WISCONSIN POWER & LIGHT CO. SPENT $246,572 FOR 'SALES PROMOTION' IN '39
Wisconsin Poiver & Light Co. Spent $246,572 For 'Sales Promotion' In '39 Financial and Operating Reports Show Salaries of General Officers and Executives Total $68,052 In Year THE Wisconsin Power...
...52,105...
...at the end of 1939 is lusted at $2,980,684.36...
...30, 1939, 14 common stockholders and 17,275 preferred stockholders...
...One case in which the power company,was active during 1939 was the fight of the city of Adams to acquire the electric plant there of the Wisconsin Power and Light Mo...
...J. Feeley, Chicago, 2,100'\ , The Middle West...
...Of these 1,875 were 'cast in person and 217,891 by proxy...
...The Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...As of the end of the year, capital stock is listed as: Common capital stock...
...This was just one legal hurdle faced by citizens of Adams, whose efforts for municipal ownership were blocked time after time during the previous nine-year period by legal procedures of the Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...Wilmington...
...holding company of the defunct Insull empire...
...Farmers in these areas—now using electricity from their own cooperative lines—had previously been unable to get electric service from the power company, except at a prohibitive cost, At hearings and conferences before the public service commission in the early days of the REA program, the power company's representatives consistently belittled and fought electric cooperatives proposing to serve rural areas the power company had for years refused to serve at rates within the reach of farm pocketbooks...
...Others, 7 '. •Owned beneficially by Northwest Utilities Co...
...La Follettte appointee, voted to extend the time for payment...
...G. C. Neff, president received a salary of $19,000 last year, and A. P. Gale, vice-president, received $9,300, according to the company's financial statement...
...Del., 1,815...
...Total number of shares listed are: Common...
...MrCormick, Chicago...
...In its operating report for 1939, the power company lists 5,012 miles of rural distribution line in service at the end of the year and 16.512 customers on all rural lines...
...This unusually high depreciation figure raises the question of inadequate depreciation reserves in other years...
...Rural sales of the Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...received the revenue of $365,327.90 for the sale of 7.093,308 kilowatt hours to an average of 214 customers...
...17,157,300 Among the large common stockholders of the Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...Owned beneficially by First National Bank...
...This figure is higher than the total amount of "other general office salaries," which totals $230,342...
...The salaries of general officers and executives of the power company ran to $68,052 during 193y, according to the filed reports...
...Payment Not Explained Under the classification of "management and supervision fees and expenses...
...built small "spite lines" to block the construction of cooperative lines in Rock, Richland, Lafayette and Grant counties...
...E. V. Graham, Chicago...
...during 1939 ran to $1,-042,544.33, representing the sale of 17,463.801 kilowatt hours to an average of 16.301 customers...
...11,459...
...M. H. Frank, another vice-president, was paid $7,425 during 1939...
...Total assets for the company at the beginning of 1939 are listed at $68,135,429.79: for the end of 1939, at $69,456,457.51, a gain of $1,321,-027.72...
...For its long term debt, the company's financial report lists $35,590,-000 in bonds and $4,245 as miscellaneous long-term debt...
...While the Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...Financial report of th ecompany reveals, as of Nov...
...Northwest IHilities Co., Wilmington, Del., 81.04(1...
...spent $246,572 for "sales promotion expense'* during 1939, a survey of the company's financial and operating reports filed with the state public service commission reveals...
...Of this amount, $7,200 was turned over to the Wisconsin Utilities assn...
...and the number of shares held by eacli were the following: Oliver V...
...Presumably this amount was paid to the Middle West Utilities Co...
...And while the Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...The company built 410 miles of rural distribution line during last year and on these new lines has connected 916 farm customers and 125 non-farm customers...
...G. E. Olmstead, Chicago, 14-193...
...In this classification 59,543,180 kilowatt hours were sold to an average of 17,210 customers...
...For legal services" the" company spent the impressive amount of $38,-522 during the last year...
...B. A. Waindl, Chicago, 13,126...
...146.185 Preferred __________ 171,573 Total votes cast at the last annual meeting totaled 219,891...
...For public street and highway lighting and other sales to public authorities, the Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...Biggest source of operating revenue for the power company during 1939 was its residential sales, which brought in $2,826,777.93...
...For "membership fees and dues," the Wisconsin Power and Light Co., once a unit in the Insull chain, paid $11,09a during 1939...
...Madison, Baraboo and Milwaukee, the power company paid $663 to the Wisconsin Taxpayers alliance...
...7,309,250 Preferred capital stuck...
...the Wisconsin Power and Light Co.'s financial report lists the expenditure of $55,283...
...The report does not state to whom this fee was paid...
...Large commercial and industrial sales of the company brought in a revenue of $696,212,218.02 last year...
...This revenue represents the sale of 60.627,360 kilowatt hours of electricity to an average of 78,257 customers...
...Corp...
...Total reserve for depreciation of the electric plant of the Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...While this suit was ultimately dismissed by Circuit Judge Emery W. Crosby, the city was unable to borrow money for municipal acquisition during this time because no one would lend money while the suit was pending, and the Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...Total salaries and wages are listed at $2,296,775...
...refused to sign a wholesale energy contract with the city...
...A total of 43.424.890 kilowatt hours were sold to an average of 99 customers in this classification...
...Denied Time Extension As a result, the city was unable to comply with the commission regulation that a city desiring to acquire a private electric plant must pay the price set within four months of the time final action is taken...
...Madison, voted against extension of time, while Robert A. Nixon, Washburn...
...Chicago...
...was fighting this municipal acquisition case, its wholesale rates to municipal plants were higher than most or all private companies in the state...
...had been appealing the Adams case to the state supreme cour, it had also instigated a "taxpayer's suit" in Adams to block local citizens from acquiring the plant...
...m Milwaukee...
...Rural electric cooperatives, which were bitterly opposed by the Wisconsin Power and Lilght Co at the beginning of the Wisconsin REA program, now have more than 10,000 miles of rural electric line in the state, bring- : ing electricity within the reach of 33,000 farm families...
...When the city, represented by Orland S. Loomis and Fulton Collipp, appealed to the commission for additional time to raise funds, the Heil appointees, Reuben W. Peterson, Berlin, and Wlldon Whitney...
...In addition to sums paid to chambers of commerce in Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Beaver Dam...
...After nine years of battling for municipal ownership, the city, without a foot of success, lost its case because of a legal technicality when the stale public service commission by a 2 to 1 vote refused to give the city further time to buy the electric property...
...Next largest revenue source of the company was its small commercial and Industrial sales, which totalled $2,425,599.92...
...Spent $246,572 For 'Sales Promotion' In '39 Financial and Operating Reports Show Salaries of General Officers and Executives Total $68,052 In Year THE Wisconsin Power and Light Co...
...and Otis Gerke, treasurer, and J. E. Gray, auditor, received a salary of $5,850 each...
...Tims, while some 17,000 people invested money in preferred stocks of the company, only 14 individuals—holders of the common or voting stock—controlled the destiny of the company and Its policies...
Vol. 10 • May 1940 • No. 18
