Evening star., 1921-03-23
CITIZENS ASSA|L
TRACTION FARESAS
PUBLIC INJUSTICE
Want Charge Based on 0p-
Grating Possibilities of
Capital Traction Co.
80 ASSOCIATIONS JOIN
IN APPEAL FOR A CUT
W. NICK. Clayton Sends Brief to
Utilities Commission, Outlin-
ing Case of the People.


ing Case of the People.
IL the Public Utilities Commission
decides that street car fares must re-
main the same on both companies il
should pass down 10 the Washington
Railway and Electric the rate which
the Capital Traction Conpany can
operate on rather than pass up to the
capital Traction the higher fare re-
CURED by the w. r. & T..
This appeal was made to tho COM
mission today by William NICK Clay
ton In a brief filed on behalf of the
thirty-eight citizens associations that
make up the federation. Attacking tho
ga past poiicy of giving the Capital
traction company more than il needs
70 meet the requirements of the ".
X. d e. MI Clayton said:
The public has taken the count
several times on the first proposition
versed."
Mr.. Clayton dwelt at length on the
strong financial condition of the Cap
ital Traction Company. and of the un-
fairness to the public of continuing
when the testimony shows the con-
pany would earn about IL per cent on
the value of its property this year ir
that is done.
Takes Up Wage Question.
The brief reads. in part as follows.
one serious omission of the pres
ent law is its failure to empower the
companies employees Having the
right to nix the fare. toll or charge to
be paid. the right to say what pro-
portion of that fare should go into
depreciation funds. the right to order
issues of bonds and notes and the rate
OF interest to be paid thereon. the
right to order track extensions and
the terms and conditions of their
financing, the commission should have
the right to fix not only the wages of
employees but as well the salaries of
officials Of the public service corpora-
t,ons; who. from the very character Of
the duties they perform, are. after
all. more trustees Of the public than
anything else.
Had this right existed it could have
been most wisely and discreetly ex-
efctsed in the present case by the
commission.
I'm the case now before the com-
mission the Washington Railway and
Electric Company asks that the pres
emit fare. cents. or four tokens for so
cents. be continued.
The Capital Tracion Company not
citis ooOS iOl dSh tudJ tne 1Ouf-Ior-
30-cents rate be continued, but pre-.
sents evidence that under the law
should absolutely preclude the COM
mission from considering that rate a.
Applying to the Capital Traction
Paragraph 2 of the act provides:
The charge made by any such pub
lie utility for any facility or services
furnished. rendered or to be furnish
ed or rendered shall be reasonable,
just and non-discriminatory. Every
MN ak r.
inatory charge for such facility or
service is prohibited and is hereby
declared unlawful
Profits Over IL Per Cent.
'The evidence submitted by the COM
pany shows that the rate Of return on
fair value received by the company
for 1920 shaded closely toward IL per
cent: that the rate of return for 1920
at the present fare will be greater
cannot be doubted from the evidence.
THE commission during its life of
eight years has fixed rates. fares and
tolls in over score of cases affecting
every public utility operating in the
District of Columbia.
"In the vast majority of these cases
the fare or toll fixed afforded a rate
of return of less than 6 per cent on
fair value; these cases occurred be-
fore. during and since the war. None
were appealed from the commission.
They were acquiesced in by both COM
panieS and people.
with the law and its own record
side by side before it, can this COM
mission now say upon it's own initia-
tive, for the company stands silent
in court, that a fare yielding double
the rate OF return any other service
corporation in the District of Colum-
bia receives is reasonable, just and
non discriminatory?
NO public service cOrporatiOn ha-
fore this commission during its entire
existence ever suggested a rate of
return higher than S per cent and
even then the lips before they closed
were fashioning z or 6 per cent.
But the commission may say that
special reasons now impel even ex-
travagant dealing with the Capital
Traction Company. Failure of credit.
lack of equipment. deferred mainte-
nance, passed dividends, loss Of pat
ronage, justify extraordinary consid-
Grafton at this time. Hearken to your
testimony and back to your law and
your record
Two Miles OF New Tracks.
"The company last year rebuilt two
miles of track, as it did the previous
year, and plans to do this out of cur
rent revenues. 1t has $1,000.000 in its
depreciation fund: 1t bought over
100000 worth of new cars in tie
pa st two years out of current reve-
nues. 1t paid s72o,0oo last year in
DIVIDENDS and this year announces it
will pay $4,000. $4,000 in bond in
terest is paid annually, and il closed
1920 with over 100000 of surplus on
one years operations.
Can the commission now after
standing these figures at attention.
90 down the line. justify the present
fare as reasonable, just and non-dis-
under the law to those
who ride upon the cars of the Cap
tai Traction Company?
You must justify it under the law.
You have no power of Legislation. You
cannot write in the law a public pol
CIV of your own; find in that law, il
you please, any direction that the
must protect one road
leainst the other: that the commits
sion is to see to it that riders are not
Inverted from one line to the other;
hat passengers be divided equally
between the two systems and kept
10 divided at the expense of every
ind in your law a direction that the
should see to it that both
.ompan nies borrow money on exactly
he same terms, and at the same rate
,f interest.
ut may be public policy. it most
is not law, and public
,oIicy goes limping always a vagrant
md mendicant through the temple
# the law.
What the Companies Ask.
1.-THE commission is asked by the
companies to treat them as one in SO
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