The Washington times., 1920-09-03
REPORT NOT PUBLISHED.

DR.. Wilcox TO anslyze the testimony,
but did not adopt his recommends
tions or publish >the analysis, which
contained figures showing detri-
mental features Of the cost basis plan
of railroad rates.
"Dr. Wilcox's insinuation is contain
eu in the statement that funds for
printing the testimony and the COM
missions own report are being sup
piled by the American Electric Rail-
day Association Assistant Secre-
tary Sweet continued
THE proceedings Of the commits
sion are being published through the
executive secretary. the commis g
sion having ceased to exist after
submitting its report. The work IL
being done by the Government Print
ing office. Ii is true, l learn on in
quiry, that the superintendent of
documents has received orders for a
sufficient number OF copies OF these
proceedings TO pay for the entire cost
OF publishing It. This, however, is
something the commission had moth
ing to do with and 1t had nothing to
do with our decision to have the tes-
timony printed.
I'm employing DR.. Wilcox to ana
lyZe the testimony for our conven-
fence, we did not enter into any en-
g2gement to adopt his conclusions.
which his testimony showed to be
inclined toward mu-
nicipal ownership. We intended to
have an eminent traction expert also
make an analysis, and use the two for
our guidance. but were forced to de-
pend entirely on DR.. wilcox's analysis.
Eight men looking at Nthe question
from differnnt angles formed the
commission, and the report which
they did make was unanimously ap-
proved by them.
"Dr. WilcoX's conclusions are all
in his testimony, which will
be published in the proceedings and
made available to any one who is in
terested.
Personally, / am IN favor OF mu-
nicipal ownership OF some public utili-
ties such as public water works. and
possibly lighting plants: but when II
comes to an enterprise with as many
employees as an electric railway. there
are other questions tc be considered.
Mayor. Ole Hansen, of Seattle. told us
he had favored municipal ownership
to keep railways out of politics. but
h aH later found that it simply placed
them in politics.
FAVORS SINGLE SYSTEMS.
81 do believe that all public utili-
tics should be public monopolies, that
is. there should be only one railway
or one telephone company in a mu-
nicipatity, and it should be under pub
lie supervision. with the books open
to a representative OF the public.
That the electric railways of the
have to a large extent fallen
down during the war is admitted but
il is my belief, evidently shared by
the other members of the commi ssion,
that the falling down has been due to
other than private ownership.
/ personally blame the fixed cost of
service in the face of changeable and
in the last three years, very disas-
trously rising cost of everything
which contributed to service. No
business can thrive when the price
of it's commodity is fixed. 1t is for
this reason that 1 favored tho So
called TayIer plan, adopted by the
city of Cleveland several years ago.
II the municipalities later wish to
adopt municipal ownership, there will
be nothing to prevent them.
"We were in no way bound to ac-
cept DR.. Wilcox's recommendation.
If he seeks to discredit the commits
sion by leaving the public to infer
that an association of interested cor
porations had any part in the report
to the public, he goes far afield."