New Britain herald., 1918-03-25

1 nor the pubIN community is The quality of
 public is entitled
 pany to obtain
 pay all legitlmat;
 charges and allo
 capital invested capital for nece
 ciIities and extens Considerable q
 duced tending tq
 for increased revd
 C. Moves chairma
 Federal Trustees 1
 respondents prop1
 this branch of t
 Last spring we altogether. l Wish the commiss1ou tha/
 dend in that .case ary thing. It was m ! the stockholders nQsa account of a qulte1 of affairs, it amoun failing to make goOa3
 est. As I think the col i the interest on the n [ New Haven propeTtyM , Hartford property hA by the New York; | Hartford Railroad CN i New Haven Railroad. l stockholder, expected
 return by way of dividef i is one reason why we
 strong moral obligatio4 to least enough dividend tb talked the bond interest on Jur propei ! which the New Haveh Railroad wass
 paying. But we diidn't have the
 means We couldn't do it. So we
 passed the dividend Altogether. That
 was, in effect, failing to pay our bond
 interest-the interest on the first
 mortgages on our l5roperties We had 1 to take the step/ and it will have to | continue for the future, until condi- l tions improve. We hoped, by keep l ing that money in the treasury, we l could get along, but costs continued ! to increase and pile up, and we found l last summer that we would have to l do something else. We could not | meet our rentals and charges and 1 expenses. So We failed to pay the
 rental due The Connecticut Railway
 and Lighting Company. That was a ! case where we could do that because ] the lease of The Connecticut Rail- way and Lighting Company was 1 made to the New Haven Railroad, 1 and the New Haven Railroad as- | signed it to The Connecticut Com l pany, but The Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company looked to the New Haven Railroad as the primary i obIigor. .. We were not paying interest on our mortgage in | debtedness and were not paying our | rentals
 The present six cent rate is an ln- l crease of twenty per cent. over the old rate and it was estimated by off, cers of the company that the present rate would yield about ten per cent. increase in passenger revenue, or $9O4,682. It is apparent from this statement that the company has not reached a solution of it's troubles. The respondents statutory obliga- ton of maintaining streets and high ways through which 1t operates, IS very heavy. Where the company operates two tracks in city or paved streets, it is required to build and maintain nineteen G9) feet in width thereof, and in case of single track l
 nine (9) feet in width thereof, with 1 such type of permanent pavement as the municipality or highway officials may designate, and that portion of the | public which uses the company's ser l vice is compelled to pay for such l paving, although the direct benefits | thereof result in favor of the public | in general and of automobile users | and competing jitneys in particular.
 The rates in Hartford and on | radiating lines are the same as main- l tain throughout the system. The | rates in Hartford prior to the recent 1 increase were the same as maintained there for a long period of years.
 A large amount of evidence was in- troduced showing advances in the prices of all materials and supplies essential for the maintenance and operation of street railways, and it is there has been a material increase in 1 the cost of labor and material during | recent years. While improved facili ties and increased business naturally l reduce the cost of operation in com parison with gross receipts, yet the 1 history of every industry today indi- cates that the volume of business, no matter how material the advance, is not sufficient to overcome the mount ing costs of labor and material, and consequently the price of the product has had to be raised. It is not un- reasonable to assume that the cost of providing street railway service in Hartford has increased out of propor tion to the benefits obtained by an in- creased volume of business.
 If the lines in the city of Hartford were to be segregated and an accurate
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