The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-24
BROWN REVIEWS HIS l
 ATTACK ON RATES.
Thinks Request Is Wrong Dur ing Period of AbnormaIly
 High Prices

J.. Ellis Brown, commissioner of pub lie utilities, yesterday issued the follow ing formal statement regarding the pro posed increase in telephone rates:
 The telephone company attempts to deceive the people into believing that >the failure to give good service to is present customers, and failure 10 give additional service to the people who are applying for 1t, is due to the fact that when, as matter of fact they know that they now have more money avail able fer use in Alabama than they can spend in the next ten months at least. According to their own statements, they had available for use in Alabama on January l, 1920 q .aoe,ooo, of which they spent approximately ssoo. 900 up to october l, or an average of s66.00o per month, leaving $S01G00 yet to be spent, which if spent at the same rate would require one year to spend. This shows conclu- siveiy that no emergency exists-such as the company would have the people be- lieve.
 They are simply trying to raise their. rates during this period of abnormal conditions and abnormal1y high prices. because they know that if they wait a few months prices which have saEeady started downward will have reached much lower level and they will then be unable to show any necessity for an in crease in rates. That is why they op- pose any delay whatsoever. but want to rush the case through regardless.
 They also say that the 41a per cent arrangement by the terms of which the Southern Bell Telephone. Company pays into the coffers of it's parent company, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, hundreds of thousands of dol lars yearly, has been passed on by the Alabama public service commission and approved, but they fail to tell the peo- pie that the commissions of other states have disapproved it. and that neither the American Telephone and Telegraph Company or the subsidiary has appealed from those decisions They did not tell the public that the states of Illinois and Kansas rejected it altogether and that Oregon. Ohio. Indiana, Colorado, and Missouri made rulings with reference to this agreement. which if the commits sion of this state would follow would mean thousands of dollars each year to the people of Alabam
 In addition to the states mentioned other states have questioned the sound ness Of it. and made important aualifi- cations with reference to it, viz: States ot Califcrnia. Vermont, Georgia and Oklahoma In passing on this question the California commission among other things, said:
 'ln passing from this branch of the inquiry I cannot refrain from saying that while my intention is always to impute proner motives to persons and corporat-~ still intercorporate rela- tionships with their tantamount possi- bilities for fraud never have appealed to me. afd would most respectfully sub init to the utilities involved that open fair, arms-length dealings would be bet ter, not only for the public, but for the utility Tn the end.''
 The Georgia commission had this to say with reference to the agreement with the American Telephone and Tele- graph Company:
 The American Telephone and Tele- graph Company should not make a profit in reality out of itself at the expense of the public. Under it's present prac- tices 1t takes two bites out of the pub lie apple when in good consciousness it is only entitled to one The American Telephone and Telegraph Company can- not fairly demand two returns on the same property or for the same service which it clearly seeks when it charges it's subsidiary a profit and it in turn charges the public and turns this over to the parent company in the form of dividendn r
 The telephone company. in it's adver- to the public fails to call at- tention to the fact that if their petition for rate increase is granted it will mean that the people of Alabama will pay an additional $2S.oo0 year into the coffers of the American Telephone and Tele- graph Company. for which said $25,OOO the American Telephone and Telegraph Company will perform no additional service.
 What We think the public service com mission of Alabama could, and should do. if they feel as kindly disposed to- ward the people of this state as the commission of Ohio felt toward the people of that state. is to say to. the Southern Bell Telephone Company what the commission of Ohio said to the Gen. tral Union Telephone Compan an- other subsidiary of the American Tele-