The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-12
MARTIN DECLARES
Of VALUE
WELCOMED ACT ION
Kilby Imposed Upon by Poll
tiCianS," Power Company
Head Says in Formal
Statement


ton and declaring at the same time
that Gov. Thomas e, Kilby has been
imposed upon by men who have
political purpose to serve, Thomas w.
Martin, president of the Alabama
Power company, Thursday issued a
statement covering the chief execu-
tive's message to the legislature con-
corning the valuation placed ION part
of the power company's property"
Martins Statement
Mr.. Martins statement follows;
Governor Kilby's message to the
legislature concerning the valuation
placed on part of the property of the
Alabama Power company contains
statements which are unfair and not
warranted by the testimony before
the commission. The truth is the gov
ernor has been imposed upon by men
who have a political purpose to serve.
His message shows that such con-
dition still exists.
"This company submitted to an ex-
animation of it's property and records
over a period of two years and nine
months in connection with its valua-
ton case. The president of the COM
mission was out of the state much of
this time and several times stated
that he did not have the time to go
into the case, and it is quite apparent
from his statements that he has not
even examined many of the records
in the case. Certainly the governor
had neither the time nor the oppor-
tunity to inspect the record in the
proceedings, which contains several
thousand pages. Therefore, he OBJ
tanned his information from others
and we repeat that he has been i'm
posed upon.
Reference is made to certain of
our books which were produced be-
fore the commission at hearing in
December. All of this talk about our
books is merely fog put out to serve
a political purpose. The fullest evil
dence was given before the commits
sion on all questions involved. Our
books were produced to engineers
and accountants representing the
public service commission on numer-
Gus occasions and every oppor-
tunity given to go into the matter.
We again voluntarily presented our
ledger to the commission at public
hearing in December. When this
ledger was presented before the COM
mission, it was handed to the presi-
dent and associate commissioners and
examined as long as they wanted to
look at it; the idea that the commits
SIGN only got glimpse of the records
over the shoulders of the company s
officials is amusing and incorrect.
There was no suggestion at the hear
ing that anything more was desired
with regard to the ledger. except that
further details were requested re-
garding certain entries and this was
given at a later hearing SO far as 1T
was humanity possible to do so.
Ex Parte Effort to Try Case
This is an effort in an ex parte
way to again try case in which q
Judgment has been rendered Engi-
neers employed by the commi Ssh on
testified to the value of the property
and the value fixed is less than the
value reported by the principal en-
gineers employed by the commission
for the purpose. AS to various items
of property, the commission allowed
no value and eliminated more than
eleven million dollars which is prop
erly part of the rate base.
There has been no suggestion
from our company that an application
would be made to increase rates as
stated by the governor. This is again
a part of the propaganda against our
company. To the contrary, we adj
vised the commission in the early
part of the proceeding that value
should be fixed mainly because of
the large amount of money which it
4 is necessary for the company to raise
in order to go forward with it's de-
velopments.
1--WE do not contemplate filing any
petition for rate increase. On the
contrary, we recently made substan-
tial voluntary reductions in our light
ing. rates affecting nearly 10000
customers of the company. Any pc
tition to increase rates is one to be
considered by the commission on its
merits. This is the old trick of set
ting up a man of straw in order to
knock him down. 1t is only by this
means that the political purposes of
those interested can be served.
LAS to a legislative Investigate ton !:
We invite 1t, we welcome 1t, if that
committee is free, fair and unpre-
JUDGED with no politics to play, no
purpose to serve save obtaining the
truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth.
Let the investigation come, the
sooner the better, and silence those
who now are imposing upon the
credulity of Alabamians, the vast ma
jority of whom want only, as we
want only, fair play"