Republican farmer., 1920-07-30
Especial to The Times)

Special to The Times)
 Hartford, July 29-President Lucius Storrs of the Connec- ticut Company, testifying be- fore the Public Utilities Com mission this morning during the course of the hearing on the company's application for a flatsseven cent fare in city linn it's with another three mile zone on transfers, admitted that the zone system had failed utterly to bring in the increase in rev enue anticipated by the Com pany.
 It was also intimated that if the seven cent flat fare were granted and failed to bring in the necessary money that the next step would be to ask the Public Utilities Commission to permit the Company to charge a flat fare of ten cents in the areas formerly covered by the old five cent rate. Judge Moves, chairman of the board of trustees of the Con- necticut Company stated very boldly that the company must
 shut down within two months
 time if it did not get the seven icent flat fare. Tn fact,n said 1 he, Il don't think we could last
 more than six. weeks at the 1 present rate.''
 Judge Moves further said that dur S,,<r +,
 18th of July, the treasurer's depart
 ment showed loss of $s7, ,OO0 in op-
 erating expenses Assistant Comp
 troller McGreevy also testified and stated that for the six months end ing June 30, there had been a de-
 preciation of 2s.7 per cent. in the earnings of the road and that it
 would take 29.7 per cent. more to pay
 the bills, to say nothing of interest
 on bonds and notes outside of paying anything on the stockholders invest
 ments.
 For the month of June the loss , to the company was S111,0o0 of
 which s5o,00O was lost in Bridge port" said President Storrs. With out running cars, paying the wages of
 the men during the stoppage Of the
 service and for keeping the tracks in , the city streets the cost to the com 7 pany is s2o,OoO.'.
 . When asked if the cause of the trouble in this city was not the jit.
 ney competition, President Storrs re- piled, "That is one item. There is also the disinclinatio of the public : Ito ride under the zone system and : this has played a considera ble part
 Corporation Counsel for Stamford asked him if it were not true that , the company intended to keep on , raising the rates until it had put the
 of z piled:
 , "We hope before long to have ar f rived at a satisfactory understanding
 with the public in this matter
 Corporation Counsel Clark of Ham
 den then asked Storrs, Haven't you
 changed your opinion on the su-
 periority of the zne fare system over
 the flat fare since your appearance
 at the las thearing before the Public
 Utilities Commission ?'
 . 'tI have changed my mind' not be-
 cause I think the zone system is
 failure, but because the public r wouldn't use it. The only solution n for the Connecticut company is the n zone system but the public will not L. use it.'
 = The present application of the Con- f necticut company is for a seven cent a fiat fare in the city limits which usu- s ally amounts to three miles with an
 
 I. den through on transfers. It is the n purpose of the Connecticut com
 pany if the increase is granted to pc ). tftion the right to decrease the zone e imme ediately- following from the 2.S | named in the petition to 2.2, which e would give the company revenue of n three cents mile outside the six mile limit.
 # President Storrs then stated that F. this was the season of the year which e usually provided the money to run s- the company in the winter mon hs
 when the riding was not so heavy. l. Things had been getting worse since r. last January and which the revenue d for February showed increase of l. 16 ger cent over February of last l. year, June showed decrease of r. per cent. over June of 1919. ;" This decrease he attributed to sew
 eral factors. the jitney competition.
 the zone fare system, and the failure
 to use open cars. The people have e been accustomed to use the open n cars for long pleasure trips in the a. summer season. These cars were not le used this summer because they were 1t not adapted to the zone system. 1t Storrs continued, 4sThe jitneys have r, been taking the patronage at the rush s hours and 1t is at these periods of
 (Centinued on Page Eight)