The New York herald., 1921-11-16

newed his motion that the hearing be
suspended.
"'rhe commission cannot consider
your suggestion seriously. Mr.. Kohler,
was the quiet rejoindSr with which
Chairman McAneny closed the incident
Mr.. Shearn. however, interjected: Mr..
Kohler suggests that we wait. We have
done nothing but walt for the last four
or five years. 1t seems to me it is time
for action
In outlining his plan of procedure Mr..
Shearn said he expected TO call to the
stand representatives of the INTERIOR
ough either to-day or tomorrow, after
having finished with the commission's IS
experts. The first witnesses examined
probably will be Mr.. Gaynor. auditor OF
the company. and Frank Hedley. its
president and general manager. The
chief counsel announced his purpose to
subject all the different companies to
proof of the accuracy of their reported
operating expenses during the last year.
and to select arbitrary months the
vouchers for which must be produced in
evidence.
The Interborough officers, for instance,
were told to produce their accounts and
vouchers for the month OF June, 1921 /;
the New York Consolidated. which is
to follow the /. r. T., those for the
month of May. 1921; the receiver for
the New York Railways, Job Hedges.
those for April: the Third Avenue sys-
tenn those for March; the b. r. T. sur
face lines theirs for February and the
Second Avenue for January.
'"The mere fact that we have been
compelled to summon here some eighty
odd companies having 1873 salaried Off
cias," said Mr.. Shearn, seems to me to
be a very pertinent ground for your pro-
posal to reduce that number of compa-
MES to three and that number of super
fluous officials TO a handful"
Inflated Values Are Ignored.
Defining the methods used by the men
who are now making the vitality ilnpor-
tant inquiry concerning company valu-
ations, Mr.. Shearn said "They have
been patiently and carefully obtaining
from the books of the companies the
amounts actually expended on these
various properties from their earliest
days, and then considering what that all
amounts to and what a valuation would
be on that basis, less reasonable de-
probation" Inflated values, counsel said,
would play no part in the appraisals.
In reply to a letter from Major La
Guardia, President of the Board Of Al
dermen, complaining that the secretary
of the commission had refused to oblige
him with daily transcript of the record
of the examination, Mr.. McAneny last
night wrote to Major La Guardia:
"The stenographic reports ofthese pro-
are not paid for. as you state,
from city funds. They are paid for by
the stenographer himself. who is reirn-
bursed in turn through the sales made
by him to those who are served. In
return for the privilege granted him
the commission is furnished with SUI
ficient number of official copies for its
own use, but not for other distribution.
/ am informed that the city, through the
Law Department. subscribes directly for
ten copies, for which 1t pays very low
rate. and I have no doubt that upon
application TO the Corporation Counsel
you could secure one of those.
"The commission itself has mirneo-
grapbed sets of the rough transcript of
the proceedings prepared for press pur-
poses. If YOU are to have copies Of
these mailed to you each day we should
very gladly do that, although I would
commend an application to the Corpora
tion Counsel as the customary method"