The Daily Alaska empire., 1946-03-18
MAL0NY TELLS
 ABOUT AEL6p'S
 YOUNGER YEARS
Tough SIedding' al First, Says Witness Hearing
 Is On Tonight

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 John Malony, principal Alasks Electric Light and Power Company stockholder, son of one of the com pany's two founders and present director of the company, was the sole witness before the Juneal Common Council at last Saturday evenings chapter of the hearing now being conducted on the light i company's rates.
 The purpose of MT. Malony's tes- , timony, as stated by AEL&P Coun- sel H. L. Faulkner, was to reveal the facts of the first years of the company's operations. years not covered in the available records oi the firm. Malony attempted to sup ply the missing information from his recollections of family discus sions during his boyhood years and from correspondence in his family effects.
 i The first years of the presently prosperous company were tough sledding," Malony recalled. There were times, he said, when his fath- CT, J. F. Malony, and the other principal founder of the present company, J. P. Corbus, had to dig down into their own pockets to keep the company going. These, he acknowledged, were short- term loans that were all paid back. There were no actual additions made to the original capitalization of $100,00 = s40,000 in cash, $6O,0o0 in property and equipment The out standing shares remain the same as shown on the articles of incorpora- tion, 1000 shares of $l00 par value. Diptdends "Slinl"
 Admitting to City Attorney How ard D. Stabler that the companys books show yearly dividends paid since 1903, Malony said that, to his knowledge, no dividend was paid from the founding of the company in 1896 to that first payment in 1903 and that most of the early dividends were slim pickings" which were met in large measure through the companys not building up any depreciation reserve on it's hold ings. This, he inferred, was more or less general bookkeeping practice among small companies in pre-In- come Tax days. The company, he said, did not begin to take credit for depreciation until about 1913, about which time almost all of the original plant had to be replaced.
 Malony recounted that, back when the company began, there were only about zoo lights on the hookup and they were on flat rate The only one ever turned out was in his own home, where his father saw to it that the light did not burn day and night.
 Stabler read down the years of dividends paid by the AEL&P, be- ginning with a meagre $3000 in 1903 but building up into very sub stantial amounts in recent years to compile recorded total of s1 1886, 800 for the first 49 years of the AEL&Ps life, through the year 1914; the records covering only 43 years, since 1902. Net profits, be- fore depreciation, shown for the same period. total $2,044. .449.50. { Tn answer, Malony pointed out that, prior to the Juneau boom, in the teens, Douglas was very much bigger town than Juneau. This led Attorney Faulkner to com- ment that since City Utilities En- gineer Stuart, in compiling his ex- hibits against the company, had been careful to separate Juneau costs from those of the whole sys- tenn, he should have been just as ready to apply his "multiplier' to the profits to show only Juneau's contribution to them also.
 Following MT. Malony's testimony the Saturday evening session called to enable the witness to return te Seattle as early as possible, was adjourned until o'clock this eve ming when it is expected that c B. Holland, AEL&P cashier, will bt the next witness.