DETERMINING OF UTILITY RATES BY COURTS HIT
DETERMINING OF UTILITY RATES BY COURTS HIT Rep. La Guardia Attacks Court Invasion of Rale Making Field (Special To The Progressive) WASHINGTON — The "tendency on the part of the federal courts to...
...won much higher rates as the result of its case before a federal court, Rep, Guardia said: "It was never contemplated that the federal court was constituted for the purpose of fixing exorbitant rates for public utility corporations...
...Our Lake County Farmers" Union meets Feb...
...Finally, the majority decision encouraged that favorite device for utility rate increases, the claim that valuation should not rest on actual investment but a higher imaginary and uually irrelevant"reproduction cost:—"It is the settled rule of this court that the rate base is the present value...
...In concurring with Holmes in Brandeis' dissenting opinion, Stone added strong words of his own on this issue...
...That is not confiscatory...
...but not upon fake and artificial flgurex, based upon crooked bookkeeping, in order to charge exorbitant fares and rates...
...It is time for public-utility corporations to come into federal courts after they have exhausted their remedy In the State courts, and when they apprehend a real case of confiscation of their property...
...Herman Kakler, Rutland, S. D...
...Calling attention to the recent case In which the New York Telephone Co...
...There are 6,160 blind persons in the Dominion, he said...
...A »40-a-month pension to all blind persons over 40 years of age, and state assistance In the form of educational aid to the blind between 2i and 40 is being advocated by the Canadian Association for the Blind...
...That is a compensatory rate—6.26 per cent...
...Utility corporations have no right to go into the federal district and circuit courts until they have first submitted to the state public .service commission, whose acts can be reviewed in the state courts, Rep...
...Under separate cover I am mailing you a copy of "Common Sense" by W. H. (coin) Harvey, dealing with the banking system as now in operation...
...I will try and see If I can get some new readers for you.—Claud Hl«tn...
...CONTROL OF CREDIT BY PRIVATE INTERESTS 'Portland, Ore., Dec...
...Gust Kaska, Wentworth, S. D. These men sincerely appreciate the stand The Progressive is taking against autocratic control...
...It is an abuse of the statutory court that is unjustifiable, both in moraLs and in law...
...20]—Enclosed find P. O. money order for $1.50 with, which credit, me with a year's subscription to The Progressive...
...or 8 per cent...
...I am sending you this for publication...
...Tomorrow a similar grab may be attempted in other states...
...The court went on to decide, in effect, that, regardless of possible inflation of valuation for rate-making purposes, the financial return must take care not only of expenses, interest, depreciation and "reasonable dividends" but must provide an additional profit "surplus...
...6. 1930, so if you will send me 50 copies, issues of last, week in January, I'm sure it will mean a number of new subscribers...
...URGES PENSIONS . FOR AGED BLIND TORONTO, Ont...
...D. B. Hawley, a sightless officer of the Independent Labor party of Blackpool, England, is here assisting in the association's campaign and has asked the Toronto labor movement to back the plan...
...You surely have made a wonderful change in your publication...
...While it affects Greater New York today, it has already reached out to the state of Connecticut arid increased rates in the state of Connecticut...
...WANTS THE TRUTH [Dcliwan, Wis., Jan...
...Impressed with the "Forum" feature of The Progressive...
...If you write "something" and say "nothing" the "forum" is open, but If you strike the nail on the head and send the chickens home to roost, the forum automatically closes...
...16]—Enclosed please find check for $4.50, for which send The Progressive to the following addresses, Albert Grueuhagen, Wentworth, S. D...
...J. C. Calhoun said: "Never was an engine invented better calculated to place the destinies of the many in the hands of the few...
...General business practice was cited by Brandeis in arguing for a lower depreciation allowance based on the fact of original cost rather than on the fiction ot "present value...
...La Guardia contends...
...Justice Brandeis, in his dissenting opinion, met the company argument that the rate to which it objected would yield only 6.26 per cent on "fair value...
...I am more than pleased with The Progressive weekly which is the only paper that I know of that stands up and fights for justice and speaks the truth and only the truth regardless.—Paul G, Matsey...
...to make the rich richer the poor poorer...
...LIKES NEW PLAN [McKees Rocks, Pa., Jan...
...Thomas Jefferson said: "I sincerely believe the proposed banking system is more dangerous than standing armies...
