public utilities, would
make a long chapter all by itself. Up
to this point this work, too, has been
almost devoid of dramatic incident, and
therefore has not attracted great deal
OF public attention. But 1 want to
predict that the time when the quiet
drudsery Will have ended and the fire.
works start is not far distant When
Congress passed the public utilities law
creating a public utilities commission
and designating the District Commits
sioners as the members of that commits
sion, it clothed them with complete au-
thority for the adequate regulation of
such things as street cars, telephones,
gas companies, etc. Under that
law We have authority to require more
street cars to be operated We have
to exchange transfers. We have au-
thority to prevent croWding. We have
authority to reduce gas rates. We have
authority to reduce electric light rates.
ly the issuance of stocks and bonds and
the expenditure of capital investment
Find Big Obstacles.
But we found that when we came to
invoke our authority, the law also
placed upon US not only authority to
require these companies to improve
these services and rates. but also the
responsibility of justifying whatever
services and whatever rates we Or
dered. In ether words. we found we
had authority, for instance. to order
the two principal street railway com
panies to exchange free transfers. but
we also found that under that law if
we issued such an order we would have
to go into court and prove that it was
financially and economically possible
and just to obey it. Then we found
that we had no information and could
get no information with, which to make
that proof. We therefore determined
to begin at the bottom and get that
information.
"As you know. the Supreme Court of
principle which must be followed
throughout the country, that every pub
lie service corporation is entitled TO
and must be permitted to earn rea-
sOnable profit on the value of its prop
erty used and useful in the conduct of
it's business. If we had ordered universal
transfers. use that merely an. il
lustration-the street railway compa-
MES probably would have taken us into
court and would have said. IF we issue
these transfers you will have taken
away from us enough of our profits so
that we cannot earn II reasonable return
upon the value Of our property used and
useful in the conduct of our business.
The court would have asked us If that
were true and We would have had to
say, We do not know, because we do
| not know, nobody knows, the value of
| the properties used and useful in the
| of the District of Columbia
Are After Information.
1--WE therefore determined that the
| first thing must do was to find out
what that value is. We presented the
! case to Congress, and we got an apprO-
priation of 100000 with which to get
| that information. We have employed
| Dr. Edward w. Bemis, who we consider
| the best expert on the subject, to as
| certain the value of all of the property
| of all of the public utilities in Wash
| ingtoll We will have that information
some time during this year, and then
| we will know and for the first time it
will be accurately and definitely known
| by anybody just what these values arc
| Then we will be in position to take
| up the question of universal transfers
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