The Washington times., 1919-09-06

IheFe are wide TuuoameuGal o1"
f6renees in the attitude taken by the
majority members of the Commission.
and by lfr. Gardner. The lGtter does
net agre that the valuations should
have been fcuhd as Of July /. 1914,
with simple additions since then Of
money spent for capital purposes.
he believes the pahlic utilities laN
katsaded valuations TO be made as OF
ehs present date with present costs
q reconstruction figuring TO some
aEtent
. The skISo,sos lEr. Gardiner allows
ehs Capital Traction 10 composed Of
what other members Of the Commits
0lo1 declare %intAngibleB." that Is,
GEaHohiSo vA1ueGs good viii, etc.
III. GardineT. . trained lawyer, Ike
W1aa constFuas the decisions Of the
Ulitsd Bt1tsS Supreme Court entirely
Ga4sfout from his colleagues, and
haNea al his findings on q thorough
eo1gideration Of all public utility de-
e1gi6ns rendered BY that court A.
. laaEyeT, he - confident his eonciu-
sens of law Wfu be accepted BY the
courts, to which both railway com
pGnieg win make appeals.
In fact, the appeals to be made
bnAinst the findings Of the majority
e tia C0mmissiOn By the companies
wm contain liberal quotations from
llF. Gardiners legal analyses Of the
vagfous decigions Of the highest court
lER. GaRdiner's dissenting views 90
eomprehensive1y and fully into all
GhaSs deciBtuns, quoting freely from
the views Of the Supreme Court
TheIr Basis All VFF0nE
Mr.. Gardiner does not believe the
haSis upon which his colleagues AZ
rived at their valuations Is correct
He goes into this at length, portions
Of his opinion being as follows:
sy associates, By the majority
OpfnIon Of the Commission In this
case have undertaken, and have, in
fact. fixed an arbitrary date, to-wit:
Juiy I. 1914, as the date on which all
calculations and estimates by the eK-
Derts OF the Commission, having to
dc with ascertaininE the fair value
Of the property, shall be based They
concsde that the valuation Of this
company and the findings OF this
Commission on the valuation shall
be as Of the date Of its opinion They
say, however, that having found Its
value as OF July i, 1914 (the date
fixed by them) the company 10 en-
titled TO no more than 70 add TO that
value, so found, all proper capital
expenditures made BY the company
since that date.
In this conclusion and finding OF
tAs Commission I cannot concur.
cites Utility Act.
Paragraph Of the public utility
act provides that the Commission
shall value the property Of every publ
lie utility within the District Of Co
luuhbia, actually used and useful for
the convenience OF the public, at the
fair value thereof at the time Of said /
valuation Paragraph 9 Of the same
act provides that the Commission at !
any time might make the. reValuatioH
Of the property
tsBy the terms Of the latter para
graph, It will be seen that the re-
valuation Of the property Of this
company may be had by the COmmis-
sion At any time; and, therefore,
surely Congress did not intend that
this Commission should begin on NJ
vember 8, 1916, a hearing in this case
for the purpose Of arriving at the
value Of the property, which did not
enc until September. 1919, and date
PACK It's findings in effect as Of July
Had the conditions continued
which existed at that time, while the
methods would have been wrong in
my opinion, the result would have
been harmless. The fact is, however,
that conditions exist today in this
country and In all countries that no |,
human mind even dreamed Of in 1914
No human forethought could have
conceived the changes that have taken
place in this and other civilized conn
tries during this world war which hes
been going On during the whole tine