Evening star., 1921-06-10
CLAYTON bLAMES
UTILITIES BOARD
FOR MERGER ISSUE
Attorney for Citizens Says
Public Utilities Act Has
Not Been Enforced. ;
HOUSE Committeeman
ORDER PROBE AT ONCE
Commission Asked to Appear at
Meeting Tonight to Answer
Charges.

The Public Utilities Commission Of
the District was charged before the
House District committee today with
not having enforced the public util-
tiles act as intended by Congress in
having created the street car prob
lem that now exists in the National
Capital
This charge was made by William
NICK. Clayton. attorney for the Fed
GRAFTON q: Citizens Associations rep
resentinS thirty-eight citizens asso-
ciationzr organized eleven years ago
primarily 20 get relief in the street
car Situation and who worked for
more th2n two years in getting the
utilities act passed.
Representative Kunz of Illinois.
democrat: Representative Lampert OF
Wisconsin. republican. and Repre-
sentative Keller of Minnesota. repub-
lican. insisted that the Public Utilities
Commission should be called before
the House District committee to an
swer this charge
We want them to tell us why they
did not enforce the law as enacted"
these members Of the committee said
The meeting adjourned until
O'CLOCK this evening and Chairman
Zihlman of the subcommittee on street
car merger was directed to call the
Commissioners and the corporation
counsel TO attend the night hearing.
suggests Merger Methods.
Speaking for the Federation of Cit
liens Associations. MIR Clayton ad-
vised the committee that if the Com
mlssioners Will not act a short cut
across lots to forcing d voluntary
merger can be made by two methods
of procedure:
j. Exercise the power Congress has
reserved to repeal the charters of the
street car companies, with the under
new charter to the merged company
Let Congress fix a fare on the
capital Traction line at a reasonable
return.
the Capital Traction Company had
testlhed before the Public Utilities
commission that il could operate now
at a rate Of four fares for 25 cents
, and he and members of the committee
estimated that the Capital Traction
Company could reduce fares to cents
1 and still make a reasonable return
Representative Lampert made the
following statement:
If you had the vote and were elect
ing your own officers in the District
you would have settled the street car
problem long ago. l want to do that
which will give the most immediate
relief to the people of Washington
est length of time"
Mr.. Clayton argued that the Public
Utilities Commission has always
granted the request of the companies
and not the request of the people
He called attention to their attitude
| in giving the Capital Traction Com
pany an increased fare which il did
not want. in order. as the Public
Utilities Commission claimed he said,
not to do an injustice to the WASH
! ington Railway and Electric Com
pany. In doing this. he said. the
Public Utilities Commission not only
had done an injustice to the people
OF the District who pay car fare. but
in giving the Capital Traction COM
pany an unreasonable and unfair rate
return. He said that estimates of a
falr return for street car operation is
per cent. but that the Public Utii-
Capital Traction Company a return
of . per cent. after hundreds of thou
sands OF dollars have been spent in
improving its equipment and in sala ries.
Says Board Protects Roads.
In reply to questions Mr.. Clayton
said that he could not see how the
Woods bill would bring about the
desired result, although it would be
Citizens Associations he said. do be-
lieve. that the street railway COM
panieS should be taxed on the net re-
turns rather than gross receipts He
assured the committee that Congress
has all the rights necessary to re-
peal the charters because in all the
underlying charters of the street car
lines such a right is reserved He
charged that the Public Utilities Com
! mission Undertakes as public policy
to protect one street car system
against competition by the other"
There is now before the Public
Utilities Commission. he said, "A petit
tfon from the Federated Citizens As
sociation that the rate allowed is not
as provided by law and asked for
Mr.. Clayton supplied the committee
| with large volume OF statistics
showing the earnings of the Capital
Traction Company and the compara-
tive service rendered by the two COM
panieS. He put into the record a re-
port on the street car merger made to
| the Federation of Citizens Associa-
tions on May p. making seven definite
| accommodations. as follows:
% Against the merger of the p. z.
p Co. and the Capital Traction Com
pany.
| (2) Against an excess profits tax to
| force a merger.
(3) Against placing the Capital
Traction Company in any way under
! the Washington Railway and Electric
Co.
% Offering a new charter to the
merged utility.
| t5) For Congress to fix a rate until
a service -at-cost pls can be put into
operation.
| (6) In view of the fact that the Can
ital Traction Company had express
| ed a desire to reduce fares, he asked
| for a hearing for reduced fare.
C) For a new public utilities COM
| mission, which will devote its entire
time to this problem in the interest of
the people