The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-12-03
OFFICIALS ASSERT
 NE w RULES ON GAs
 ARE MORE L|bER RAJ
Whether City Can Regard Or ders as Complete Vic- tory Undetermined
 at Present

Whether rulse and regulations or financing gas extensions, adopted by the Alabama public service commits sion Friday, and ordered put into effect by the Birmingham Railway Light and Power company Monday will be considered by city officials as a complete fruition of the victory gained over the utilities several months ago, was still in doubt Sat urday, in the absence at the city hall of an official copy of the rules At any rate, according to city of ficials, the rules are much more lib eral than existing ones, and will, nc doubt result in filing of large num- Der of applications for extensions by people who have been without gas for years.
 New Requirements
 Rules adopted by the Alabama public service commission Friday require that the Birmingham Rail- way, Light and Power company shall make extensions to domestic con sumers amounting to 162iA feet with out cost and that for each additional foot there shall be deposited with the company the sum of 4S cents. This deposit shall be returned by the company, 1t Is required, at six per cent. interest.
 Wynn Devised Rules
 It Is required that the construction of extensions shall be done by lowest bidder. and under specifications and supervision of the engineer of the utility Extensions may be obtained the rules provide. by customers ex- ecuting a contract with the utilities company that they will purchase the gas.
 The rules are the result of a decision rendered by the public serv- ice commission September 1e, in which 1t was made incumbent upon the utilities company to draft more liberal rules and present them for approval within 20 days. The rules submitted by the utilities company were rejected by the public service commission, after the city of Bfr- mingham had declared that they did not conform to the commission's ruling.
 City Attorney ". J. Wynn then proceeded to devise rules the city would regard as complying with the commissions ruling, whieh were presented at a conference Between public service officials. city author ities and representatives of the Birmingham Railway. Light and Power company, held November s. Compromise Effected
 Representatives of the Birming- ham Railway, Light and Power company obkected to the rules pro- posed by the city. declaring that they would incur a prohibitive burden on the company The public service com mission took no action, and an- nounced that 1t would go more thor oughly into details of the case and draft rules which 1t would require put into effect.
 The original ruling of the public service commission required that free extensions amounting to $e4.S0 should be made by the utilities com pany. not mentioning the number of feet of line involved. In other res- poets, 1t was substantially as incor- porated in the rules adopted Friday The city of Birmingham contendeo for a strict adherance to the none tary requirement.. and the traction company. in its proposed rules argued for placing the free extension on a footage basis.
 The final rules constitute a com promise between the demands Of the city and those of the Birmingham Railway, Light and Power company Tn placing the free extensions on footage basis, the plea of the utilities company is partially granted, while at the same time the city Is assured that the 1621s feet required amounts. under prevailing prices, to the ssf'oo formerly agreed on.
 sH4.3O h Average
 The basis of ss4.s0 free extension per customer was determined by the commi ssion as a fair basis because 1t represents the average investment of the utilities for each domestic consumer.
 Harrison. commissioner of public utilities. was not entirely satisfied with the commissions rules. lie saio he regarded them as, at best, a de- parture from their decision oi September 19. from which. he said, he had been assured that there would be no deviation
 Commissioner Harrison expressed the feeling that the commission was introducing an unnecessarily com niicated element into the rules when 1t changed the basis from monetary to footage. Commissioner Harrison has led the fight for revision or rules that resulted in hearing be- fore the public service commission on July 5. and the decision or September 19.
 Wynn Charitable
 City Attorney Wynn was more charitable in his observations. He said thAt, according to figures Of F. Mcconnell. engineer of the pub uic service commission. the $S4.5o hasi. is maintained in the 1924 feet requirement.. He said. however. that as prices of labor and material fluc- tuate there will be changes in value that will cause continual disturbance by either the city or the utiiities company.
 while the rules adopted by the public service commission mention only domestic consumers they also have a definite significance to out lying communities desiring primary extensions. This is true because in its original ruling of September 1s. the public service commission de- clarsd that in addition to the re- quirsmefSv for furnishing extentions to domesh consumers. the utility was under Arigid obligation to make added that ell of these cases would have to be decided on its individual merits, but that tho utilities would bo compelled to mako them-
 Citisens from a number of com munities, including Graymont. shadyside, Pratt City. Central Park. and Wylam have been eagerly await ing final confirmation of this de- cision which automatically comes with the adoption of rules required in 1t. City Attorney Wynn has re-