...Daniel Webster said, "A free government cannot long endure where the tendency of the law is to concentrate the wealth of the country in the hands of the few, and to render the masses poor and dependent," and every student of history knows what good old Hickory Jackson said about it...
...L. Braiell...
...L. Mc-Leod...
...It undoubtedly will stimulate utility corporations to attempt, further raids on the public under court protection...
...From that astounding generalization the court sets forth an interpretation of the anti-confiscation doctrine which should water the mouths of all the utility companies in the country:— "In the light of the recent decisions of this court and other federal decisions, it is not certain that rates securing a return of 7',, per cent or even 8 per cent on the value of the proptrty would not be necessary to avoid confiscation...
...The majority decision will add nothing to the confidence of the people in the court's wisdom on matters of economics...
...18]—Enclosed find $1.50 for The Progressive...
...A system of credits, for private gain, whereby interest is being collected on ten times the amount of actual money in the nation, absorbing all production, and centralizing all wealth in the hands of the few, should awaken the public conscience...
...SOUTH DAKOTA READERS [Wentworth, S. D., Jan...
...to multiply nabobs and paupers and to deepen and widen the gulf that separates Dives and Lazarus...
...It is a momentous question and calls for profound thought and determined action by every citizen of this nation, if the inevitable is to be avoided...
...The greatest statesmen of the nation have protested it...
...We ought to legislate and put them under proper Federal supervision, because it is the only public utility now doing an interstate business that is not under Federal supervision...
...Every telephone company now, I believe, does an interstate business...
...If we would cure the cancer we must lay the axe at the root of the tree...
...I herewith enclose the evidence...
...It tends to aggravate the inequality of fortunes...
...Some of our leading papers In Portland, proclaim a "Forum...
...The circulating medium, the life blood of commerce and industry has been turned over to private interests, for private profit, and is the parent of all other monopoly...
...I have read this paper Ihe last few weeks and think it is a fine paper...
...The only way to get the truth is to read this paper...
...I am making this protest as notice to the telephone companies, because this is not a local matter only...
...May The Progressive ever grow and prosper...
...When and where in the United States was the rate of return on such relatively safe investments generally 7...
...it was never intended that the Federal court was an institution to nullify proper and legal orders of public-service commissions of states...
...La Guardia, of New York, and other members of the House, who are seeking to secure legislation protecting regulation on the part of the states against evasion through appeals to the federal judiciary...
...If we cannot depend on the good faith, upon the judgment, upon the integrity of our Federal courts, then it is our duty to limit their jurisdiction so that they will not take up these rate-fixing matter, overriding S'ste commissions and Slate courts...
...La Guardia Attacks Court Invasion of Rale Making Field (Special To The Progressive) WASHINGTON — The "tendency on the part of the federal courts to encroach upon the duties and powers of the stale regulatory commissions having jurisdiction over public utility companies" has aroused Rep...
...Thomas H. Benton said: "Its tendencies are dangerous and pernicious to the government and the people...
...In the Baltimore ten-cent carfare case Monday the court laid down the law that "it is manifest that just compensation for a utility...
...And as might have been expected...
...We cannot see these things done without uttering a protest...
...Know the truth and it will make you free," if you use it in action.—D...
...Justices Brandeis, Stone and .Holmes once more dissent...
...Trust Busting"—as we know from the past—will get us nowhere...
...Arthur Brisbane wrote in his press column Friday: "The Czars might be ruling yet had they known enough to let people know the facts...
...To support this bit of economic-bylaw, an earlier opinion of the court was cited declaring a utility entitled to a return "equal to that generally being made at the same time and in the same general part of the country on an Investment in other business undertakings which are attended by corresponding risks and uncertainties...
...It should be read in every home and be a text book in every school in the nation...
...is more than current interest on mere investment...
...THE PLBLIC LOSES AGAIN (From New York Telegram) Once more the United States supreme court has render a decision justifying higher rates demanded by public utility companies...
...1SF-—As a reader of La Follette's and a sincere admirer of its founder and his sterling qualities in his fight for higher ideals, social justice, human uplift and betterment, it is with pleasure that I received my first copy of "The Progressive and read the clarion notes of Phil La Follette on chain banking...
Vol. 1 • February 1930 • No. 10
